The myth of engagement

‘When you lose ‘em, you’ve lost ‘em for good!’ said the shouty presenter at the leadership conference.

And that’s not true.

It almost sounds like a threat that you need to keep people hooked in or you’ll lose them.

But we all lose focus and attention, all the time. As leaders, speakers, trainers or facilitators, we can’t hold people’s engagement all of the time.

So yes, we will ‘lose them.’ We all drift away. But it doesn’t mean they are forever ‘lost’.

Attention ebbs and flows. We can’t give 100% attention, 100% of the time.

The task becomes then: how do you get them back? And when they come back, how do you catch them up (not catch them out) with what has been happening - whether they’re ‘gone’ for 15 seconds or 15 minutes?

The work then is to firstly DESIGN for engagement.

And then to invite, welcome and DELIVER for reengagement. And repeated reengagement, precisely because our attention lapses.

Rather than the control freak in us expecting or demanding 100% attention from a team or group (and performing games, tricks and ra-ra entertainment for fear of losing it), work to earn engagement and to hold it, understanding that it will leave at times.

And then work to always encourage, and warmly and kindly welcome re-engagement, whenever it comes. 

Refresh leadership development/Do you soak it up/The voice in your head/Not a priority/Open to the new/Meetings get you down

When they say, 'you don't need to take notes' - what do you do? 

It happens at conferences; it happened in a meeting yesterday; it happens in presentations and workshops.

The presenter/speaker/leaders suggests you don't need to take notes. You can just

• sit back and soak it up
• focus and pay attention
• read the pack/info/transcript later.

But they're not you. You know how you like to absorb information, convert it to information you'd like to keep/retain/recall - and most of all, you know how you learn.

So what about the assumptions above? 

• We may sit back and soak it up but we can only soak up about 90 seconds of information before our short term memory conks out. So while information might make sense to us as it's unfolding, we may not recall or retain it for later.
• We may focus and pay attention, giving the presenter their much loved eye contact and facial expressions (you know when cameras are off in remote meetings and people complain/ed about how they couldn't read facial expressions or know if they were engaging? Yeah, that's a post for another time) but that's also about the presenter/speaker/leader. It's not what you'd like to do or how you'd like to do it.
• We may defer to 'catching up' with the detailed content later, but few of us truly do and, not as much as our future self thinks we will. Whether you're pro notes (analogue or digital) or not, know that you can't recall all you think you will and that your brain doesn't hold as much in the moment as you think it can.

It's why cognitive load coping in this era of so much more information is such a clever skill. It's clever because we must accept and acknowledge that we need a little guidance on dealing with information in better ways.

Then we'll:

• feel better at the end of the day,
• have processed and stored information more effectively,

and

• be able to connect the dots through the information we're processing.

We become better trend spotters, insight gatherers and more able to spot cues and hints, weaving them into what we already hold.

Do you. Yes, do you, when it comes to notes; but also know that your future self will hope like heck that you did capture something in the now.

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Leadership development needs a refresh

This recent piece in Fast Company shares some of the reasons why leadership development could be ‘broken’.

Some of the issues include:

💀 overwhelming online learning libraries (who’s got time to explore them?)

💀 training experiences that don’t deliver change (they’re fun — but then what?)

💀 pricey retreats that don’t create true impact (but the wine was good wasn’t it?)and

💀 1:1 coaching that’s too slow and labour intensive (but coaching is so hot right now, no?)

What do you think?

We’ve all experienced the overload of learning content that does little to change behaviours or install new capability.

Learning events can be euphoric but unless there is a behaviour shift designed into the program, it’s just more and more and more information put in the hands of participants to absorb and embed.

Development tools, methods and techniques need to keep evolving. Just as new ways of working have been spreading across the world, so too must new ways of learning, and targeted at developing an entire workforce — not just leaders.

Skills gaps continue to be felt at all levels in many businesses.

And for many learning program participants, old ways of learning persist; there are too few opportunities in a business to put new skills into practice or experiment with them, with true safety.

Is leadership development broken where you are? Or is it evolving into something new and hopefully, a little different?

Whether it’s budget, time, ineffectiveness or the same old topics, leadership development — and development generally — needs a refresh, update, and probably a rebrand too.

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Is there a voice in your head as you’re reading this?

There’s one in my head; I can hear it as I’m typing/writing this and I hear it as I’m reviewing and reading what I’ve written.

Most of us have this ‘subvocalisation’ as it’s called - and gosh, I’m relieved it has a name! 😁

This human behaviour helps us with

🔅 memory and recall

🔅 understanding and comprehension

🔅processing and integrating information.

Read more — and listen to yourself 😜 — in this piece by Madeleine Muzdakis.

🎤 I’m a conference keynote speaker on the topic of Cognitive Load Coping. Open your event with a session that helps people better handle the torrent of information they’re drowning under.

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Engagement isn’t a priority

Yes there’s just too much else going on. The modern workplace is shapeshifting and right-sizing. It’s steaming ahead with priorities and results.

And engagement probably isn’t one of those must-have/must-do goals anymore.

Engagement levels have been decreasing for years and while they continue to be measured, how much do they matter?

And if they matter, how much effort do we want to put in to improve them?

And if we improve them, what difference will we notice against the goals, outcomes and results the business is aiming for?

Believe in the benefits of engagement and making it better; and don’t stop. But equally, don’t be surprised when other priorities (more urgent/more important) push engagement down the list of ‘why we’re doing this’.

Whether it’s engagement in a meeting, in a team, on a project or towards the greater goals of the business, it could be time to stop focusing on it — and attend to other more valuable needs.

Read more in this Fast Company article from Mark C. Crowley who suggests it is wellbeing that our sights should be set on improving.

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Come on - are you really open to new things

I think we want to see ourselves as open and creative and willing to try and experience the new — but are we really, truly?

We can prefer the same menu items at the same places, the same holiday experiences and the same work, friends, genres of reading and music. So how much do we really explore novelty and newness?

In this Inc. Magazine article, the trait is labeled as ‘openness’, to the new and unfamiliar. And openness is a cracking good personality trait.

Read on and consider if you’re due for some more novelty, more of the unusual. It could lead to the many other benefits mentioned like happiness, slowed ageing, more creativity and better learning. Might be worth trying something new then?

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Sync Async: Making progress easier in the changing world of work - Lynne Cazaly -

Meetings getting you down?

There’s no denying work has changed in the past couple of years.

The rise of remote work, work from home, work from anywhere, work across different time zones and hybrid work continues to create change and challenges.

What’s one of the best ways to respond to the changing world of work? It’s to consider not just the work itself … but the WAY it gets done.

ASK:

◻️ Do we really need everyone at the same meeting at the same time? (synchronous work) 🥱

◻️ Could some people contribute prior to, or after the meeting or begin working on tasks outside of a meeting? (asynchronous work) 😃

A growing number of teams and businesses are learning and experiencing the value of deliberately working in sync / async ways. That is, some work is completed synchronously — at the same time with other people; and other elements of work completed asynchronously — at a time and in a way that suits them. 😄

And the state of meetings at work is also driving this shift.

Hey, you don’t need to wait for a culture to change or for someone to give you the go ahead on this. You can start working better in both sync and async ways from today, right now.

There will always be too much to do and not enough time in which to do it.

Putting practical sync async techniques to work can make your work easier … and the rest of life better.

➡️ Read more about how to make the shift to better working practices in my book ‘Sync Async’. It’s available in paperback, ebook and audio book - yep I’ll talk to you and read it to you 😄

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Productivity is changing … to anxiety 😳

Some recent research results show this state of ‘productivity anxiety’ that many people experience. Have you felt it?

The feelings of anxiety reveal the questions that come up about work. They might be familiar.

▫️What should I be working on?

▫️What outcomes are most important?

▫️Am I focused on the right things?

▫️What is the highest priority right now?

▫️Is there anything that I can push until later?

▫️Is this the best use of my time?

▫️Is this valuable work?

While there’s always a drive to do more or better, what cost or impact does it have on us?

Remote employees are experiencing it more. It’s absolutely worth addressing when work is in any way connected to anxiety.

Read more about it in this Fast Company piece by Stephanie Vozza

Work that works

So says PepsiCo with their new flexible working model, ‘work that works’... in this article

80,000 staff will never work a standard 9-5 working week again. 

“Instead, the business has empowered its managers to determine which of their team members are needed in the office and when, and what work can be completed remotely, on a project-by-project basis.”

Wow! It’s pretty big isn’t it. And yes, plenty of companies have been working like this for awhile (some for years) but for most leaders, this is new. 

This strategy has been 8 months in the planning and is rolling out across 200 locations. 

2.5 days in the office and it’s now all about ‘outputs’. 

Leaders will need to step up to higher levels of communication, engagement … and leadership! 

Good for employees? Yes, and PepsiCo says hybrid working is good for business too. 

As each company expresses publicly its hybrid strategy - or its ‘forever work from home’ strategy (hello Atlassian Twitter  Facebook  Unilever  Spotify  Square Microsoft Slack Google … and many more) - the competition for talent increases. And this could be some of the talent that’s currently working for you, with you. 

Don’t be complacent. What’s your ‘work that works’ strategy, PesioCo-style? 

Are you making things easier

Today I’m working with a group of leaders on building their facilitation skills. 

Facilitation at its heart means ‘ease’, to make progress with ease. 

And ease is a great perspective to take. 

Ask yourself 
- are we making this harder than it needs to be? 
- what could we do that would make it easier? 
- how can I make it easier for them? 
- what does the team think would make it easier?

Easy doesn’t mean it’s not good or not valuable. 

It’s about being able to manage and juggle a mix of things happening in teams :
🌕 Engagement - that we are connected to this work
🌕 Involvement - that we are doing something with the work
🌕 Contribution - that we bring our ideas and efforts to the work. 
🌕 Productivity - that we are getting the work that needs to be done, done. 

The skills of getting people aligned, engaged, inspired and participating doesn’t happen automatically. 

You’ll have to do something. Many things. Many micro things that together make great progress. 

Does your team need these faciliation skills, to help make the day-to-day work easier? 

Facilitation skills apply in-person, online and in the new world of hybrid work. 

Let’s talk. I’ll tailor a session, a series of sessions or a longer term program for the team. 

Warmer and more human please

Along with everything else they’re juggling, leaders are on notice to up their humanity and reality. 

With remote work and online meetings creating a wierd kind of ‘digital disconnect’ between many leaders and their teams, it’s a good time for some newer ways of connecting. 

Some recent data reported 32% of people said communications from their leadership team during these difficult times felt ‘cold and impersonal’. Ooooh the chill!

And 31% felt leadership showed a lack of empathy for people’s personal lives. Oh the burn! 

Some businesses are trying new ways of connecting. Rather than expecting everyone online at once for a synchronous ‘town hall’ or ‘all hands’ presentation, internal podcasts are being added to the comms list. 

And 39% of those researched said they want their leaders to ‘explore more personal means of communication, like video’. 

Explore. 

That’s a nice way of saying ‘have a go’, ‘try it out’, ‘see what might work for us here.’ 

The fear of failing, looking foolish or crashing and burning can be a big turnoff for leaders who have kept their game face on, stilted, straight and ... are they frozen? Is their camera frozen? 

No. They’re just cold, still, impersonal. 

Ouch! 

Warm up. Open up. More humanity please. 

Better engagement from the leader first... before expecting engagement from the team. 

Read more in this article by Jessica Davies at Digiday.