Autonomy Mastery Purpose

This video is an amazing piece of work on engagement. "Engagement" applies to both paid staff and volunteers and instruction and teaching.

There is a spectrum of attitudes in managers I call the
"enforcement->control->empowerment" spectrum. Let me explain it with some expamples.

ENFORCEMENT - SETUP FOR FAILURE
I used to work as a park ranger where I had to enforce quiet hours at night. One night I went out with the head ranger and he showed me how to wait in the shadows until the party had a burst of noise and then we would march into camp and psychologically 'subdue' them. Essentially we were 'setting them up to fail'. I have been involved in legal processes where the main strategy was to set traps for the opposition and to mercilessly discredit and humiliate them. We have all had conversations where someone 'baited' us and then criticized us for reacting.

COMMAND AND CONTROL
We have all worked for supervisors who tried to control us. The intentions may have been good but the results were not productive.

We have all been approached by police, security guards or other authorities who's objective is to control us.

EMPOWERMENT
Occasionally we find an employer or volunteer manager or supplier or salesman or politician who welcomes us, listens to us, appreciates our concerns and skills, respects our boundaries, asks us what we need and want and waits for our inspiration. They build on that inspiration and empower us to achieve it. They accept failure and setbacks as part of the larger process. They provide the support, direction, training, communication, feedback and encouragement to achieve things we may not have realized that we were capable of. We are motivated by the purpose of the task and the organization...we master the skills to achieve the objective and we are given the autonomy to turn our goals into reality.

They identify and curb and rechannel their own behaviour to avoid sabotaging the process through actions that could be interpreted as controlling or hostile.

The following video is the best single thing I seen on the topic of 'engagement'. Organizations working with complex subject matter involving coordinated teams and specialized skills need 'engaged' members in order to be successful. A "command and control" mindset won't get you where you want to go.