Hello and welcome to 2024!

In this and my next post, I would like to introduce you to a new friend of mine. Eryc Eyl is a speaker, author, coach, consultant, and all-around interesting human being. I’m excited to introduce you to Eryc and his soon to be published book, Stop Engaging Employees: Start making work more human!

Eryc has about 30 years of experience working in and with for profit and non-profit organizations. He’s been a change management consultant, executive coach, org. effectiveness consultant, and a consultant on workplace culture and employee engagement. Eryc’s passion is to ignite positive change for his fellow humans by focusing on the human experiences of work and business, what he calls “humancentricity”.

I was introduced to Eryc via a video of his Cultivating Engaged Employees in Hybrid Workplaces presentation at the 2022 Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) national conference. I was drawn to Eryc’s presentation style and content so I checked out his website (www.eryceyl.com). I knew we were kindred spirits from reading the tagline on his site’s homepage, “Organizations exist to serve humans—not the other way around” and this quote from his introduction, “I believe that work should be more than just another four-letter word. In fact, I think it’s where each of us makes a meaningful contribution to the world we live in and becomes the best versions of ourselves.”

I believe that work should be more than just another four-letter word. In fact, I think it’s where each of us makes a meaningful contribution to the world we live in and becomes the best versions of ourselves.

Eryc Eyl

Eryc and I have since struck up a friendship based on our mutual passion for human beings and workplaces. It’s been my honor to read a pre-release copy of Eryc’s forthcoming book Stop Engaging Employees: Start making work more human.

The book is inspired by two questions:

• What more would be possible if, instead of focusing on changing other people, we focused on creating the conditions in which they could become the best versions of themselves?
• Why are we obsessed with changing people whom we chose to include in our organization?

The key premise of Eryc’s book is that we should stop doing engagement to employees and start doing engagement with them. In his humorous (I laughed out loud more times than anyone has a right to reading a “business” book), down to earth, and well thought out style, Eryc provides immediately actionable thoughts, tips, and ideas on how to do this. He also weaves in real life examples and questions for reflection throughout the book.

The key premise of Eryc’s book is that we should stop doing engagement to employees and start doing engagement with them.

To be sure, Stop Engaging Employees: Start making work more human is a mix of provocative and practical. Throughout the book, I was equally challenged and inspired. More times than I can count, I found myself saying “Amen, brother!” That was never more true than when I read Eryc’s thoughts about the discipline of change management. This will be the focus of next week’s post.

Thank you for reading. Please post your thoughts and comments below. Until next time, take care and keep up the good work!

Mike