Page 88 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

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Employee Engagement

Cause Versus Symptom

The primary challenge is to distinguish between what some-
thing is from its underlying cause or conditions. In the physical
realm, this is an easy concept to grasp. You visit your doctor for
your annual physical and she conducts a series of tests. Unfor-
tunately, the tests reveal that you have elevated blood glucose
levels and you will have to take medicine for diabetes. When you
ask the doctor how this happened, she explains that there are
many contributing factors including diet, weight, genetics, and
exercise. In this example, these factors are not only relevant in
understanding the underlying cause of the illness, but they may
also prove helpful in managing it. To add to the confusion, peo-
ple without any of these risk factors get diabetes. Thus, while
understanding the causes are important, they are irrelevant to
diagnosing whether one has diabetes. That’s what the blood glu-
cose test is for.
Now let’s take a psychological example. Imagine creating a
questionnaire to assess depression. Begin by asking yourself
what does it feel or look like when someone is depressed. Based
on your thoughts and experiences you might generate items such
as: “Have you been feeling sad lately?” “Have you been feeling
as though nothing matters?” and “Have you been sleeping more
or less than usual?” These questions reflect symptoms indica-
tive of depression. In developing your assessment instrument
you would not ask, “Did you recently get into a fight with your
significant other?” or “Did you recently receive bad news from
your doctor?” While these issues, as well as thousands of oth-
ers, might trigger a depressive episode and be relevant to under-
standing and treating the patient, they are totally irrelevant in
determining whether someone meets the criteria for depression.