Since we know that people/employers support what they help build…

Since we know that people/employers support what they help build…

This notion came out of the fact that there has been a positive push to get more people involved in the creation/design of programs and initiatives in organizations. Too much had been pushed down from on high and in many cases rejected by the organization. Or at least resented by the organization.

So, we saw this move to get more input from employees and engage more employees in figuring things out for the organization. And this is powerful as:

1. People support what they help build, i.e., there is built in buy-in to the initiatives when this happens.
2. More brain power to solve problems is generally better than less.
3. The employees know the details of the business often better than the execs.
4. This increases a continuous improvement mindset among employees.
5. And many others.

Ultimately it is important to do things with people and not to people. 

With that said, I was seeing a pendulum swing from barely including employees to reckless efforts to:

1. Try to get everyone included in everything— which results in not much being done, trying to please everyone and too many people unhappy with the results because they did not get their way.
2. Silly and wasteful meetings and sessions.
3. Abdication of some critical responsibilities of executives almost washing their hands of things they really did not want to do or decide i.e., giving it to the employees not out of engagement but of avoidance.
4. A lot of bad or mediocre ideas and financial waste.

Thus, it is necessary to find the correct approach and intentional methods to include and engage employees in the company’s business.

1. Executives are expected to lead and make tough decisions. Of course, they should get feedback from employees and experts but they shood not fail to make the hard calls. Ultimately employees want strong leaders who can make good tough decisions. (Heck executives get paid a lot of money to do this.) And sometimes it is just not appropriate to involve everyone. What is necessary in this situation is to explain the decision and the why of the decision to the employees. Carefully doing this still builds engagement because you are keeping people “in the know.”
2. And sometimes it is effective to build out a framework and allow for comments and feedback or better yet sometimes to have the employees “put the meat on the bones” and build out the details and substance of the framework within the guidelines and criteria.
3. Whatever format or method you choose it should be thoughtful, intentional, and focused and not a free for all.  Every project will need a specific engagement approach—one size does not fit all. Getting ten thousand or 10 people to agree perfectly on something is almost impossible in business so you must get them involved and gain consensus and agreement to support the plan or process going forward.   For example, if you ask for feedback on a particular proposal, ask for feedback on distinct aspects or specific sections of it. It is rare that you want feedback on the entirety of the proposal or even its existence.