It has been very tempting to jump onto the buzzword bandwagon about employee engagement. Reading all the blog posts, news articles and chat sessions where this is discussed, not one single thing has been clear. If we are to discuss the engagement of someone, shouldn’t we agree on a basis for the discussion? Most of the rhetoric is frankly warmed over management thought with a new word used to describe it. My knee jerk reaction… Read More »An Engagement Theory
Why do we do what we do? I wonder at people’s motivations when help is volunteered loudly and publically. Even worse, self professed experts change all the rules because of a new “revolutionary†idea that becomes a moneymaker. True help for others comes unselfishly and sometimes at great cost for the helper. Other times it is just a simple statement or demonstration of faith. Several years ago I attended a college graduation where the commencement… Read More »An Old Motivational Story That Still Works
There are a number of ways to instill confidence and promote cooperation and innovation among team members. In some cases, a memorable saying or slogan can be the focal point of that motivation. Why don’t we give up using trite, worn-out and meaningless cliché driven jargon when their usefulness expiration date has passed? In some cases, it may be because it once meant something special and there is an outside chance that it may rekindle… Read More »Reviewing This Week on Make HR Happen – When Motivators Become Demotivators
The essence of brainstorming is to facilitate free flowing ideas with no barriers to innovative thinking. Behind closed doors, everybody has a voice, nobody is allowed to criticize anyone else, and there is no evaluation of the conversation while the session is alive. There are no stupid questions or dumb ideas because inside that room there is supposed to be an air of freedom to say anything at anytime. Adjourn the meeting, open the door,… Read More »There Are No Stupid Questions – Shallow Motivational Tip 5
Apparently the shelf life of a mind puzzle is some number approaching infinity. Over 40 years ago a brain teaser composed of nine dots in a 3 x 3 matrix on a page was first published by that famous author Anonymous. The trick was to connect all nine dots with four continuous straight lines without lifting the pen from the page or tracing over another line. The rules of the game never mentioned that those… Read More »Thinking Outside the Box – Shallow Motivational Tip 4