A short while back I was at a large dinner event.  I was sitting at a table with a group  of mostly aeronautical engineers.

I asked a young aeronautical engineer (less than two years out of college) who was sitting at my table how he liked his work so far?  He responded that he was really enjoying it.  I asked what specifically was making it so enjoyable.  His response was "I am really engaged with my work."

Who is responsible?
Now those of you who have taken my classes or have been coached by me know that I often ask people this question; "Who is responsible for effective communication?"

Most people answer that it is the listener, (remember that process called "active listening") while others answer "It's the responsibility of both the sender and the receiver".  My response is always "It's the sender who has ultimate responsibility for effective communication because it is only the sender who knows what the true message is that is to be sent".

So most people, upon hearing this young engineer respond that he enjoys his work because he is "really engaged" would have thought; "Oh, I understand what he means by that statement.  He is really engaged with his work.  I get it."

It's just a hallucination.
But not me.  I had no idea what he meant by "engaged with my work".  I know what I would have meant if I had made that statement, but I didn't know what he meant.  It would only be a hallucination on my part.

So I asked him, "How do you know you are engaged with your work... what has to be true for you to say that?"

His response was, "I'm really into doing my own work.  I'm focused on doing my own task, I'm really into it and I really enjoy it."

Now some of you might have had the same definition for the word "engaged".  But not me.  My response to him was something like this..."Interesting.  I would have thought that as a young engineer, in order for you to be engaged you would be engaged with your team.  In fact, if I was your manager, I would not want you to be so focused on your own project that the measure of your success was if you worked more or less in solitude completing your task successfully.  As your manager, to have you fully engaged would mean that you are participating with the team so well that you understand how your task fits into the tasks of others and vise versa.  You are so engaged and involved with the team, that you communicate with the team and they communicate with you such that information, tasks, and responsibilities are transparent to everyone.  This to me is fully engaged."

His response was surprise and interest.  And I think his later comments indicated that he would have preferred being "engaged with his work" per my definition rather than his.

So managers ought to...
When managers expect their young engineers to do their technical tasks without heavy involvement with the team, and this process continues task after task, the organization builds people who work in silos and who are frustrated by their limited vision of the organization.

Organizations do better to invite their young engineers into organizational communication sooner rather than later.  For the young engineers on your team, more information and involvement is much better, in the long run, than less.