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19 Antiquated Employee Engagement Approaches Contributing

to Organizational Anxiety
July 23, 2013 by David Zinger (http://www.davidzinger.com/author/david-zinger/)

Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher of communication theory who passed away 33 years ago, once stated:
Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do todays job with yesterdays tools and yesterdays
concepts. I have been thinking about that quotation in relationship to employee engagement. The Canadian penny
is a currency of yesterday and is no longer being produced but I thought it t here to oer my two cents worth on
outdated engagement tools and concepts.

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_Obverse1.png)

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Here are 19 antiquated employee engagement tools and concepts:
1. Viewing engagement as something that is broken in need of xing while failing to ensure that employee
engagement benets everyone.
2. Using command and control to get engagement.
3. Believing that we need a large scale program to move the dial on engagement.
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3. Believing that we need a large scale program to move the dial on engagement.
4. Using arcane surveys with untenable time gaps between measurement and communication of results.
5. Thinking we can get a reliable and valid measure of engagement with a once a year or biannual measurement.
6. Having senior management retreat to craft or develop organizational strategy.
7. Telling rather than listening and not fully amplifying employee voice.
8. Conceiving of employee disengagement as a punishable oence.
9. Dening engagement as discretionary eort while failing to acknowledge all employee eort is discretionary.
10. Squandering organizational resources on measurement to discover that engagement resembles a typical bell
curve from very disengaged to very engaged.
11. Giving vital organizational data away to large consultancies rather than using that data as the lifeblood and
vibrant source of energy for the organization.
12. Believing that we can ask people to do more and more without stopping other things.
13. Failing to use mobile devices as an engagement tool.
14. Treating engagement as another fad or bandwagon that we must jump on, giving it token eorts, and
abandoning it just as quickly for the next fad.
15. Attaching the word engagement too tightly to employee.
16. Using anonymous approaches to increase engagement.
17. Failing to weave performance into the way we approach and work with engagement.
18. Perceiving engagement as a pizza party, a YouTube video, or a drink after work.
19. Failing to provide needed education and training for people to act dierent with engaging approaches to work.
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A score of nineteen is an impossible score in the game of Cribbage. Are we making employee engagement
impossible with a reliance on the above 19 antiquated tools and concepts? Do theses old tools and concepts make
you anxious about the future of engagement or our organizations? What other antiquated tools or concepts would
you add?

David Zinger - Employee Engagement Speaker

In a future post I will outline contemporary tools and concepts for todays employee engagement.

(http://i0.wp.com/www.davidzinger.com/wp-content/uploads/speaking-ofexperts21.gif)
David Zingeris an expert global employee engagement speaker and consultant who uses thepyramid of
employee engagement (http://www.davidzinger.com/wp-content/uploads/Zinger-Pyramid-of-Employee-EngagementBooklet-Augsut-2012.pdf)to help leaders, managers, and organizations increase engagement.
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In "Employee Engagement"

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In "Employee Engagement"

David Zinger
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1-204-254-2130

Comments
Charles Rogel (http://www.decision-wise.com/employee-engagement.html) says
July 23, 2013 at 9:20 am (http://www.davidzinger.com/xx-antiquated-employee-engagement-approaches-contributing-to-theage-of-anxiety-16386/#comment-6977)

This is a great list of antiquated practices- I believe many businesses are stuck in these employee
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engagement old ways and I look forward to reading the list of modern practices you suggest.

David Zinger (http://www.davidzinger.com) says

July 23, 2013 at 9:24 am (http://www.davidzinger.com/xx-antiquated-employee-engagement-approaches-contributing-to-theage-of-anxiety-16386/#comment-6978)

Thanks Charles:
Do you have any additional practices you would add?
David

Sapience (http://sapience.net/) says

July 26, 2013 at 2:35 am (http://www.davidzinger.com/xx-antiquated-employee-engagement-approaches-contributing-to-theage-of-anxiety-16386/#comment-6980)

The organisations which believe in increasing Employee Engagement (http://www.sapience.net/blog/3-waysimprove-employee-engagement) levels concentrate on Culture, Cooperation, Taking responsibility which are
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improve-employee-engagement) levels concentrate on Culture, Cooperation, Taking responsibility which are

key factors enhancing Employee Productivity (http://www.sapience.net/blog/employee-empowerment-andproductivity)

Sarah (http://LinkedIn-SarahMiler) says

August 9, 2013 at 8:29 am (http://www.davidzinger.com/xx-antiquated-employee-engagement-approaches-contributing-tothe-age-of-anxiety-16386/#comment-6986)

Your 19 points hit the nail on the head! Great job youve got me interested in reading more! Thank you. I
hope to use this as a tool to show management that times have changed and with that, so does the outlook
of the communication in todays workplace.
Are you also in the LinkedIn site? Would love to keep up with your communications.

David Zinger (http://www.davidzinger.com) says

August 9, 2013 at 9:35 am (http://www.davidzinger.com/xx-antiquated-employee-engagement-approaches-contributing-tothe-age-of-anxiety-16386/#comment-6987)

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the-age-of-anxiety-16386/#comment-6987)

Hi Sarah,
Thanks for the note.
I am writing about the constructive and contemporary approaches in the next 2 weeks.
I am on Linkedin.
David

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