How to make engagement viral?
Success is achieving a goal; being successful is always having another goal in mind. If you find something that motivates you and you are passionate about it, you’ll do it very well. If you are doing your job without knowing the purpose, you’ll do the job without being engaged. The trick is – how do you take your passion and make it viral in the organisation.
In the phrase “information technology” there’s an “I” and a “T”. There’s a value opportunity for IT leaders to appropriately blend the two. The “T” is the technology – the networks, the storage, PCs, devices, web browsers etc. They’ve all been simplified to the point where they’re commodities.
The other side of the equation is the “I”. That stands for innovation, insights and information. Those things should be highly valuable and highly visible. The business partners don’t always understand the difference between the “I” and the “T”. CIOs have to enable the business to understand the difference and also grasp what the value proposition will be for IT.
If we treat our people as if they are just “T” – a commodity – thats exactly they will behave- that can be reduced based on cost rather than raised because of value. They will not be inspired or empowered. They won’t feel the passion. We have to treat our employess like the “I”: valuable, visible and invested.
It’s a cliche: “People don’t care how much you know; they just want to know how much you care”. If you show you care and treat your people like the “I” and not just “T”, it becomes viral.
