Beyond Engagement

Beyond Engagement A Brain-Based Approach That Blends the Engagement Managers Want with the Energy Employees Need Brady G. Wilson BPS Books ISBN 9781772360172 eISBN 9781772360189

Being in the middle of a yearlong leadership development course at work I have read far more business books this past year than in a while. And I must be honest and say this book was amazing. Brady writes in a very engaging manner. His text is clean, crisp and concise. He drives home each chapter with a case study from work they have done with other clients. In many ways reading this book was like reading John Maxwell, Patrick Lencioni, or Spencer Johnson. But there is a freshness or energy in Brady's writings that reflects what he is teaching.

Brady focus a chapter on each of 10 leadership principles and therefore sections in this book are:

1 Manage Energy, Not Engagement 2 Deliver Experiences, Not Promises 3 Target Emotion, Not Logic 4 Trust Conversations, Not Surveys 5 Seek Tension, Not Harmony 6 Practice Partnering, Not Parenting 7 Pull Out the Backstory, Not the Action Plan 8 Think Sticks, Not Carrots 9 Meet Needs, Not Scores 10 Challenge Beliefs, Not Emotions Conclusion Appendix / Wants vs. Needs

The purpose of this book is the help manager, leaders, and shapers within any organization see improvements in employee engagement. But not just in the short term, this book will help you find lasting changes and in some ways change how you do business. But if you follow the direction the business will do better and your people will be more satisfied and balanced. Brady does this by focusing on the connection between the brain and energy within the individuals that then rolls up to teams, departments and the organization as a whole.

One of the case studies Brady serves up to us is A Tale of Two Marathons and it is his story of two different runs at the Boston Marathon. Once you have read this story you will be hooked. Brady states: "Engagement is essential, foundational, elemental. But by itself it is insufficient. Without energy, it is simply unsustainable. Let's face it: it takes a lot of energy to sustain engagement." We have all see this in organizations and teams we have been on. Brady gives us the tools to provide fuel to the energy so that the engagement continues in not only a sustainable buy in a way where it can grow.

This book was an amazing read. I have already passed off my copy and mentioned it to numerous other people. Even if you are not a manager you will benefit from reading the book and applying the lessons to your own work and life. If you are a manager you can help take good teams and make them great> If you already have that great team this book will help you sustain their level of commitment. So pick it up and give it a try you will not be disappointed!

Books By Brady G. Wilson:
Juice: The Power of Conversation Love at Work Finding the Sticking Point Beyond Engagement

Employee engagement is hardly a new subject, entire forests have been decimated to produce books that all claim to have elements of the secret formula that will help get your employees more engaged, more productive and just happier. Yet, as many employees will admit, engagement remains disengaged, no matter how many trinkets, football tables or other morale boosters are deployed. Time to look beyond engagement?

This book claims that a brain-based approach can be the saviour to an eternal problem although, it notes, even when companies do succeed and manage a degree of engagement, there are still problems as the employees may be engaged, motivated even, but they have no energy left for the core tasks ahead of them.

Can you win? The author says that there is something called “the engagement paradox”, meaning the more companies focus on engagement, the more disengagement they produce; most employees start out with the intention of being engaged, committed and loyal (no matter how much they’d rather win the lottery and never go back to work) but a combination of work and home-life just saps their energy. Society is running at far too high a gear.

“It's not that employees don't want to be engaged. It's not that they don't support the engagement programme. They are committed and loyal soldiers. However, in today's exhaustion era, they are simply struggling to make it to the weekend. Lacking energy, they resort to quick fixes, workarounds, and reactive fire fighting, thereby hardwiring depletion into the system. As a result, employees come to perceive engagement efforts as a management con game. We've witnessed situations where up to 50 per cent of the employee population believe no meaningful outcomes will occur as a result of the engagement survey. This crisis of belief causes acute pain inside well-intentioned leaders who are doing their best to unlock employee engagement. They feel caught,” said the author.

Whether this book really has the secret sauce is debatable. It talks a great talk but whether it really has discovered anything revolutionary is unclear. A lot of the conclusions appear to be common sense or simple, yet often the best things in life are exactly that. Ten leadership principles are offered up by the author, reportedly based on the findings of “brain science”, which will not just deliver engagement but take you “beyond engagement”. Engagement 2.0? More carrot and the right type of carrot, rather than the big, bad stick certainly will help!

In any case, the book did not seem to stretch the bounds of credibility by reverting to hype-filled hoopla that, sadly, far too many leadership and motivation books rely upon. That is a big plus. If you view this book, as did this reviewer, with a relatively cynical, non-committal expectation then what the book delivers is certainly positive and promising.

The low price of the book and the promise of improving if not going beyond engagement, means that it should be considered at least as an alternative source of possible salvation. What is there to lose, especially when everything is to gain. Even if it cannot or does not deliver the “big bang” you may be expecting, even a small nudge towards the better would be a great start.

Beyond Engagement, written by Brady G. Wilson and published by BPS Books. ISBN 9781772360172. YYYY