It's a beautifully warm Sunday night where I am. I work unusual hours, choosing when possible to spend more time with my 3-year-old daughter during some days and working in some evenings. Tonight I'm reflecting on the level of #engagedbrains we're currently seeing in organizations.
Recently we worked with a group of Organisational Development experts within the UK's National Health System, our NHS. Having initially gone to medical school I remember meeting many people on route to becoming a doctor. Working with medical students around the world there was a strong theme in common. A passionate desire to help people.
Not for a minute do I believe this is unique to medicine, it is possible to see passionate people in any area of work. The challenge is to not destroy that natural engagement people possess. That's where a lot of organizations are going wrong, in our opinion, and one we hear shared a lot when we speak publicly.
Often when I am sharing the neuroscience behind #engagedbrains people's eyes light up and they have these 'ahha' moments. They realize where there are opportunities for dramatic improvement. We regularly end up touching on the fact that employees are humans. With real lives, real feelings and real experiences. Their brains, and the rest of them, deserve real respect.
Most people would agree with that I reckon? So how are we in the situation, I find myself musing, where so many employees are disengaged? Even in an organization where the passion and drive to help others is so strong, and the evidence of the contribution they make every day is so stark - doctors are literally saving people's lives. Even there, there seems a big disconnect between the way leadership is organized and the impact that has on people's ease of doing their job.
We spend a lot of time looking at neuroscientific research relating to how people work, and bridging the gap between that and I'm constantly amazed at how impactful the game changing insights we share are in making it easier for people to wake up excited on Monday mornings and feel fulfilled on Friday afternoons.