Engagement - the power of the other

We have become accustomed to thinking about “engagement” in terms of numbers and formulas. We are told that only 20% or so of employees are “positively engaged” and that around the same number are “actively disengaged”. (I guess the remainder just turn up). These statistics are useful, but I find them “cold”. I can graph them, but not feel them. Engagement is a visceral subject – it’s all about how we feel.

In his book, “The power of the other” Henry Cloud takes a long and deep look at the effect other people have on us – on our health, the way we think, and the way we perform. I can’t think of a much better definition of engagement.

He identifies four types of relationship, and the impact they have. I think we can look at them at both a human, and a technology level. He talks of four “Corners”

Corner 1 is where we don’t really engage at all. We keep others at arm’s length for a variety of reasons, from fear, or uncertainty, or sometimes just because we can’t be bothered. It’s isolating,…