How engaged are the staff and volunteers you are working with? For that matter…how engaged are you?
I've had the opportunity over the past year to work with Case4Space--Rex Miller's latest endeavor exploring the impact of space on employee engagement. The statistics are stunning…Gallup reports that 70% of employees are either unengaged or disengaged.
Even if that number doesn't apply to the staff and volunteers at your church, it likely applies to the people in your congregation--most of which have day jobs.
So what does that mean for churches in the digital world?
I attended a presentation this week where Markku Allison showed a slide that made the statement that companies are illusions. We think that Company A is working with Company B. But realistically, the idea of the company is just an abstract. In reality, Jorge is working with Myka and Mary is working with John who is connected to James and Eli. There are no actual companies working. There are only people.
The same is true in our congregations. Our churches are just abstracts--a sort of agreement that people enter into to call themselves by this one name, identifiable because we all come to a single spot to worship. But as the digital world expands, those physical designations become less and less important because point-to-point connection gets easier uninhibited by time or geography. (We can already see this on social media platforms which start to reveal connections we didn't know existed as we look at people's networks. )
The idea is that when looking at group designations like companies and churches we forget that the real work is done by individuals--and that the health and relationships of those individuals is vitally important.
A recent study by Accenture reports that people become unhappy in their jobs because:
1. They don't like their boss (31%)
2. A lack of empowerment (31%)
3. Internal politics (35%)
4. Lack of recognition (43%)
If 43% of the respondents reported that recognition is a key reason for their disengagement, then that is a simple thing to fix. We all need people to really "see" us. To notice our work and the talents we bring to the table. Bringing gratitude to our leadership style can go a long way to building health in our teams.
In a digital world, there are lots of opportunities for engagement. Lose interest in one thing and there are a dozen others waiting to take their place. We can't afford to lose site that engagement is a human issue with a human solution. We can change the ecosystems that we work in--and at some level we are all responsible for our own engagement. It simply takes some intention.
