Strategic Serendipity

Employees or volunteers - it doesn't matter one bit when you are dealing with the concept of engagement.  Why?  As Stephen Covey said, "You can buy a person's hands, but you can't buy his heart.  His heart is where his enthusiasm, his loyalty is." In other words, you can make someone come to work and do a specified set of tasks through the "carrot" of a paycheck.  Getting a person to go that extra step, however, requires enthusiasm and loyalty, engagement and value alignment, and a core belief that the people with whom you are working have more to offer than the completion of the specified task list in your mind.  Without these you just have a body in a seat.  In the work world this is nicely described as disengagement, sometimes referred to as retired-in-place, and can lead to passive sabotage.  In the volunteer world it will usually lead to loss of volunteers.  In both realms, keeping people and keeping them productive requires keeping their ...

I did a basic team building presentation for a volunteer organization last week and was absolutely shocked by the answers to one of my questions.  Now I will admit, I learn something from every presentation I do and pretty much every person I talk to.  But this incident stood out in my mind and really made me think. As part of the presentation, I have a slide with two columns and twelve rows titled "Which Do You Prefer?".  It is a basic checklist that I recommend using during the start up of a team to find out more about the people with whom you will be working and how their styles may differ from your own.  In addition to asking if you prefer "Agenda" or "No Agenda" I ask "why."  For instance, one person reflected that if the meeting is about something they know well, they do not require an agenda ahead of time.  If it is a new topic they may want the agenda up to a week ahead of time.  There is even a silly question as to whether you prefer...

Which came first - the chicken or the egg?  Increasing employee engagement has always been an organizational goal (it increases productivity and decreases costly turnover).  As times get harder and we have to ask people to do more with less and take furlough days we seem to also be pushing our managers to increase employee engagement.  Those who know me may think that this last sentence is dripping with sarcasm.  Actually, the more I think about it, maybe not so much. Two recent campaigns at my condo building make me think that there really is more to engagement than an external push.  A few months ago, fed up with the conflicting information our owners had received from Harris Teeter and the condo board, an owner (Sarah) put together a simple form letter, left it on the concierge desk, obtained 400 signatures, and took them to the Arlington County Board to advocate for them to clear the way for Harris Teeter to move back into our building after a flood last y...

You've seen them in front of your grocery stores.  In DC, they even stand at the top of the escalator of the subway after work.  When you are weak.  When just a little chocolate will go a long way to washing away the hassles of the day.  And that price, $4 a box.  Really, it is a good cause, just keep the extra dollar.  (You know you've done it!)  As I sit here eating my Thin Mints I am looking at the side of the box.  It says: The Girl Scout Cookie Program Selling Girl Scout Cookies helps girls develop 5 skills that they use throughout their lives: 1.  Goal Setting 2.  Decision Making 3.  Money Management 4.  People Skills 5.  Business Ethics Now I was a Girl Scout, in 4-H, and in Junior Achievement throughout my youth and I can tell you that they are all excellent organizations with amazing and lifelong leadership lessons.  But as I sit here wondering if I can really open that box of Tagalongs before the ...