Page 181 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

152 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

employees while setting goals not only provides clear focus but
also significantly increases the degree to which employees feel
engaged and committed to achieving the goals.
More than just knowing expectations, employees need to
know the why behind them. Knowing the big picture and under-
standing the relevance of a task is not simply something nice to
do. The more information the employee has, the more he or she
knows about how the assignment fits with the overall game plan
and the better decisions he or she will make, especially when
problems arise. Understanding the importance of something
that may appear of little importance can make a big difference.
For example, about twenty years ago several horses in New Jer-
sey died from poisoned grain. The grain was traced to the pro-
duction facility and a single batch. It turned out that the vats
that held the grain had not been properly cleaned between the
production of chicken and horse feeds. Medicine put in chicken
feed is poisonous to horses. Having no idea of the consequences,
the employee responsible for sterilizing the vat between batches
decided to take a shortcut. Unfortunately, all too often employ-
ees and supervisors understand the importance of explaining
why a task matters only after a problem arises.
Goals and expectations need to be written down. They should
be spelled out in terms of what success means. For example, “Suc-
cessful completion of this goal means that by December 1, with a
budget of $10,000, you will decrease quality defects by 3.5 percent
without any resulting increase in production costs.” Potential bar-
riers, such as a lack of training, tools, resources, and, critically,
buy-in from others, should be identified and addressed up front.
Failure to engage others relevant to the project—including shift
supervisors, production schedulers, line employees, and mainte-
nance—will almost certainly lead to problems.