The Rules of Engagement white paper
Review the white paper
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A project team at The Training Foundation researched employee engagement extensively. The more we dug into the latest discoveries from occupational psychology, neuroscience and genetics the more we were convinced that employers are generally missing the key point.
It is clear that employees make engagement decisions on fundamentally emotional grounds. However, generally organisational development has followed a ‘rational-brain’ paradigm for 100 years. There has been little place for emotions in the Scientific Management model, nor in the behavioural science approach to management. As a result, most engagement strategies being employed are focused on secondary issues for employees such as flexible work patterns, or pay and reward systems. This approach underestimates the crucial need to satisfy our innate emotional drivers.
Managers play the pivotal role in that so they need the leadership skills to engage with their people and engender ‘go-the-extra-mile’ performance. Their own attitudes and behaviours are key influencers of team engagement.
Engagement is a complex matter, however, we believe there are three simple underlying concepts. Given their universal significance, and to use a military analogy, we have termed them the Rules of Engagement - employers are in a battle after all!