Organizational Engagement

HOW DO YOU ENGAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES?

I just returned from a wonderful conference in Singapore on Business Narrative. During one of the many rich dialogs with peers I stumbled upon a word I hadn't used in a long time. The word is "confer." Simple word but in the context of thinking about the nature of employee engagement and collaboration it brought to mind some new nuances. As an aside it's probably no coincidence that at a "confer-ence" I became more sensitized to the word "confer"

On the long plane ride back to California I captured the essence of the conversation in this stream of consciousness piece. I turned it into one of my short video conversation starters. Here it is:

Organizational Engagement from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Are clowns and other corporate amusements in your line up of employee engagement activities? Maybe we opt for more serious stuff like corporate score cards and employee surveys to produce the data our organizations thrive on.

Let’s be honest: what are our real intentions for doing these things?

Are we trying to placate employees or can we find an effective way of inviting our employees to mix together their energies, talents and visions

Are we committed to conferring with our employees? Do we understand when collaboration makes sense and when it’s possible? Can we stay engaged with our employees?

It turns out putting the multifaceted natural capacity of stories to work leads to a whole host of new organizational engagement strategies and tactics you may have overlooked.

Organizational Renewal

Do you ever feel like your organizational environment needs to be vitalized? In the face of fatigue and deterioration what does renewal look like?

Are we cursed by our propensity for forgetting or are we just slaves to our sense making needs? Whatever the case may be remembering seems to play a central role in the act of renewal.

I’d like to suggest a template for renewal. I feel active reflection must be at the heart of it. Of course to quote a famous Greek guy, “An unexamined story is not worth having.” Active reflection begins by remembering our experiences, looking for connections between the past and the present and imagining new futures…

Spend two minutes with me...then share with me and others how you approach organizational renewal.

Organizational Renewal from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Organizational Relationships

I find myself drawn to the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow...

"Ships that pass in the night,
and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness.
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another.
Only a look and a voice;
then darkness again and a silence."

How do relationships in organizations stack up with Longfellow’s observation? Has technology accelerated our relationships or hindered them? Is there any way to gratify those human needs that infiltrate our workplaces in the oddest ways…our needs to be accepted, respected, and valued by others?

Like a blooming flower relationships take time. In the ethos of our organizations we are called to cultivate and nurture the people around us. Sunlight, water, time, and a host of other hard to traces forces work their complex magic…

There may be no short cuts to forming relationships but the shortest distance between two people is a story.

Draw the stories of people around corporate imperatives and watch how people are drawn to each other and become more engaged performers.

Spend 2 minutes with me reflecting by watching in this video and the share your thoughts...

Organizational Relationships from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

Waves & Organizational Stories

"We are connected through meaning. Stories manifest our being. Fluctuating variations pierce placid surfaces of possibilities."

The waves of the Asilomar Coastline in Monterey, California act as a backdrop for some thoughts about the nature of stories in organizations.

Waves & Organizational Stories from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

How are you working with stories in your organization? What metaphors best describe your work and expectations?