Employee engagement wins again!

When organizational transformations succeed, managers typically pay attention to “people issues,” especially fostering collaboration among leaders and employees and building capabilities.

Over years of research and client work, we've identified a few tactics that help drive successful transformational change--any large-scale change, such as going from good to great performance, cutting costs or turning around a crisis. In a research study conducted by surveying executives from around the world, we've dug into just how companies apply some of these tactics. We found that a few approaches in each area are most tightly correlated with successful transformations of both short-term performance and long-term corporate effectiveness, or "health."

By looking at the approaches used by companies that executives describe as most successful in transforming themselves, we found evidence suggesting the importance of engaging employees collaboratively throughout the company and throughout the transformation journey. In addition, a focus on strengths and achievements, not just problems, throughout the entire transformation process is strongly tied to success.

Notably, employee engagement as early as the planning process emerges as a key success factor. Indeed, in successful transformations, executives say that identifying underlying mindsets that would need to change was the approach used most often. Moreover, three-quarters of the respondents whose companies broke down their change process into clearly defined smaller initiatives and whose transformations were "extremely successful" say that staff members were entirely or very able to participate in shaping those change initiatives. Click here to read the full article.

Employee engagement, as we all know, remains at the top of our list in effort to achieve true success in the workplace. I thank Derek Irvine for this quote...

“People engage with a sense of meaning, of purpose, of an understanding of fair play, of company values aligned with their personal values. The sum of all of this is your company culture.”