Initiatives that Empower

Projects that build a strong sense of shared purpose and identity are a great way to engage and motivate employees.

The journey of the Olympic torch over the last few weeks has been inspirational. Whether or not you are a sports fan, it has been striking to see how people across Canada have participated enthusiastically in the relay. People from all backgrounds, from the tiniest villages to the biggest cities, have all adopted the torch and the Vancouver Olympics as Canada’s event.

What should organizational leaders learn from this example? That a strong sense of shared purpose and identity is an obvious and effective way to engage and motivate people. This is hardly rocket science. Yet it’s surprising how few leaders actually launch and follow through on initiatives that do this.

I’ll tell you a story to help illustrate my point. A new CEO is appointed to a large industrial company with a long and bitter history of labour conflict. His predecessor had been a charismatic and effective communicator – skills he did not share, though he did enjoy broad respect in the organization for his deep knowledge of the business.

Whereas the previous CEO had always hosted a slick corporate video to share the organizational values and vision for the year, he decided to take a completely different tack. He asked his leaders to find employees within the organization that exemplified the future direction of the company.

Instead of a studio shoot at headquarters profiling himself, he sent a crew into the field to film mini-documentaries about those employees, letting them tell their stories. He then presented these with pride as emblems of a bold stake in a future where his employees were leading by example. His senior team was entirely onside, and he instituted a program to help his middle managers adjust to a workforce that was now fired up to make a much greater contribution to the enterprise.

His initiative touched the hearts of his people, labour, and management, including a 40-year employee on the factory floor who had lived through brutal strikes. Police had even shot one of his friends on the picket line. Convinced that the CEO was serious about inclusiveness, listening, and acting on employee commitments to improve the company’s future, this employee set aside decades of anger, resentment, and cynicism and participated sincerely and enthusiastically in helping to define and execute a bold, compelling future for the organization.

Something the size of the Olympic torch relay requires enormous coordination of logistics and publicity. Most organizations don’t need anything close to that kind of scale to make a substantial difference in employee alignment and engagement. If the CEO is sincere, courageous, and inclusive in his pursuit of a greater future for the organization, people will get it and rise to the occasion.

Look around your organization. Is there an obvious way to drive employee engagement and commitment through a high-profile initiative? If not, get creative. The results will blow you away.