The views expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.
Microscopic nanobubble treatment can reoxygenate an entire water source that has turn out to be toxic, facilitating the possibility of self-healing at the source. Lake Elsinore, the largest natural freshwater lake in Southern California, has turn out to be highly compromised and unhealthy due to climate change.
The lake warms and toxic algae multiplies, killing all the things and eventually forcing the lake to be closed to the public. The city’s initial solution was to pump in fresh water to stop the bloom. This worked for a while, as the algae died off, but only for a short time, until the cycle began again and the toxic algae found its way back.
The city realized that they needed to focus on the source of the problem, relatively than simply staying on the surface. After researching and understanding the problem, they invested a lot of cash in a long-term solution in the type of nanobubbles, which allowed the lake to heal itself over time. This almost invisible agent is slowly injected into the lake, and the bubbles, being so dense and infinitely small, sink to the bottom.
Over time, the lake absorbs the bubbles and oxygenates itself, removing toxins and becoming healthy. Well, that was easy. So why didn’t the city use nanobubbles from the starting? Without knowing the real story, my opinion (based on experience) was that the first attempts were faster, easier, and much cheaper, and the city hoped that the first attempts would achieve success.
Proof: There is hope NO strategy.
The people behind the Lake Elsniore restoration did what most organizations do when they need to promote worker engagement: they wanted to transform their culture from sickly and toxic to productive and healthy.
City officials began treating the ailing Lake Elsinore by removing toxic algae from its surface and injecting fresh energy into it, and with their fingers crossed, they hoped to “get rid of most of it.” They realized that the treatment wasn’t working because the problem was only superficial, and the underlying problem kept coming back, sometimes worse than before.
Likewise, corporations are looking for easy, fast, and low cost solutions. When worker engagement is the goal, which is a key element of success for an entrepreneurial business, organizations will push out surface-level opportunities and quick hits like lunches or team volunteer opportunities, and even leaders will push the message, “you all need to be more engaged.”
This is often kept away from asking, which makes the team or company disengaged (or toxic) to begin with. It’s the classic “ready, fire, aim” approach—exactly what happened with the lake.
While these one-time opportunities for rapid change can bring value, they are one-time events and cannot sustain change on their very own, and organizations are left facing the reality that the sense of engagement has “not lasted.” In fact, when not properly supported, actions toward the engaged group can backfire and drive people even further away.
What do you have to do? Act like a nanobubble:
- Reach the source quietly.
- Find out what’s blocking engagement.
- Treat people the way they are They I would like to be treated.
- Build trust with small actions, over time and consistently.
- Be patient.
1. Go to the source, discreetly
There is no need to make a big announcement that there is a latest “Employee Engagement Initiative!” (i.e., please do not launch a huge internal communications campaign with branding and, wait for it, a latest program name to drive engagement, corresponding to “Electric Engagement” or “Let’s Sing Kumbaya”).
If your organization really wants to get involved and use your discretionary time (time that you just don’t have to spend on improving your corporation but select to), you wish to start talking to people.
Have lunch with someone on the front lines you don’t know well, observe a meeting you’ll never normally go to, ask for honest feedback from someone on the front lines, or even conduct a 360-degree review—even of yourself.
If you would like your people to feel engaged, they need to feel… You are engaged. So, get engaged.
2. Understand the reason for lack of engagement
Most likely, leadership has a hand in the withdrawal. And which will include you personally.
If you would like to see positive change in your corporation, you wish to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Listen with an open mind and heart. Being defensive will immediately make the business much more withdrawn.
When asking questions, ensure to analyze them. There are all the time emotions in business (if someone says, “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business,” that person has never run a successful business). Work is stuffed with emotions that need to be acknowledged and recognized.
Do this—acknowledge what you’re hearing, validate others’ feelings, make sure you get to the root of the problem so you may take motion that may help unblock the block, and then commit to doing it.
3. The platinum rule is much higher than the gold rule.
The golden rule we learned in kindergarten is, “treat others the way you would like to be treated.” If you treated your team that way, You you desire to to be treated, you’ll probably lose the most because your path is not all the time their way.
The platinum rule is to treat others as you’ll they need to be treated. This is where the magic happens. This is where you and your front line treat every worker the way they feel respect. This is what we call the Nanobubble Effect. (I just made that up.)
For example, an worker might want public praise for a job well done, but they haven’t seen it or felt appreciated, and (even if you were aware of the greatness of it) that person becomes resentful. It may take a while, but over time they ask, “What’s the point?” and begin to pour toxicity into the lake. By focusing on each person as an individual and teaching your leadership team the importance of the Platinum Rule, and then requiring them to follow it, that’s where you’ll start to change the course of the ship.
The key element for those of you who have a frontline is to make sure that you just communicate this expected change to your team and hold them accountable for facilitating their very own Nanobubble effect. You need to share your expectations and continuously check in with them on what you expect. For this variation in commitment to occur, it has to start with you, and your frontline has equal or greater importance, without exception.
4. Consistency
You can’t get on the treadmill for the first time today, run 18 miles, and say, “Great, I’m ready for a marathon this weekend.” The Platinum Rule takes time. Depending on your level of distrust and withdrawal, it will probably take a very long time for the Nanobubble Effect to take effect.
The key word is consistencyBuild trust with small actions over time. Make a conscious decision every day to act in a way that individuals will want to emulate. As a part of your morning leadership routine, take a pen to a notebook and focus on what you’ll accomplish that day, and make sure there are elements of commitment to it.
5. Be patient.
There is no magic pill. You cannot point your finger in a person’s face and say, (*5*) (I’ve tried, imagine me.) Free will is a funny thing, and irrespective of how hard we leaders try to control it, we just cannot.
All we will do is control our own behavior and wait patiently for them to see it, see it again, see it again, and then imagine. Be a nanobubble, wait, and they may heal and change.
When leaders act as nanobubbles and go to the source to consistently treat their employees the way they need to be treated, the organization oxygenates and engages on its own—not because it has to, but because it wants to. And it stays engaged on its own.
Just look at Lake Elsinore.