Manage to Engage

CHAPTER 5A Common Cause: Collecting Volunteers to Create a Movement

A person needs a job to survive but you need work to feel like you're worth something.

—Robert Jury, writer/director of Working Man

The 2020 movie Working Man is a chronicle of the value of work in our lives. It tells the story of one man's desire to keep his dignity and his life. It also tells the story of why a job is increasingly so much more important than just its paycheck.

Too often, people feel disengaged at work because they fail to see the wider context of what they do – the contribution they are making and why it matters. People get so bogged down in the day-to-day nitty gritty they can't join the dots to see the bigger picture. Giving people a sense of cause helps to change that. If they understand their purpose – the difference they are making, the value they are adding – they are more likely to volunteer more of their effort. It's not just about what's in it for me. It's about being engaged in something more meaningful than just being productive, and yet if you achieve that sense of purpose, you will be more productive. Needing to know what is expected of you is a table stake. Wanting to know how you fit in is an engager.

Nic Marks, a happiness statistician and a fellow of the New Economics Foundation in London, is a renowned speaker on the science of employee engagement. Among his sage advice is the recommendation that companies stop managing through a lens of fear about the future (if something ...