ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to discuss awareness around the dynamics of engagement, especially as they relate to lean activities. It focuses on how to measure engagement, as well as ways organizations can harness the power of engagement to make measurable improvements. Organizations must ensure that a number of their employee engagement initiatives invite employees to design ways to engage themselves. Employers must create spaces that encourage engagement and let employees make a choice. In any effort to encourage employees to connect to an organization in this manner, it’s important to understand how continuous improvement drives engagement. The most common cause of employee disengagement is encouraging people to contribute their thoughts and ideas—and then ignoring them. Employee disengagement can also occur when a company replaces an effective lean leader with an ineffective leader or one untrained in lean leadership. The benefits of the company’s lean culture are far-reaching because other organizations often visit, seeking to build their own vision for engagement.
