Dieser Artikel wurde am 20. Juni 2023 erstmals auf LinkedIn veröffentlicht.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-drive-engagement-involvement-ownership-networks-harald-schirmer

As dynamic and complexity rises in organizations, the management desire of employees showing more #engagement and #ownership rises. It is understood, that more brains, specially once they are collaboratively connected, can better:

• save money by avoiding double work and foster co-creation
• enhance quality due to their multi-perspectives
• reduce risks, specially in early stages
• be responsive on market or other shifts
• provide customer-centric insights (as they are customers)
• alert on emerging trends
• rise innovation power and creativity
• reduce resistance on transformation topics
• multiply adoption on sense-making changes

The big question:

often connected to planning new organizational setups (agile, network, community based…):

how to sustainably start & drive this intrinsically motivated behavior in employees?

It just sounds so tempting to delegate a topic to a self-driven network or community. Many attempts to „build up such an active group“ has failed in the past years. Many experienced little participation, many questions and doubts on both sides and being far away from a self-running system.

The three main building blocks:

Transparency, Relevance and Resonance

The connection between transparency, relevance, and resonance lies in their collective impact on fostering engagement, involvement, and ownership. Specially involvement requires the management to open up and offer a growing amount of freedom… to build the trust needed for shared ownership.

Transparency ensures that information is accessible, enabling relevance to be accurately assessed. When content is relevant to individuals, it increases the likelihood of resonance, which in turn reinforces the importance of transparency as people seek to understand and contribute further. Together, these elements create a dynamic feedback loop that drives active participation and the growth of a network or movement.

Transparency

involves openly sharing information and processes, allowing others to gain insight into how things are created or managed. By providing visibility, transparency enables individuals to understand the context and make informed judgments about the content or actions being shared.

Relevance

(Reaction & Feedback) refers to the importance or significance of a particular topic or content at a given moment. It creates a sense of urgency or interest, prompting individuals to react or respond. When content is relevant to their interests or needs, people are more likely to engage and contribute to the conversation or activity.

Resonance

(BuildUp & Movement) occurs when the content or ideas shared resonate with individuals on a deeper level. It goes beyond mere relevance and triggers a strong emotional or intellectual response. Resonance leads to a sense of connection, where individuals find personal meaning or value in the content, resulting in a desire to actively participate, contribute, or share.

Pre-Conditions:

Working with bigger or even very large groups as a network, needs a technical platform supporting certain „social features„. This is not about handling many files, or the ability to display complicated structures, but next to collaboration features (blog, forum, wiki, files, communities, tasks, bookmarks) fundamental social features like

• personal profiles
• option to build networks (follow and connect)
• fast and easy feedback options (like and comment)
• as well as structuring via tagging.

Click here to learn more about ESN (Enterprise Social Network) fundamentals.

Resume:

(Process) TRANSPARENCY can identify (true) RELEVANCE which can foster (impactful) RESONANCE

Networks (and Communities) are modern organizational setups, which enable us to solve complex tasks, be more responsive and use collective intelligence for sense-making, trend-scouting (or even setting) and designing a desirable future together.

Being able to involve large groups of employees and leaders is a game changer for transformation.

• What are your experiences around active networks?
• What is needed for you to start contributing?
• And what are your examples to support those reasons?