Practical People Engagement

Book excerpt: From research into high performers and from his own experience, Patrick Mayfield concludes that many of us leading change have prioritised and focused on the wrong things. Great change leaders understand this. Could their focus and different behaviours be the reason for their achievements? Patrick believes the evidence has been 'hiding in plain sight'. Practical People Engagement provides a better approach as well as a rich source of practices and techniques that help the reader get better results from the change they are trying to lead. As well as challenging conventional perspectives and practices on the 'people thing', Patrick provides a better way, observed in the high performers, identifying seven timeless principles of people engagement. The book considers different perspectives, 'hats', on stakeholders, story-telling as a key vehicle of engagement, how Agile relates to good engagement, the leader's favourite word, and the power of collaboration. The main and final section distills the various practices and techniques into a simple five-step pathway. Whilst writing, Patrick applied the principles and practices in this book to the book itself, collaborating with a large number of specialists in related fields. As a result, 'Practical People Engagement' has now been chosen as the source reference for a new APMG International qualification in Stakeholder Engagement. "Readable, practical and written from a sound research base." Mark Withers, CIPD and Mightywaters Consulting. "Any Agile project needs to put significant effort into the way team members communicate but the most successful of those will also employ many of Patrick's tips to communicate most effectively with all who should be involved." Julia Godwin, DSDM Director. "Overall a great read and broad coverage of the subject." Stephen Jenner, author of 'Managing Benefits'.