May 14, 2026 · 35 min · 12 segments
Think “fun at work” means a foosball table and a snack bar? Think again. Employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and turnover don’t operate in silos—and the impact shows up in real outcomes. In…
So we were talking about engagement, and we all like to use that word engagement.
I don't know necessarily what it means, but it sounds good, right? It's, like, a good textbook word, if you will.
But, um, but a little bit about how it affects the way people do their jobs, stay at their jobs, enjoy their jobs, um, drive rev- results with their jobs for, for companies, and, um, there's a little bit of management theory around this.
But, but just give me a couple opening thoughts on, on how you think about this topic of engagement and how it sort of impacts companies.
Well, engagement really is a broad term and, and it's not a scientific term, but everybody kind of has a feel for what we're talking about.
It's some kind of a combination of these constructs of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
The problem is that every consulting group, every group measures engagement differently.
In a broad sense, it means that you have a, a positive feeling about the organization.
You're committed, willing to do things to benefit the organization, and we have a lot of research over many decades about the elements that most people consider to be part of engagement.
It was to get a job that paid me money to pay off my debt, right? And, and so it was all about how much am I gonna make, uh, at, at the job that, uh, that I would get.
The two, you know, blue collar, uh, background, and they were just like, "Go get a job at a big company.
That's what you do with a college degree." Uh, happiness wasn't sort of part of that, right? And so, one of the things that I've realized as I've kind of led organizations over the last 30 years or so, there's a different kind of discussion that happens, um, now with people who are coming into companies, and it's much more about what they want and not what I want as the employer.
And so, how has that sort of trickled into the workplace or changed the way we think about, um, getting people to do good work for us?
Yeah, there really has been an evolution, you know, from my grandparents' age where upon high school graduation you're gifted a lunchbox and you-
Um, and that has really changed obviously from organization perspectives and jobs have changed and leadership tactics have changed.
What is it that you're part of? And it's not very hard for most listeners or people that I talk with to think of a job that they would trade off for some money for some different element of the job, what they do, what they feel good about, what they want to be part of.
So we were talking about engagement, and we all like to use that word engagement.
I don't know necessarily what it means, but it sounds good, right? It's, like, a good textbook word, if you will.
But, um, but a little bit about how it affects the way people do their jobs, stay at their jobs, enjoy their jobs, um, drive rev- results with their jobs for, for companies, and, um, there's a little bit of management theory around this.
But, but just give me a couple opening thoughts on, on how you think about this topic of engagement and how it sort of impacts companies.
Well, engagement really is a broad term and, and it's not a scientific term, but everybody kind of has a feel for what we're talking about.
It's some kind of a combination of these constructs of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.
The problem is that every consulting group, every group measures engagement differently.
In a broad sense, it means that you have a, a positive feeling about the organization.
You're committed, willing to do things to benefit the organization, and we have a lot of research over many decades about the elements that most people consider to be part of engagement.
It was to get a job that paid me money to pay off my debt, right? And, and so it was all about how much am I gonna make, uh, at, at the job that, uh, that I would get.
The two, you know, blue collar, uh, background, and they were just like, "Go get a job at a big company.
That's what you do with a college degree." Uh, happiness wasn't sort of part of that, right? And so, one of the things that I've realized as I've kind of led organizations over the last 30 years or so, there's a different kind of discussion that happens, um, now with people who are coming into companies, and it's much more about what they want and not what I want as the employer.
And so, how has that sort of trickled into the workplace or changed the way we think about, um, getting people to do good work for us?
Yeah, there really has been an evolution, you know, from my grandparents' age where upon high school graduation you're gifted a lunchbox and you-
Um, and that has really changed obviously from organization perspectives and jobs have changed and leadership tactics have changed.
What is it that you're part of? And it's not very hard for most listeners or people that I talk with to think of a job that they would trade off for some money for some different element of the job, what they do, what they feel good about, what they want to be part of.
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