Disengagement

The definition of the organisation here is anything where a group of people engage together for a particular purpose that includes groups and individuals where people live or work together, e.g. the family, voluntary sector charities, schools, churches community groups.

When people in an organisation disengage from each other the result is fragmented and reaps disorganised chaos! This has a damaging effect upon the organisation environment and individual circumstances. This can result in the undermining of the value of our very purpose in life. The effect on the organisation when disengagement happens as a result of management style is that people may self-protect; this rolls down the organisational structure to affect customers and other stakeholders. The communication and understanding of ‘normal functioning’ gets lost in the need to survive and self-protect. Adverse groups may form, with different values from the rest. Knowledge becomes the power trading tool to survival and control.

Behaviours like humiliation or public/electronic reprimands and put downs isolate and silence people, whose initial reaction is often,” I may not be coping here, when I should be.” Because the communication is chaotic, the clarity of the organisation's aims become unclear and impact on the individual, as the messages are not generating effective open feedback that provides for growth, stability, creativity and a shared contribution.

The courage of leadership to challenge the key factors begins with self-recognition and a positive behavioural response:

• Moving away from blame to recognition that you may not know everything about the circumstances.
• Listening with an open heart and mind ('taking a walk in the other person’s shoes').
• Giving opportunity to indicate that you value the other person’s opinion and views.
• Recognition of contribution and effort that does not always meet the mark exactly, but take the encouraging steps of noticing and appreciating that it took courage.
• Learning from our mistakes as a two way process.
• Leader’s reflection on how they can more appropriately support and value people that results in shared learning.

The rewards of positive engagement bring a greater success than we can imagine, adding commercial value and profit as well as individual workplace participation.