Tim Schneider - Beyond Engagement: A Guide to Building Healthy and Successful Organizations

A Guide to Building Healthy and Successful Organizations

By
Tim Schneider

Prologue by
Katie Meeks

P.O. Box 35707

Las Vegas, NV 89133 USA

702-242-9080

Copyright 2016 by Tim Schneider and Soaring Eagle Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher and author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

First Printing, 2016

ISBN 978-1-4951-8874-9

Library of Congress Number: 2015921373

US Copyright (Pending) 1-2996937811

Published by: Soaring Eagle Enterprises, Inc.

P.O. Box 35707

Las Vegas, NV 89133

800-345-9361

www.DiscoverSEE.com

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by wholesalers, corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.

Prologue by Katie Meeks

Cover and Graphics by Katie Meeks

Edited by Lori Logue

Disclaimer:

This book is presented solely for educational and personal development purposes. The author and publisher are not offering it as legal, accounting, or other professional services advice. While best efforts have been used in preparing this book, the author and publisher make no representations or warranties of any kind and assume no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness of use for a particular purpose. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be held liable or responsible to any person or entity with respect to any loss or incidental or consequential damages caused, or alleged to have been caused, directly or indirectly, by the information or programs contained herein. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. Every company is different and the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should seek the services of a competent professional before beginning any improvement program. The story and its characters and entities are fictional. Any likeness to actual persons, either living or dead, is strictly coincidental.

God has blessed me with a family who is deeply unimpressed by me.

Patrick Lencioni

Thank you to my family for their continued support and tolerance. Thanks for reminding me daily that I am not a big deal. And yes, the trash is at the curb. I am very proud of you Matt and Chris.

Great thanks to my team members who consistently support my efforts and work tirelessly to make me look good. Or as good as I can.

Very special thanks to my business partner Katie Meeks for her ideas, challenges, pushing, reminders of purpose, and caring support. Without her efforts in the last year, this work would not be published and our company would not be thriving as it is today. An accidental meeting with great purpose.

Hope you are proud mom and dad. Dad, hope you approve of this work. You gave me your work ethic, tenacity and stubborn determination to pursue my dreams and passion.

A final thank you to Sydney Marie for not caring who I am, what I am or what kind of day I had. You have been a great constant over the past three years and you are my spirit dog.

I am the dad and primary caregiver to three dogs: two corgis, Sammy and Sydney, and a dachshund named Sadie. Throughout my childhood and my adult life, I have immensely enjoyed the company of dogs.

When I spend time engaging my dogs, listening to them, and consistently meeting their needs in a kind and meaningful way, they are more functional and much more likely to do what I want them to do. Conversely, when I leave them to their own wits for extended periods of time, they get into trouble. They dig. They eat couches. They fight. They poop in the hallway.

My human children behaved in the same manner. When I worked hard to make a healthy environment for them, they were much more likely to do what I wanted and much less likely to voice resistance.

And so it is with our employees and team members.

In over twenty years as a leadership and organizational development consultant, I have seen some very healthy organizations. They were open, their leaders were people centric, they were ethical, they solicited input, and they produced exceptional results. Unfortunately, I have also witnessed quite a few unhealthy organizations which, try as they may, just can't get their act together. And their bottom line shows it.

For my purpose, the lessons learned from both healthy and unhealthy organizations have equal value. We learn greatly from the actions and inactions of both models.

If you are hoping to read this book and find a single magical answer to transform your organization from a state of dysfunction to a state of health, I am truly sorry. You will not find that here. Rather, you will find a series of steps, practices, and actions that can help you breathe real life into your company.

This is not a book about employee engagement. There is far more to organizational health than just engagement. Because engagement has developed some significant stigmas over the past few years, team members now look at engagement as nothing more than an exercise in completing a survey. In their eyes, a survey does not produce relevant changes and contains dubious levels of confidentiality. While I am not saying this adequately defines engagement, many team members view it with skepticism.

Similarly, managers also look at engagement as an exercise. Many have a competitive fervor that is shown in how they compare data with fellow managers, and they are crestfallen when their results are not as expected. An additional disturbing trend is the amount of time managers spend in debunking certain comments or parsing the data provided by the engagement reports. Inordinate amounts of time are wasted showing the issue is located only within the graveyard shift and not within the entire department. Really? Who cares? Why are managers trying so hard to deflect indicators of poor levels of engagement?

If, like me, you have ever read the news capsules of companies that win local, regional, and national best places to work awards, some of them sound like country clubs. Those companies and organizations tout workout rooms, flexible scheduling, coffee bars, and Friday massages. Those corporations are clearly focusing on team member satisfaction and engagement but not on overall health. By enticing workers with material objects and superficial perks, the engagement trap is set.

This is a trap because, although needs are being met, those needs are superficial and potentially short-lived. In 1901, Ivan Pavlov and Ivan Filippovitch Tolochinov proved people will respond to conditional reflex. (1)(2) They further proved that when the rewards diminished, the responses slowed and stopped. If budget restrictions force the cancellation of Friday massages, what do you have now? Do your team members begin looking for the best engagement related benefits from other employers? Can the removal or neglect of an engagement strategy create disengagement?