Comments on: Engage for Success – The Launch Event

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 11:14:32 +0000

David,
Thank you very much for your kind comments.

I am going to write a precis of yesterday’s event at Kent University today and will publish it today or tomorrow. A very Happy Christmas to you, too, and please let me know what I can do to help in 2013!

By: David MacLeod

David MacLeod — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:30:09 +0000

Graham
Thank you very much for the excellent summary and for the debate/contributions that followed. We hope in the next few days to put a short film of the event on the web site. It was terrific to feel the energy in the room at the event! There is so much more to do given so many partial believers and sceptics but bit by bit lets go on wearing them down!
Have a very Happy Christmas all! And very best wishes David

By: Graham

Graham — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:57:17 +0000

Thanks for the comment Nigel.

I shop at Asda, and levels of employee engagement in my local store are no different to any other supermarket. The ‘crackle’ that Archie Norman talked about is gone. People seem to have gone back to keeping their boss happy rather than keeping their customer happy.

I can remember going to an Asda store a few years ago when Archie was in charge. People had a spring in their step, a smile on their face, and were concentrating on keeping their customer happy rather than keeping their manager happy. That’s the crux of it, for me.

By: Nigel Girling

Nigel Girling — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:15:23 +0000

Good notes Graham. I concur with your views on both Archie Norman and Jo Swinson’s contributions. I also share your sense of disbelief that we still have to fight this fight, despite all the very visible ‘lessons’ of the last few years. Not enough thirsty horses it would seem. Anyone who doubts that leadership is the crucial catalyst and shaper of climate need only chat, as I did recently, to some employees at Asda to see how things have changed since Archie left. I remember similar stories from ICI after the days of John Harvey Jones. It seems to me that we need not just to engage, but to re-engage people constantly, daily, with the core purpose and value of their work, their team, their vision and their service to the customer and the greater good. If the senior team aren’t focused on that as daily priority , I’d suggest its a dereliction of duty.

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 17:54:53 +0000

Thanks Steve. I have also worked in both types of environment – funnily enough, the engaged one was longer ago, and the people I worked with there are still in touch a lot – we know we were part of something special, although sadly that company has changed hands a couple of times since and engagement has suffered at the hands of the nay-sayers.

By: Steve Smith

Steve Smith — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:29:27 +0000

Thanks for writing up these notes. I have worked in both disengaged and engaged environments and the difference is astonishing. The disengaged workplace i worked in for 4 years is no longer in business. I’m still in contact with a lot of people, including my old manager, from the engaged workplace i worked and that business is still flourishing. Funny that eh?

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:23:18 +0000

Hi Doug,
Thanks for the comment! I find that writing something up the day after an event helps me to remember what I got out of it, so the ability to share that with others is a bonus. I hope we can have a chat soon!

By: Doug Shaw

Doug Shaw — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:01:51 +0000

Hi Graham – I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to say hi yesterday, the event had more people than I was expecting and I had to dash off across London to see a client. Anyway – just wanted to say thanks for putting these notes out, they are very helpful. Particularly like Jo Swinson’s point about feeling it – that has more resonance for me than measurement ever could.