Ready, Set, Engage! : A Field Guide for Employees to Create Their Own Culture of Participation and Implement Innovative Ideas

All employees want themselves and their colleagues to be better engaged at work, but most just can’t get past the talking stage to actually developing an effective plan. This book is a step-by-step "how-to" guide for those who develop and complete projects – not just supervisors and continuous improvement professionals. Like instructions for "assembly required" projects, this book takes you one step at a time into creating a project that makes your work easier, better, and more satisfying.

This book identifies the benefits of—and strategies for—developing engaged employees who will implement and sustain your Lean processes. You will learn and practice tools for creating and sustaining engagement and how to align your goals with your strategy, ensuring that your desired future becomes a reality.

In addition, after reading this book, you’ll be able to:

• Recognize barriers to building engaged teams and individuals, and then select strategies for overcoming these hurdles.
• Practice communication and team relationship skills that will help you to nurture long-term process improvements.
• Gain information about key listening skills, as well as steps to enhance recognition systems.

• Functions as the perfect bottom-up "get started" guide.
• Provides shop floor examples of projects that will inspire employees’ ideas and pullL them into participation
• Includes step-by-step solutions to employees’ challenges when working on improvement projects
• Includes short, easy-and-fun-to-read chapters
• Contains tools and insights employees can use today to offer their ideas in a positive way
• Shows steps employees can use to develop their own leadership skills
• Presented in a conversational, down-to-earth writing style which speaks directly to the reader without boring generalities, surveys, studies, or jargon

Preface

Chapter 1 : Being Engaged : What’s In It For You?
Chapter 2 : What is Engagement?
Chapter 3 : Find Projects that PULL Your Ideas In
Chapter 4 : Use Graphs as Feedback to See if the Project is Working
Chapter 5 : Set measurable Goals and Time Targets for Actions to Move the Project Along
Chapter 6 : Give Positive Recognition to Help Co-Workers Know the Value of Their Contributions
Chapter 7 : Solve Communication Problems Promptly and Positively
Chapter 8 : Grow Your Leadership Skills to Further Your Career

Index