Employee Engagement - Psychological Meaningfulness

The final psychological condition (from Khan's SAM model) that is critical to creating personal engagement in the workplace is Psychological Meaningfulness. Creating a sense of meaning for employees concerns a wide range of issues focused on role and task characteristics as well as workplace interactions.
Bains defines meaning as

...genuinely listening to what people want and responding to it authentically, and one of the most important tools for driving business results in this century...

People experience meaningfulness when they feel worthwhile, useful, and valuable; as though they made a difference and were not taken for granted. They feel able to give to others and to the work itself in their roles. Lack of meaningfulness is connected to people's feeling that little was asked or expected of their selves and that there was little room for them to give or receive in work role performances.

The critical thing for employers to understand here is that for people to be fully engaged they have to be able to see a return on for their personal investment at work

Storytelling - the Rockstar, the Maverick and the Sherlock

There is nothing worse when you get asked to present to a group of clients, investors or even just friends and you cannot come up with an idea. The deadline is looming - where to start? In this excellent presentation we are introduced to some great ideas that might just unblock that brain ache and save you from those presentation jitters.

Storytelling 101

View more webinars from Scott Schwertly.

Turns out the Answer is 40 - TRIZ Approach to Problem Solving

I came across an interesting approach to problem solving called TRIZ this week. The development of TRIZ began in 1946 with the mechanical engineer Genrich Altshuller studying patents on behalf of the Russian navy. Altshuller's job was to inspect invention proposals, help document them, and help others to invent. By 1969 he had reviewed about 40,000 patent abstracts in order to find out in what way the innovation had taken place. By examining a large database of inventions, Altshuller concluded that only one per cent of inventions were genuinely original; the rest represented the novel application of previous ideas.

Altshuller argued that "An invention is the removal of technical contradictions". Along these lines, he said that to develop a method for inventing, one must scan a large number of inventions, identify the contradictions underlying them, and formulate the principle used by the inventor for their removal. Over the next years, he developed "40 Principles of Invention".

The TRIZ process presents an approach for the analysis of problems in a technological system. The fundamental view is that almost all "inventions" are reiterations of previous discoveries already made in the same or other fields, and that problems can be reduced to contradictions between two elements. The goal of TRIZ analysis is to achieve a better solution than a mere trade-off between the two elements, and the belief is that the solution almost certainly already exists somewhere in the patent literature.

A problem is first defined in terms of the ideal solution. The problem is analysed into its basic, abstract constituents according to a list of 39 items (for example, the weight of a stationery object, the use of energy by a moving object, the ease of repair etc.), and reframed as a contradiction between two of these constituents. Using a contradiction matrix based upon large-scale analysis of patents, a series of suggested abstract solutions (for example "move from straight lines to curved", or "make the object porous") is offered, helping the analyst find creative practical solutions.

This all sounds a bit technical, however, there are clearly opportunities here for those of us working on the people agenda. So it must surely be worth considering what TRIZ could tell us about contradictions such as Flexibility v Control, Diversity v Stability etc?

More information @ the TRIZ Journal

Employee Engagement in Financial Services - Free Event

I will be running the above event on the 5th of November, in London, for anyone working in the Financial Services sector (other sector focus will follow).

We have a rock star list of speakers including Professor Katie Truss, Willis and Cognisco. I will also be presenting and intend to publish what happens on the day with the artistic help of Julian Burton from Delta 7.

If you fancy coming along, and learning about how employee engagement can help your business achieve its performance goals, please get in touch. Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

For more information, and a copy of the formal invitation, please email Rosarie O'Flynne ukconsulting@atosorigin.com

Employee Engagement - Psychological Availability

Next up from Dr. William A. Kahn's SAM model is the "A", representing psychological "Availability".
Engagement is encouraged by this factor where the level of organisational support provided enables people to be both emotionally and physically available to perform their job (to little support and people feel overloaded). So for example this operates where organisations engage in dialogue concerning the physical, cognitive, and emotional demands of the job and requires clear communication of the skills required; the developmental interventions available to improve those skills; ways to share job knowledge within and between teams; assisting effective project and team communication and in supporting employee wellness.

The notion here is that individuals should be more willing to engage themselves in their roles if they are confident that they have the energy to do so. Stress research demonstrates the opposite effect and suggests that those who experience overload tend to feel locked in and withdraw or disengage from work, perhaps in order to replenish their resources or perhaps through helplessness.

Other reading: Engagement Theory

Creating Meaningfulness Using Metaphor - Disney Cast Members

Improving employee engagement is about understanding how well (or not) a person connects with their role(s) at work. This is no simple matter and concerns a number of complex psychological factors (SAM) and the context in which the person is working both professionally and at home.


What is clear, however, is that the better engaged people are in their roles the better they perform and the more successful their organisations will be as a consequence.

I first read the story about how Disney creates meaningfulness for it's employees in the book Made to Stick. People working at Disney are not called "employees" rather they are referred to as "cast members".

A quick look at how this metaphor resonates with the people who work there, and for those aspiring to work there, shows that this seemingly simplistic approach builds engagement by generating a number of behaviours in the people involved. So cast members are auditioned for roles, they wear costumes rather than uniforms, they perform for customers rather than simply providing services and cast members gain access to business leaders via the "Studio Executive Coffee Series".

The lesson from this story? Build your employee engagement programme in a way that resonates with the people in your organisation, make them feel part of it, let them understand how important they are in business success and give them the status they deserve. The result? Improved business performance.

Further information: Disney Corporate Responsibility Report