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Create a Cycle of Engagement

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In this lens you will discover a simple 5-step process anyone can practice for a career skill to build engagement with any group.  Engagement is defined here as "involved with heart and mind."  The practice works by addressing a missing-link in today's groups, that of leading people in how-to receive customer feedback from ones own daily activities.  Complementing the feedback they receive from colleagues and supervisors.

The cycle of engagement happens when engaged associates engage customers who, in turn, reengage associates and partners alike.  It is one of the most powerful customer and associate retention tools for the frontlines of daily operations.  The good news is this will happen naturally unless there is interference--much like a performer is inspired by an audience.  The bad news is it takes an engaged person to engage a customer (or an audience) and only about one in three people are engaged in most groups.

This lens is about helping any group/team leader to understand  1) how the cycle of engagement works and its importance for motivation and enjoyment  2) what behaviors an engaged person will demonstrate  3) how-to move everyone in the group towards full engagement

Remember, only an engaged associate can engage a customer and only an engaged customer can keep an associate engaged!

Enjoy!

Getting Started

What you need to know

Anyone who wants to lead a group or team can use this practice to engage everyone through daily activities. The setting can be an organization, school, training, civic, or government. Any enterprise!

Use the Primer to learn the basics for engaging your group or team.

The last link in the Primer is for the free Educational Program which is a course for taking the practice further to a career skill!

We would like for you to take away the following points.
  • Understand what the "Cycle of Engagement" is and how it works
  • Know the "missing link" for moving everyone towards full engagement through daily operations
  • Know the 5 steps (recipe) for engaging any group and understand how to apply them to your group or team.

Five Simple Steps!

Read this NAW SmartBrief

Frontline activities can foster sustained dialogue with customers

"Building relationships is a process, a set of actions, and not an event," says George Reavis, founder of ThankingCustomers.com. He outlines his five-step process for building a continuous dialogue with customers:

1. Thank: Builds recognition and leads appreciation.
2. Invite: Demonstrates intentions, which leads to commitments.
3. Ask critical questions: Creates attention and leads to long-term focus.
4. Get feedback from activities: Keeps associates engaged at a high level.
5. Share assessments: Develops opinions that foster dialogue.

A Primer on Engagement

"Involvement with Hearts and Minds"

Please follow these basic steps for a general understanding.

The last step is the full "Educational Program" Handbook which is free and a more complete course consisting of five tutorials.

Links and instructions in numerical order:
Cycle of Engagement
1. Read and understand how the cycle builds momentum in daily operations. Recognize the behaviors of people who are engaged.

Understand how hard managerial skills are complemented by soft leadership skills as we "involve with hearts and minds"
5-Step Process
2. Know the 5-steps and how they cycle into a practice. Understand how the "Secondary Asking Process" is defined.
"Educational Program" Handbook
3. Save and/or print the Handbook to follow in practicing the process for engaging everyone in a group.

Key Points

Primer Highlights

"If you give a person feedback you focus them for a day. If you teach a person how-to "ask" (reflect) for feedback you focus them for a lifetime"
  • Only an associate can engage a customer through daily operations! Only a customer can reengage (self-motivate) an associate through daily operations!
  • To remain engaged people must get customer feedback from their own daily activities in addition to that from colleagues and supervisors. This is a learned ability which becomes a self-motivating experience!
  • Primary behaviors which engaged people demonstrate are intentions, reflection, and attention to sustain commitments, learning, and focus respectively!
  • Do NOT change a single thing you are doing now when you implement the practice. These are leadership activities to complement and not change existing managerial activities.
  • There are 5 steps to engage people
    1) Thank them to show appreciation and recognition
    2) Invite to let you know "How are we doing?" to demonstrate your intentions
    3) Ask them the critical questions to reflect on your success
    4) Let your daily activities themselves provide the feedback
    5) Share assessments (opinions) to build a dialogue

Podcast on engaging employees

My interview with Wayne Turmel

It was a pleasure to be a guest of Wayne Turmel on his extremely popular podcast "The Cranky Middle Manager Show"
"The Cranky Middle Manager Show"
We had a great conversation about engagement including:

* defining it
* how many associates are engaged
* what behaviors engaged associates display
* a 5-step process or recipe for engaging everyone
* what steps group leaders need to re-learn

Articles and Papers on Engagement

See what studies and research reveal

These observations and assessments give us insights and ideas about engagement as well as building it within our groups.

Click on any title to view the full article:
Employee disengagement undermining workforce effectiveness
The continuing failure by organisations to manage people as individuals rather than employees is undermining the effectiveness of the American workforce and leading to widespread employee disengagement.
Employee disengagement a global epidemic
At a time when companies are focused on growth and relying on their workforces to achieve it, a major new survey has found that only one in seven employees worldwide are fully engaged with their jobs and willing to go the extra mile for their companies.
UK workers are 'disengaged'
UK workers are some of the least engaged and emotionally attached to their companies in the world, according to a study.
Attitude and engagement creates turbulence in corporate America
Corporate America is not aligned with the needs and requirements of its increasingly diverse workforce and radical changes in attitudes mean that a growing number of young Americans are dissatisfied, disengaged and unproductive.
Closing the recognition gap
For the last three decades, employee surveys have repeatedly pointed to recognition as being one of the critical ingredients in employee satisfaction, morale, motivation, and retention.
Worker engagement may be key to improving profits
Being able to engage your employers really can give you an edge over your competitors, research has suggested.
A road map for employee engagement
Now that we have identified the key drivers of employee engagement, we can start to create - and implement - a road map for achieving outstanding organisational performance through the Service-Profit Chain.
Make employee engagement your 'hub' not an after-thought
Employee engagement should be the "hub" around which staff retention and talent management revolves, not something that is addressed as an afterthought.
Employee engagement: the what, why and how
In the past, it has been labelled the biggest commercial untruth since "the cheque is in the post". Today, however, there is clear evidence that business leaders are not simply saying that "our people are our most important asset" - they are actually beginning to mean it too.
Searching for the holy grail
Hiring engaged and motivated new employees is critical to the success of any organisation. And yet identifying these qualities often eludes managers during the selection process.
HR failing to develop employee engagement
HR professionals are spending too much time focussing on staff retention and talent management and neglecting the critical area of employee engagement, a new report claims.
"The Art of Work"
"It is what the sailor holding a tight course feels when the wind whips through her hair....It is what a painter feels when the colors on the canvas begin to set up a magnetic tension with each other, and a new thing, a living form, takes shape...."
These words, written by American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Mee-high CHICK-sent-me-high-ee), describe the state of "flow." It's a condition of heightened focus, productivity, and happiness that we all intuitively understand and hunger for.

Ask a Question

Here is the last question and answer

How can I get my boss on board?

Simply ask your boss if they would help your team in getting daily feedback from customers as to "How are we doing?" for sharing with everyone
Ask a Question
Click on link to ask a question and we will answer it here

Quick Reference Links

These are to direct you to additional specific information or topics about the practice and leading on the frontlines
ThankingCustomers.com
This is my homepage. Where your frontline leadership journey begins!
Building a Cycle of Engagement in Daily Activities by George Reavis (Brochure)
A free brochure in Acrobat Reader to save or print. For any group leader to keep everyone involved with hearts and minds--associates, customers, and partners alike. Practicing one of the
My Personal Links
Frontline Leadership Discussions, Articles, anf Resources
My Weblog
Subscribe to "Frontline Leadership TRENDS" for daily tips, lessons, and ideas for daily operations.
Articles
Articles published about the practice
Missing Link
Helping associates get feedback from their own daily activities is a missing link on the frontlines. One in three may already have learned this experience (reflection)even though it is not on any cirriculum.
The 5-Steps
A process (recipe) or set of actions that any one can learn, practice, and apply to their own need(s) as a career skill for engaging any group.
"Propel Frontline Leaders" ebook
This is the "how-to" build the practice for moving everyone towards full engagement within your organization. Build alignment by defining the roles of "Coordinator" by a supervisor and "Guide" by a frontline leader/manager.
Demonstrate Reflection
Henry Mintzberg points out the importance of actions and reflection in the Harvard Business Review
The demonstration of reflection is necessary for continuous learning!
Demonstrate Attention
"Attention is the currency of Leadership" - Ronald Heifetz
The demonstration of attention is necessary for long-term focus!
Demonstrate Intentions
The demonstration of intentions is necessary for long-term commitments!
Involvement
We can manage the "involvement" part of engagement to a large degree by making sure that everyones "challenges" or tasks match their "skills" or training.

The "hearts and minds" part require leading more of the the soft people skills. Like emotions, enjoyment, inspiration, feelings, and self-motivation.
Epiphanies
In our research to develop the 5-step process these were the epiphanies we encountered.

Key Graphics

Understand the meaning of each

Click on the thumbnail grahic to view it full size. Also I have posted the links for the webpage explaining each graphic in the "Title" below the graphic
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Learn More (free stuff)

Free learning tools

On "The Cycle of Engagement"
Podcast Interview with Wayne Turmel
Hear about engagement as Wayne quizzes me about the practice on the "Cranky Middle Manager Show." Complete with show notes.
An Engagement Manifesto
Frontline Leadership: A Cycle of Engagement Manifesto 32.05 07-March-2007
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to
view the manifesto. Download the free Reader from Adobe.

The contact point between your customers and your company is at the front door, at the front counter, o
Live Classroom Introduction
Every weekday we offer an Introductory eClass on the "Cycle of Engagement" Checkout the times here--no registration required
Live Classroom Open House
Your invited to our live "Open House" every week day at 3 PM Central USA time (Chicago). Participant Login/ID: "teams" then click "ThankingCustomers Live Classroom"
Archived Presentations
Archived or "taped" presentations are available for playback anytime
Solutions
Search our solutions database or you may ask a question online
"Five Steps for a Group Leader to Engage Everyone"
Our Educational Program available in print or free download. View the description below and/or view the course Introduction by clicking on the link

Free Educational Program Handbook

For workplace, school, church, civic, or government!

A free course for group leaders to engage associates. Develop a career skill to guide their group in long-term customer focus, learning, and commitments among associates. Build a cycle of engagement for frontline daily operations.

This handbook is a course to develop the practice into a career skill. The five tutorials follow the 5-step process to engage a group or team.

The handbook is not intended to integrate the practice into a multi-layered organization.

To download click here or use the link in the "Learn More" section above.

"Propel Frontline Leaders" in your Organization

A tool for alignment between leaders at all levels

Build the practice within your organization.

A 5-step process, set of actions, for frontline leaders to engage everyone through daily operations/activities. Build a cycle of engagment for associates, customers, and partners alike.

For the leaders of any group whether workplace, education, or civic. Develop continuous learning, focus, and commitments.

A tool to align leaders at all levels of the organization.

Access using the "Propel Frontline Leaders" ebook link in the Quick Reference Links section.

Readings on Engagement

Winning hearts and minds

I recommend these resources for "frontline leaders"
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by

GeorgeR

George Reavis, is a Frontline Leadership Coach.  Using his and a  he coaches leaders using Workshops,... more »

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