The transformation of “engagement” in an ever-changing reality

In the transition from the 20th century to the 21st century, the meaning of the term “engagement” has completely changed. This is a fundamental shift, from the perception of engagement of organizations that operated in a classical linear world to the new meaning of engagement in a dynamic and chaotic reality.

In the classical world, the meaning of engagement was set top-down by the organization, uniformly and binding the rule. It was conceived as a kind of long-term “contract,” in which the employee is committed to the organization and its values, while the organization is an exclusive employer committed to a career continuum. In a dynamic and chaotic reality, the meaning of the term engagement is formed bottom-up by the employee, who sees himself engaged in a much wider game – the game of change and the net. The employee’s committed to his own growth-curve and personal learning. Organizations that can respond to this drive, grant freedom of experience and trust, will be a time-limited chapter, a station on the individual’s personal development journey.

For those who lived the classic world of work, the transition to the perceptions of the changing reality is not continuous. This is not an upgrade or inclusion of the engagement concept we used to know, but rather a kind of “phase transition” that cannot be achieved by gradual improvement in what currently exists, but by a “quantum leap” to a new perception, relevant to the environment in which the person is at the center.