Michael Scott Murphy

1.  Complete the Best Friends at Work exercise.  Analyze your current network
and identify what steps specifically you will take to optimize your work friends
network.  Explain briefly the business case for developing and maintaining this
network in personal and organizational terms.
Looking at my current network of friends, I confidently identified an individual for
every category of “friend at work”. While I consider this a positive trait, there is one
significant downside I analyzed while completing this exercise; most of my “friends at
work” are within my same field, but do not work at my specific company. This means
that many work-related issues I face require me to contact someone who is on the
outside and lacks equal exposure to the elements contributing to the issues that I
experience. Many of the friends I identified as “possible best friends” are those who
currently work in my company and I work on establishing a “best friends” relationship at
work; this would give me the benefit of having best friends that have complete context of
my work environment and can likely provide more thorough support closely oriented
around my experiences.
There are various steps I can take to optimize my work friendships. Given the
nature of my work, other employees tend to be very busy and distracted by work-related
obligations. In order for me to establish work relationships, I will need to find
opportunities where I can make the “first move” and attempt to lay the framework for a
professional friendship. One Forbes article points out that I can do this by showing I’m
“willing to be a true friend by creating new opportunities or helping them achieve their
win.”1 This will require me to pay attention, identify moments where I can introduce
myself in an appropriate manner, then act when appropriate. Another step I can take to
optimize my work friendships is carefully regulate my use of “promises” or “binding
commitments” to another individual. “There’s no faster way to destroy trust than to break
a promise” as the article mentions; it’s equally, if not MORE important, to not take
actions that could potentially hurt a friendship. Making lofty promises that can’t be kept
would interfere with working friendships.
While many organizations may voice concerns over the establishment of “close
work relationships”, I believe there is substantial evidence supporting the business case
that organizations that encourage “best friends” perform better than those who don’t. In
the professional environment, one Gallup measure showed that “women who strongly
agree they have a best friend at work are more than twice as likely to be engaged (63%)
compared with the women who say otherwise (29%).” 2 Similarly, organizations that
average 6 in 10 employees claiming they “strongly agree” to have a best friend at work
could realize “36% fewer safety incidents, 7% more engaged customers, and 12%
higher profit.”3 Organizations supporting a “best friend” network has positive impacts on

1
Sturt, David & Nordstrom, Todd. “5 Ways to Build a Successful Friendship at Work”.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidsturt/2018/10/10/5-ways-to-build-a-successful-friendship-at-
work/#423301477670
2
Mann, Annamarie. “Why We Need Best Friends at Work”. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236213/why-
need-best-friends-work.aspx
3
Mann, Annamarie. “Why We Need Best Friends at Work”. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236213/why-
need-best-friends-work.aspx

1
Michael Scott Murphy

employees’ personal lives as well; in addition to overall stress reduction and a stronger
support system, a Health Psychology study showed that “people who don't have a good
social support system at work are almost 2.5 times more likely to die over a 20-year-
period than people who say they have a friendly workplace.” 4 The bottom line is a best
friend network is proven to work in all aspects of life, and companies should encourage
best friend relationships in the work environment.
2.  You are preparing for a meeting with your boss to discuss how engagement,
employee engagement, might improve your organization's performance.  Explain
employee engagement to your boss and present a KPI-laden business case in
terms appropriate for your boss.
Based on what I have learned about employee engagement, how well we
promote employee engagement simply be defined by asking one question. Do we
enable our employees to WANT to be involved at work and actively contribute towards
organizational goals, or do our employees dread coming to work and only look forward
to the end of the workday? If we don’t satisfy the first part of the question, then we have
room for improvement to build up employee engagement. More formally, employee
engagement can be broken down into three components: Vigor, Dedication, and
Absorption. Vigor is associated with the energy level of an individual; higher energy
translates to higher engagement. Dedication is associated with making sure the work
being accomplished is meaningful and inspires enthusiasm. Absorption refers to
creating conditions that allow individuals to become fully involved in their work, making it
difficult to deviate from the work being performed.
There are several KPI that I firmly believe support the case of investing in
employee engagement within our organization. Organizations that experience high
levels of employee engagement have reported decreases in negative components
including theft, absenteeism, morbidity, mortality, stress, and employee turnover. 5
Similarly, organizations have also reported better performance resulting in increased
sales, productivity, profits, customer loyalty, life satisfaction, and safety practices. 6
Gallup performed studies looking at companies with various level of employee
engagement. Companies classified as “World-class” have an average of 67%
employees defined as “engaged”, 26% as “not engaged”, and 7% as “actively
disengaged”; using the same metrics for companies classified as “Average”, they
determined engagement averages of 33% (engaged), 49% (not engaged), and 18%
(actively disengaged) respectively. Congruent with this data is quantifiable metrics
measuring difference in KPI between top quartile and bottom quartile companies in
regards to employee engagement; on average, top quartile companies experience 37%
less absenteeism, 49% less safety incidents, 60% less reports of quality defects, 12%
more customer loyalty, and 18% more productivity compared to low quartile
companies.7 When brought to a smaller scale, this data aligns with what I experience in
my work environment. As a manager over about a dozen people, the subordinates that I
4
Holmes, Lindsay. “10 Science-backed Ways Your Best Friend Improves Your Life”.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/best-friend-stress-levels
5
Davis, Jocelyn. “Engagement and Flow” Presentation. Slide 33. 2019
6
Davis, Jocelyn. “Engagement and Flow” Presentation. Slide 33. 2019
7
Davis, Jocelyn. “Engagement and Flow” Presentation. Slide 35. 2019

2
Michael Scott Murphy

assess as “most engaged” provide me various advantages. When engaging these

individuals, I am more likely to have more flexibility in allocating time towards other
tasks and projects, and it improves both trust and workplace relationships between me
and the employees. In summary, companies that invest in enhancing employee
engagement have statistically been proven to experience higher levels of worker
performance and improve the company’s financial standing, making it an effective
strategy for our company moving forward.

3.  What's the case against using employee engagement as a business strategy? 

While employee engagement has been statistically proven to improve companies
in various respects, I believe there are valid concerns and applications where employee
engagement may be an ineffective business strategy. When determining the best
opportunities to engage others, one should ask some key questions 8:
- Do other people have the necessary information or expertise?
- Is commitment of others critical to success?
- Will other peoples’ capabilities be expanded by this assignment(s)?
- Do other people share common values and perspectives?
- Is there sufficient time to do effective job at engaging others?
There are jobs and fields of work where it is very difficult to satisfy the above
questions. In my experience, there are certain activities in projects that carry a high
amount of risk that cannot be avoided for project completion. I would want a very
experienced individual to oversee this activity and ensure it is completed successfully;
attempting to engage a less experienced employee in the same role places a significant
safety and/or financial risk on both the company and the individual. If a company
regularly takes on projects that carry significant risks, then it would be too hazardous to
use employee engagement as a business strategy. Time is also a critical factor,
especially in my industry of construction. Projects are required to adhere to deadlines
and delays contribute to increased indirect costs and lost profit. When attempting to
apply employee engagement, it is reasonable to expect tasks will take longer, possibly
have decreased quality, and will require an extra step of QA to ensure it was
successfully completed. If a project has a critical activity (let’s say, an activity on the
Critical Path), then it would not be advised to engage someone who lacks experience or
knowledge. If a company is regularly in a race against time, employee engagement may
not be an effective strategy for ensuring deadlines are always met.
And finally, the case can be made that employee engagement is just a waste of
time and effort: one article labels engagement as an “adrenaline shot”, saying “When
people start working for an organization, they are already engaged and excited to make
an impact. But somewhere down the road we end up with employees who aren't totally
engaged and happy, and we often have the engagement scores to back it up. Right
about the time employees start to feel disengaged, the organization does an employee
engagement surveys. When it sees the negative results, it might introduce new perks

8
Whetton & Cameron, “Developing Management Skills”, Page 382

3
Michael Scott Murphy

like free food or a flexible work schedule. Then things improve a bit, but eventually, the
fact that the engagement scores drop again.” 9 This case essentially indicates that
engagement surveys, most of which are the basis for KPI measured, occur at the low
points and result in temporary efforts to improve engagement. While it’s a stretch to
believe all research supporting the effectiveness of employee engagement, I also
believe, based on my experience, that many companies likely implement “reactionary”
surveys and questionnaires ONLY when there are causes for concern.

4.  What are the best practices for using employee engagement as a business
strategy?
While there are many approaches to using employee engagement as a business
strategy, I believe there are a few best practices to build a culture of employee
engagement. The first best practice my using employee engagement begins with
determining a way of measuring engagement. A common and simple tool that can be
used to do this is a Gallup Q12 Survey for employee engagement. 10 Routinely providing
this type of survey can provide a snapshot on how effective employee engagement is in
the work culture. By routinely giving these surveys, the company can develop a history
and be able to perform trend analysis; Are employees feeling more/less engaged? Do
they feel they actively contribute on a weekly basis? By monitoring trends, a company
can implement controls to build and maintain high employee engagement.
Implementing controls to enhance employee engagement ties into the next best
practice: establishing action plans. Action plans provide a “way forward” for addressing
concern areas that inhibit maximizing effective employee engagement. Using the Gallup
model, action plans tie directly into the questions that are asked on a survey. 11 For
example, if my employees identify that they feel they don’t have enough supplies to
effectively complete their job, then this will inspire me as a manager to exercise
authority and make efforts to secure necessary funding to acquire the appropriate
materials. In my experience, surveys like what is mentioned can uncover not-so-
apparent issues. By taking actions through establishing a plan with the intention to
follow through at the best of my ability, it ultimately improves both productivity and
builds trust between myself and my employees. This trust alone, even if I am unable to
secure increased funding for more materials, could singularly also improve employee
engagement, making it an effective practice at various levels.

9
https://www.inc.com/jacob-morgan/the-big-problem-with-employee-engagement.html
10
Davis, Jocelyn. “Engagement and Flow” Presentation. Slide 22. 2019
11
Davis, Jocelyn. “Engagement and Flow” Presentation. Slide 24. 2019