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1. Self-engagement outlooks
First pick this week comes via the short discussion last week with Itamar Goldminz, one of our readers. We’re continuing the exploration of the August monthly theme:
”Engaging the distributed organization”
Itamar shared a perspective that picked our interest:
“A holistic approach to engagement aims to change both the environment and the person.”
That’s how we found out more about self-engagement outlooks.
In the article where he dives deeper into this subject, the 3 conclusions are:
Self-engagement drivers have a significant impact on overall engagement outcomes, namely our willingness to exert discretionary effort in doing our work.
Engagement surveys/reflections that leave out self-engagement drivers will reach partial insights that can only drive sub-optimal actions.
The criticality of self-engagement outlooks and attitudes coupled with their plasticity, creates an opportunity to strategically align learning and development efforts with the overall organizational effort to improve engagement.
The referenced study done by Leadership IQ by surveying 11,308 employees about their employee engagement shares some interesting insights about self-engagement outlooks:
”Why are some employees so happy at work (and inspired, motivated, and engaged)? And why are others unhappy, disengaged, and negative?
The research is clear: There are certain outlooks (aka ways of looking at the world) that can drastically impact how we feel at work.”
Read the descriptions of all the 18 self-engagement outlooks here.
Let’s discuss
What do you think? Is self-engagement important? Do these outlooks resonate in any way? Do you have lessons learned from using a holistic approach to engagement?
Join the conversation and share your insights with fellow readers:
Considering second-order effects
How can you improve decision-making in your organization?
One of the many ways is to understand, use and promote usage of concepts like second-order effects, third-order effects and the Cobra Effect.
Wilmer Pan has created some nice graphics to exemplify these ideas.
Here are some quotes and snapshots:
What is the Cobra Effect?
“(…) an unintended (and disastrous) consequence arises from a well-meaning solution.”
What are second and third-order effects?
Example 1:
Example 2:
“As product design and strategy practitioners, we might not necessarily be paying attention to the Second Order Effect when we make certain decisions. This is because we are oblivious to the subsequent consequences (2nd order and thereafter), beyond the desired outcome (1st order) we want to achieve.
OD Goodies
If you like this stuff and you’re curious about some extra #orgdev.
Behavioral Scientist: This week we learned a new term - WEIRD cultures - western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. It’s in the context of a new marshmallow test, done with a cooperation twist.
The Startup: Insightful read about how Apple and Google portray “the difference between quantitative and qualitative thinking in product development philosophies, cultures, and processes.” - ”We didn’t use A/B tests to make the iPhone at Apple”.
McKinsey: Interview with Mark Thompson, CEO of NY Times. Lots of insights about the company’s transformation journey towards being a digital business. Short preview of how the story starts:
“It looked like the model was plateauing. For a company with four main revenue streams, with print subscriptions essentially stagnant, print advertising in real decline, digital advertising had just turned into decline, to be told that your one hope, digital subscriptions, is plateauing—that’s really bad news. So the most urgent thing to do was to figure out how to get the digital-subscription model to work.”
Blue Ocean Strategy: Case study about how CitizenM created new market space in the hotel industry. Covers the ERRC (Eliminate-Reduce-Raise-Create) tool, which is useful when designing organizational transformations as well:
Thanks for reading
We hope you found something useful in this edition.
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In many respects I think the 18 outlooks model of what drives self engagement is really an articulation of a ‘growth mindset’ and not that surprising. However, the ‘aha’ moment for me is the idea of incorporating questions about self engagement in surveys / approaches to measuring employee engagement. If I think about the tool we use in the NHS in Scotland, I find it does little of this. It is very much focussed on perceptions of what the employee gets from others / ‘the organisation’. Perhaps unsurprising given the level of co-production with staff? The article shows me there is another important dimension to this that we must consider, as we do when asking about wellbeing.