What employee engagement should really mean in 2024

If we are to accept the premise that in the midst of an economic downturn, if you can avoid culture-sapping redundancies, then you should. If you can avoid the annual engagement survey ritual, then you must. Because in a world of complex people and markets, there is no place for it other than an addiction to old 20th century management theory.

For today, I'm going to distill what you should do first, down to 3 simple hacks:

📖 Go back to the 1950s and get familiar with Theory X and Y. You land on the former and everything after that is probably a waste of time.

👩‍🔧 People come to work motivated. You can only de-motivate. That should shape toxic ideas about control, steering and coercion in the workplace.

📏 Adult human beings don't wish to be followers. That is worth bearing in mind when you read the next article from the management and leadership 'gurus' who preach anti-democratic thinking.

Only after some careful thinking about these 3, should you be implementing engagement platforms, cultural interventions or workplace rituals. With all the best intentions in the world, engagement strategies without thought are some of the reasons we continue to plague our workplaces with bad practices.