Who owns engagement and culture? The answer is found in my world-famous door metaphor!

I’ve led culture, employee experience, and engagement for several years and there’s been a couple of consistent questions I am used to hearing. One is - who actually owns this stuff anyway? (The other I will save for a future post – stay tuned!)

This question gets asked when something isn’t going right and the finger pointing begins. 

• It’s HR’s fault my team isn’t engaged – they didn’t tell me how to engage my people!
• It’s my manager's fault I’m not engaged – he or she hasn’t engaged me!
• It's my employees fault they aren’t engaged – they choose not to engage no matter what I do!

Because of all this pointing back and forth, I started using a metaphor a few years back to illustrate the actual answer to the question of who owns culture, experience, and engagement. I like to call it “Angela’s world-famous door metaphor.” Well it might not quite be “world-famous,” but I’m ambitious. After all, if cinnamon rolls can be called world-famous, why can't I dub this the same?

So, here you go. My world-famous door metaphor to answer the question - who owns engagement and culture?

The blueprints - HR

The blueprints for the door are created by HR. In essence in this metaphor, HR is the architect or the construction manager. HR creates the blueprints that establish the process for engagement and for culture. This means establishing guardrails, processes, guidelines, job aids, etc. And then integrating those across all key experiences of the talent lifecycle. It’s cornerstone to the metaphor to understand that HR doesn't “do” culture - HR architects it.

To expand a bit, a door is only one part of a building, of course. So HR’s role is also to architect the other aspects of the building, intentionally creating engaging experiences across the lifecycle of attraction, learning and growth, such as an employment brand tied to the culture, a purposeful onboarding experience to fast-track new hire connections, a performance feedback process that engages instead of enrages, a focused leadership development program that accelerates growth. With the framework (see what I did there?!) firmly and intentionally in place, the stage is set for engagement to be enabled.

PS, if you are in HR and are reading this thinking “how do I do that,” I have a presentation focused on this exact topic; send me a message if you want more info!

The door - People leaders

The people leader's and manager’s role is to take the blueprints published by HR - the guidelines, the tools, the processes – and build a door. If the blueprints aren't right, or there aren't any blueprints, leaders will have an incredibly difficult, and maybe impossible, time building the door. So, HR must have done their job well to create the blueprints to follow. Note that HR didn’t build the door – that part belongs to individual people leaders across the company.

For a door to work it's got to have a perfectly square frame and a door that can swing open and closed, so leaders have to follow the blueprints in a very exacting way to create an environment in which employees can be engaged.

This may look like a lot of things … an appreciation-rich environment; an environment that enables remote work; feedback that drives development. It’s vital to realize that none of these things actually create engagement or culture. They instead create the cultural environment in which engagement can happen.

This starts from the top - leaders from the C-suite on down each must build their door.

Walking over the threshold - the employees

Now that the door is built to the correct specifications, the employees must choose whether they walk over the threshold through the door. This is super important to grasping the richness of this metaphor – the door can be wide and beautiful, but if it’s not used by the people it’s designed for, it by itself won’t engage. 

In other words, while leaders can create an environment in which an employee can be engaged, it's up to each individual employee to take that step to be engaged. Nobody can engage you. Or disengage you. It's your choice if you are to walk over that threshold, or not.

But if is a door hasn’t been built – if there hasn’t been a cultural environment created in which you can be engaged – you can’t walk through, no matter how much you desperately want to be engaged. Or, the leader wants to create the door but they don't have the blueprints from HR to do it correctly, no matter how hard you as the employee try, you won't be able to be engaged.

Or no matter how beautifully the door is built or how perfectly the blueprints were followed – in other words, there’s been a great environment created – if you don't want to be engaged, if you want to be that grumpy person in the corner, you will choose to never walk over that threshold. It was Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland who penned:

“…I can only show you the door. You’re the one who has to walk through.”

Or, another aspect this door is that you may desperately want to be engaged, you're knocking at the door to come in and it has been slammed shut in your face because the environment is a terrible one where perhaps collegiality is discouraged, performance isn’t appreciated or rewarded, or you are asked to do too much with too little support - and you are burnt out. You and your fellow employees are standing outside the door trying to get in trying to be engaged, trying to be productive, but nothing you're trying is working because that door is shut and locked.

The key - the influencers

The key represents the people who are perhaps culture champions, affinity group sponsors, long tenured inspirers, and others who influence employees to walk over the door threshold or not. You probably know who they are at your company.

They have great influence on whether employees choose to step over the threshold or not. They may even have influence over how the door is built, how much gilding goes on the door that attracts employees through it, what the handle looks like to entice employees to turn the handle, if there's a peep-hole that lets employees see to the other side transparently or not.

Influencers drive the informal and often unspoken aspects of the environment, like how people feel when they walk in the morning and everyone says hi, or nobody says hi. If people use the phone or email or IM or video chat to get things done. If birthday gifts are the norm or just a card is what people do. If people start IM conversations with “hi” or just drive right to their question. Often times these invisible norms are so entrenched that few recognize them as cultural markers. But wise leaders uncover them and learn to leverage them to build the door in a way that is attractive.

Bringing it all together

You see, it takes all of us to create and enhance and drive an engaging environment and to be engaged. In fact, many of us play more than one, and in some cases all, of these roles.

And never forget how vital engagement is to virtually every other business goal you may have. Without employees who want to put in the discretionary effort, who care about and are invested in the outcomes, who reach for more and yet will do it with less, who make connections with one another to form something stronger together than apart, business performance will suffer.

Need help with how to architect experiences, which ones are needed in your environment, identifying influencers, or other related aspects? Message me and let’s chat.

#employeeengagement #culture #employeeexperience #talentlifecycledesigns

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Angela Heyroth’s 20-year career has spanned several Fortune 500 firms, in leadership roles across the full lifecycle of talent management and employee experience, delivering results and guiding teams in talent attraction, acquisition, retention, development, performance, planning, and engagement. This breadth of experience has resulted in a unique understanding of how to build and deliver lasting legacy through a focus on talent. As a systems thinker, change agent, and ardent learner, she has various musings about the employee experience (and random other topics), and enjoys sharing her insights, opinions, observations, and ideas.