How to Engage, Involve, and Motivate Employees
Contents (183 pages)
What Is Engagement?
What Engagement IS NOT
What Engagement IS
First, Do No Harm
Why Engage, Involve, and Motivate Employees?
Select Measurable Goals That Benefit Your Organization and Your Customers
Engage and Involve People to Improve the Processes to Meet These Goals
5-Step Method to Engage, Involve, and Motivate Employees
Find Projects to PULL People
A. Find an Improvement Project. It Will PULL People and Their Knowledge, Experience, Skills, and Interest
B. What Projects? Look at Your Organization’s Quality and Delivery Goals and Your Customers’ Needs
C. How? Go to the Workplace and Look for Things to Improve. Ask Your Employees What They SEE That Needs Improvement (These Are Potential Projects)
What’s the Difference between PUSH and PULL?
Ask for Ideas on Specific Improvements
A. Ask for Help on a Specific Project or Problem
For Team Involvement
B. Accept Ideas Gratefully and Acknowledge Them (Even before Determining if the Ideas Can Be Used)
C. Pick One to Three Ideas to Test. Remember, Your Action Here Is to Select, Not to Judge, Criticize, or Eliminate Ideas
Picking Ideas to Test
D. Level the Ideas So Decisions Can Be Made and/or Actions Can Be Taken Immediately
Set Time Targets to Test Ideas and Complete Action Steps
A. Set Time Targets for Testing Ideas and Completing Action Steps
B. Coach Individuals to Help Them Perform Their Project Action Steps
C. Recognize People for Completing Their Action Steps on the Project
Motivate Actions with Positive Recognition
A. Give People a Positive Reason to Get Engaged
B. Recognition Is an Action That Shows Respect for Another Person’s Effort or Achievement. Recognition Motivates Ideas and Actions
C. Four Ways to Make Your Recognition Effective and Prevent Unintended Blunders
1. When You Give Recognition, Be Very Specific about What You’re Recognizing
2. Let Your Recognition Stand Alone
3. Personalize Your Recognition in Two Ways
4. Give Positive Recognition for Specific Earned Actions, Not Just to Be Nice
D. People Remember Your Words and Actions to Figure Out What’s
Acceptable and What’s Unacceptable; This Creates Your Culture
Coach with Feedback: Verbal, Data, and Graphs
A. Tell and Show People Frequently (Daily or Twice a Week) How They Are Making Progress on the Project, and What They Can Do to Improve
B. Coach Employees to Use Graphs and Checklists to Track Project Progress
For Team Feedback
C. Check Your Progress on Results (% On-Time Delivery, etc.) from the Date You Made the Process/Project Change
Complete, Then Repeat
How Many People to Engage? Let the Project PULL the Number of People
A. Start with Your Project, Problem, or Needed Improvement
B. Determine the Type of General Skills and Specific “How-to”
Knowledge You’ll Need to Work on Your Project
C. Recruit Individual(s) Who Have the General Skills and the Specific “How-to” Knowledge
D. Engage the Individual(s) by Asking for Their Help. Build a Team if Needed, One Person at a Time. Use Projects to PULL People
E. Aim for Four to Six People on Your Team
How Project Teams Create Motivation
A. People Are Motivated by Having Their Opinions Valued
B. People Are Motivated by Being “In on Things”
C. People Are Motivated by Feeling Part of a Team
Projects Pull Pride
Build a Culture of Trust with Your Actions
Definitions
A. Your Actions as a Leader Can Be Trust-builders or Trust-busters
B. Tell the Truth, Even if It’s Difficult for Both People in the Conversation
C. Do What You Say You Will Do
D. Never Make Negative Statements about Other Employees. Tell Them to Their Faces What You Want Them to Improve
E. Give Credit Where It’s Earned
How to Measure Your Success
A. Measure: Individuals Doing Things
B. Measure: Teams Explaining Their Projects
C. Measure Your Role: Leader Standard Work to Engage, Involve, and Motivate
When Correcting Is Needed: Deal with Negatives and Move On
A. Deal with Negative Issues Individually (Not in Groups), Specifically (No Generalities), and Quickly (No Procrastinating). Then, Move On
B. Coach for Correct Behaviors and Give Recognition When the Person Improves
Correcting with the Help of a Checklist
FMMs (Frequently Made Mistakes): Troubleshooting and Preventing Them
A. Don’t Start an “Engagement Program” for Scores on a Survey.
Don’t Start an “Engagement Program” if You Aren’t Prepared to Follow Up on the Employee Ideas You Receive
B. Deal with Negative Talk and Behaviors by Choosing Where Your Attention Goes. Give No Attention to Negative Talk. Give Your Attention to Productive Talk
C. Learn from Past Mistakes
Increasing Successes
Grow More Leaders
How Someone Grew Me as a Leader
