JHW : Engagement Matters

Engagement Matters. Of course it does. That's what this website, indeed our entire business is all about! Yours too probably.

Engagement Matters is also a series of short papers (Matters) which bring to life the application and value of good Engagement in the workplace. We all know the principles, but it is amazing how often we drop the ball in real life situations. A few examples:

We are each getting well over 100 emails per day, taking up to (or more than) 3 hours each and every day to manage, and yet just a couple of them directly relates to my KPIs. Is there something wrong here? Why don't we sack all these email generators? That wouldn't be you or me would it?
Working on a project that was bumping up against deadlines and milestones, I had the misfortune to deal with a service provider that didn't listen, seemed impatient, even arrogant. And he/she needed my cooperation. I suspect you've met him/her yourself. I'm sure they have the best of intent, and would be horrified to know that they were perceived as arrogant, so what is this Jekyll & Hyde thing happening that causes reasonable people to become unpopular and lose the cooperation they depend upon for success.

After months, even years of trying work with the most difficult of stakeholders, I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried a different approach that more aligned with their way of working. All of a sudden the relationship has become productive, and actually he/she doesn't seem such a bad person after all.

This Engagement isn't rocket science. Every touch-point with a stakeholder, manager, peer, team mate, subordinate, service provider we are being evaluated on how we deal with them, each one an opportunity for a sub-optimal outcome. Its much harder than rocket science which is at least predictable and consistent!

The following papers are short, easy to read and are intended to bring to front of mind some ideas on how we can all work together more productively, and reduce the workplace madness that results in spinning wheels, loss of cooperation..

Please enjoy and feel free to share

Stakeholder Management and Herding Butterflies
The concept of stakeholder management, like herding butterflies, may be futile. This paper looks at Stakeholder Engagement as a more productive alternative.

Productivity Through Engagement
Engagement is certainly nice to have, but how do we get a payback. If you're not looking for it you might miss it, even though it is quite compelling.

Working From Your Desk
Had it ever occurred to you that if you can do your job simply by working from your desk, then there is a much cheaper place in the world to put your desk? Unless you are adding value by engaging with stakeholders, they may soon realise that exporting your desk (with or without you) might be a good deal.

Murphy is out there
What can go wrong will go wrong. Never more true than in complex business projects. This paper explores a niche where projects seem to be offering Murphy too many opportunities to do his worst... and some easy fixes.

Enough Efficiency Already!
Has the corporate preoccupation with efficiency gone too far? Are we in danger of performing very efficiently tasks that are totally ineffective? Might we gain by more competitive advantage by doing it better rather than cheaper?

Improved Workplace Facilitation
Facilitation is a great skill and can be a highly productive activity. Sadly, it appears that the confidence of many practitioners exceeds their ability, resulting in sub-optimal outcomes. 7 simple lessons to improve facilitation in the workplace.

Coming Soon:

Email wars Email has become one of the most used and abused "productivity" tools in the corporation. Used well it can be a great contributor, yet in many organisations it is choking the life out of the business. How can we change the culture of email use to make it more productive?
You get paid to think... When do you get the time to Think! Can we adjust the balance to do a little more thinking, a little less doing, and end up with a better result?

JHW is available to conduct group forums on these topics - please contact us here if you are interested: