Engagement MAGIC --Tracy Maylett--Recommend with salt

Engagement magic is straightforward and applicable. Maylett lays out what he views as the five keys for engaging "people, leaders, and organizations." The breadth of potential audience circumscribed by that description is perhaps the book's greatest weakness and it’s unique value add. It is as if the book can't decide if it wants to be a book about building a career for individuals or about building an engaged company for managers. At the same time, it’s a book about the relationship between employees and their company, so perhaps that division is justified if distracting at times.

The argument rests on two pillars: first, engaged employees are simultaneously more satisfied (generally happy), and more productive; second, the responsibility for engagement is a "50/50 proposition between managers and employees". MAGIC is an acronym that describes the five necessary elements for engagement. Meaning. Autonomy. Growth. Impact. Connection. If an employee feels all of these things, the employees will be engaged. 

Meaning "Your work has purpose beyond the work itself." The key word is purpose. Employees must feel that their work has a worthwhile purpose.

Autonomy “The power to shape your work and environment in ways that allow you to perform at your best.”  The premise is simple, people want to feel in control. Moreover, they take ownership and improve performance if they have some degree of bounded control.

Growth “Being stretched and challenged in ways that result in personal and professional growth.” Humans aren’t meant to stagnate. We need to fill like our capacity is expanding.

Impact “Seeing positive, effective, and worthwhile outcomes and results from your work.” Employees need to see the impact of their work. Nurses need to see patients recover, and assembly line workers need to SEE that the products they are building change lives

Connection “The sense of belonging to something beyond yourself.” We are social creatures. We need to connect to each other and to connect to common causes. Employment that facilitates connection yields more engaged employees.

The highlight of this book is the research backing it up. The chapters are filled with not only stories, but strong empirical evidence for each principle outlined. The weakness of this book is that the information isn’t particularly novel and I’m not sure it’s complete. For example, the five keys don’t seem to have anything to say about time division. Is an employee that is focused on 3 big projects outside of work really engaged?

Individually, each MAGIC element is worth learning more about (I repeat, the research is really good), but as a whole, it feels fragmented and incomplete.

The good research pushed the book into the informational quadrant for me, despite the relative lack of novelty and incompleteness. This book didn’t feel particularly inspirational, but I think I have to blame at least part of that on the narrator.


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