CMI Employee Engagement event: Communication Matters!
It’s widely acknowledged that an important driver of engagement is having the sort of culture where employees’ views are sought out, listened to and make a difference, and where they speak out and challenge when appropriate. Effective communication is clearly crucial if this is to happen. Last week, we went to an event entitled, ‘Employee Engagement: Communication Matters’ which was jointly held by AIM Research, the CMI and the Institute... [Read More...]
Bigger cleverer words
A client once described the way meetings went in her organisation as people around the table outdoing each other with ‘bigger, cleverer words’. Business jargon can be a place to hide at the same time as being a kind of weapon to show off your prowess. Meetings can sometimes feel like they’re dominated by people jousting with words. And despite the volume of words being used, all too often people are left in the dark about what’s... [Read More...]
What is engagement?
Engagement is Connection … The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has just published a new report by David MacLeod and Nita Clarke on employee engagement. We wholeheartedly recommend this report – it makes some great points and is filled with useful case studies. It’s very hard to get to the end and still avoid the conclusion that having an engaged workforce really does improve bottom line results. But what actually is engagement? ... [Read More...]
Behaviour and theory
Economists and Sir Fred Goodwin … For some reason, the saga unfolding around Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension revelations last week made a connection in my brain with distant memories of economics lectures. The lecture in question was on the “behavioural theory of the firm”, taken from a book of the same name by Richard Cyert and James March. Before this book was written in the sixties, the main theory of the firm in economics circles was... [Read More...]
The meaning of meaning
What does a meaningful workplace actually look like? In my review of Gurnek Bains’ Meaning Inc my main criticism was that it barely said anything about representation, without which there can be no meaning. Unfortunately there wasn’t any space to develop the idea further, and as it probably sounds a bit arcane on first reading I want to spend some time filling in a few blanks. Back in the nineteenth century most scientists believed there was... [Read More...]
Meaning Inc. Book Review
Meaning Inc: What does it all mean? Meaning Inc came out about a year ago now, and is basically a manifesto from business psychology consultancy YSC. Although its stated author is YSC’s CEO Gurnek Bains, judging from the Acknowledgements it was very much a collaborative effort. The models and case studies (not to mention cover recommendations) are evidently drawn from client history. This isn’t problematic, although the content does sometimes... [Read More...]
A picture is worth a thousand words – or emails
Delta7’s pictures communicate with more meaning than a thousand emails Our re-working of the old adage “a picture speaks a thousand words” is transforming the way clients communicate in their organisations. By translating current context, vision and strategy into large, colourful pictures, we provide a powerful catalyst for discussing the challenging and complex changes which organisations must negotiate successfully. Our ‘Visual... [Read More...]
