Part one of a three-part article published on Medium.

Hold your hands out in front of you, palms facing each other, about shoulder width apart. The space between them is the gap between your employees and the level of engagement you either want to have or think you already have. Now move your hands together about two inches each. That’s all the closer you are likely to get, if you’re lacking any one of these three things:

• Great content.
• Comfortable, effective technology.
• Leadership commitment.

Doubt it? Time for a reality check. Odds are your employees doubt you. According to a Gallup poll released in October 2013, 13 percent of employees are engaged at work, worldwide. Twenty four percent are actively disengaged — unhappy, unproductive, likely to bring down their colleagues — definitely not exerting any discretionary effort.

Not your workers, though, right? Maybe. If you’ve read this far, you are quite likely savvy enough about the benefits of employee engagement that you effectively promote one, two or all three of the necessary components of an engaged workforce. Good for you. You know you can do more. You may even be willing to do more, but will it be enough and will it be the right moves?

Content is king, queen and the court jester There is nothing like great content. Unfortunately, a great deal of what passes for corporate content — and specifically, employee content — is nothing like great content. How does your employee content stack up? Would you read it? Do you read it?

Are you one of the guilty parties that produces content for its employees, then assumes it is worthwhile information for … someone — and doesn’t read it, yourself? There are more of you out there than you may think. Many businesses, leaders, managers and other stakeholders believe “our content is good for them.” Who is “them”?

If you’re not one of “them” that finds your message:

• relevant,
• useful, or
• entertaining …

… then who do you think is actually going to read it? If you are too busy and/or self-important to consume the information, do you wonder who else might also be turning up their nose? The likely answer, statistically speaking, is 87 percent of your workforce.

But communicate, we must. So your communications staff (or worse — the lowest people on the totem pole who couldn’t say “no”) conceive, draft, edit, publish, produce and distribute content for your employees. Not to get too “business school” on you, but there is an opportunity cost for those efforts. If your employee communications are missing the mark with as much as 87 percent of your intended audience, would your communicators’ efforts be better put elsewhere? There are only so many work hours in a week and your communications people do not work for free. I hope.

Of course, you cannot abandon employee communication efforts. Unless 13 percent sounds like too much engagement.

If this rings a bell for you, then understand you’ve committed at least two of the three sins: not-so-great content, and lack of commitment from leadership.

If you don’t give enough of a rodent’s rear anatomy to want to engage with the content, why on earth do you think your other employees will? Because they love you so much? Are they desperate to hear from you in the midst of their daily tasks? The love from 13 percent is better than no love at all, I suppose.

Read the full article on Medium to see two more reasons why employees do not fully engage with their employers.

The NFL is a copycat league. Now that the offseason is in full swing, with the National Football League annual Scouting Combine in Indianapolis from Feb. 22 – 25, it’s time for the copycats to get copying.

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The current Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, are probably about to receive a lot of flattery. Unfortunately, that “flattery” comes in the form of the other 31 NFL teams vying for the Seahawks’ players not under contract.

Read my article on Oregon Sports News.

Make every word count
Every good business communicator should ask themselves one question: “Am I asking my reader to indulge me?”

Remember, your message is in competition with everything your readers encounter on a daily basis: every message, every radio advertisement they heard in their car on the way to work, every pop-up or banner ad they saw on the Web that day, every television ad they saw the night before, every billboard message that grabbed their attention, every email from their boss, colleagues, friends and mothers-in-law.

Your message will be judged and ultimately consumed through this prism. That's a lot of competition. Can your message cut through the clutter? Will it resonate with your readers?

You need to make your message count. Your credibility is on the line every time. Keep your focus on what you want to get across to your reader and do it quickly.

Don't ask your readership to indulge you. Be respectful of their time and attention and they will reward you with receptiveness.

Excerpt from Rock Your Comms: 98 Killer Tips and Secrets from Internal Comms Professionals, my contribution to an e-book that benefits the Make-A-Wish-Foundation.

The NFL is not a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately business. It’s a what-will-you-do-for-me-next business. NFL rosters churn in excess of 20 percent every year. The 2014 Seattle Seahawks will be no different, which is to say they will look significantly different this September.

Here are five current Seahawks that have played their last downs for the home team in Seattle. Read my latest article for Oregon Sports News about which players won’t be around for a chance at a repeat Super Bowl season.

Our short attention spans demand business communicators format and structure their online communications for optimal readability.

I know … I have to talk fast.

Recent evidence published by Statisticbrain.com indicates that the average attention span of humans is eight seconds as of 2013. That means if you read this article’s headline, subhead and this paragraph, I probably just lost you.

Marathon thinker
Thank you for sticking with me. For those hearty souls that are still reading along, here are some more statistics from their findings, which add a little perspective:

• The average attention span in 2000 was 12 seconds. That means we’ve lost four seconds in 14 years.
• The average attention span of a goldfish is nine seconds. That means we’re now sub-goldfishian.
• The percentage of people that occasionally forget their own birthdays is seven percent. 

Read it on WiseTribe.