17.10.16 | Tanya Diesel
It seems to us that, in our search to build the highest performing organisations that draw the best and most talented towards us, we have become over obsessed by the notion of engagement; running surveys and pulse checks to measure engagement.
What do we lose by only measuring engagement? The quality of our organisations, not as a thing but rather as humanistic expression of the desire to belong, express ourselves and create something meaningful. How people work, collaborate and enjoy what they do is not built through a lens of engagement, but rather culture.
Culture, the glue and fabric that is woven every day through all the small and big moments that epitomise the deep experience of being human feeling, seeing, thinking, dreaming, musing, doing and sensing. To quote former Chief of the Australian Army, David Morrison: “culture counts. To change culture, you need a leader who buys in heart and soul.” Leaders become captive to their culture and they need to be challenged and open to reframing and shifting their thinking. David shares the story of a mother of a woman who had been sexually assaulted in the Army, saying to him ‘I gave you my daughter, and look what you have done to her’ and he shares that he took ‘you’ to be him personally, not the generalised you, the army etc.
Leaders need to own the big challenge. It is accountability in its most true and integral form. “The hallmark of who we are is we know we can be better” (David Morrison), so how do we as leaders build and deliver the most exciting, joyful and prosperous cultures that last!
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