Engaging with Engagement

‘Engagement’ is the current name of the game. In Education, for example, students need to be fully engaged and research staff need to be engaging with the wider community. Excellent. It’s common sense, but useful to highlight such needs and to commit to satisfying them. But . . .

From my observations, engagement is in danger of becoming just the latest in-thing that achieves very little. Why? Largely because it will be treated as the latest flavour of the month, in a short-term programme with a well-meaning intent and appealing words  . . . but without really understanding what’s actually required.

Most engagement programmes, like so many customer care, team building, reflective practice and other initiatives before them are doomed to failure.

Why? Because they have no depth. Because they do not really engage.

Yes, I would agree that engagement is the issue. But what, exactly is meant by ‘engagement’?

Does it mean students having a say in planning their education? Of course! Does it mean researchers publishing their findings and speaking about them in public? Yes. But what seems to be happening is that these specific requirements become part of the process, to be checked off for each project, by ticking the appropriate box. Requirements become a question to answer ‘Yes’ to on an annual review form.

Successful engagement  becomes a number (of stakeholder meetings held, for example) inserted during an assessment exercise. Whatever the initial intent, it soon succumbs to our objective, evidence-based way of managing and, in so doing loses just the deeper engagement that was sought!

Engagement is about passion.

Engagement requires entering into an activity with heart and soul.

Read those two lines again. Engage with them. Don’t just read the words and understand them rationally, feel what I’m saying. Relate it perhaps to two concerts or other artistic performances that you’ve attended. One was technically perfect but did nothing for you. The other, perhaps not quite 100% there but had you in tears.
In music, in the arts, we know and appreciate the difference between a performance where the artists are going through the motions . . . and one where the performers are at-one with each other and the piece, who pour out their personality in every nuance of the work.

The same degree of engagement is possible, and essential
for meaningful success, in all walks of life.

Not only do such deep engagement move the audience (customers) and send them away happy, but the reputation of these artists ensures they will get continued high sales. The artists themselves, and the staff at the venue, will all have had more meaningful, fulfilling experiences. They will have enjoyed their work.

Engagement is no more, and no less, than doing something with passion, with emotional as well as intellectual commitment.

And yes, these are not words or ideas that sit comfortably in a work environment. And that is the problem. That is why so many attempts to improve business efficiency and effectiveness fail: because of a fear of ‘heart and soul’ factors.

Who works best, someone who ticks the boxes but no more, or the ones who really cares about their job and throw themselves into it?

And how are the latter group encouraged and enabled? By engaging with them! By caring about how they feel, by emphasising with deeper needs, by seeking resonance between personal and business needs. This requires empathy. This requires emotional intelligence on the part of bosses. Engagement means not just allowing heart and soul into your organisation, it means doing so with heart and soul!

Still not convinced? Still uneasy about all of this? Then how would you answer this question:

With robots and AI taking over many roles,
what it is that human employees provide that technology cannot?

The answer is simple: heart and soul. Humans, given the opportunity, care, they empathise. They engage.
 
Dr Keith Beasley is a life-guide, cultural researcher and consultant . . .

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