The Degree to which Engagement Processes Add Value: Are engagement processes simple, spare and lean?

The engagement process includes all of the activities and venues through which we interact. They can either enhance the fluid interchange of ideas and conversations that results in discovery and inspiration or they can frustrate it. They can propel the advancement of ideas creating flow or undermine continuity. They can bring forth the best thinking of each person or waste everyone’s time.

The engagement process needs to be straight-forward, focused and purposeful. It needs to maintain continuity. The engagement process needs to engage the right people at the right time and tap into their best thinking and it should be virtually waste-free. All time spent in human interaction should be value-added. That means that there should be no waste sitting in meetings listening to conversations that are irrelevant or waiting for someone to respond to an email or answer a call or deferring decisions because the right people aren’t available. An inspired engagement process operates in flow. It is like moving downstream instead of against the current. It may seem almost invisible because only when it is not in flow does it call attention to itself.

An inspired engagement process that operates in flow requires the ability to design, lead and facilitate human interaction. Whether you are running a meeting or leading an entire project, in a way that pulls the best instincts from each participant … not just their knowledge but their best instincts about how that knowledge of insight fits … their best instincts about how to let go of preconceptions and push their own boundaries … their best instincts about how to maintain social capital. And this is true whether they are in the same room, down the hall, across town or span the globe.