Beyond Engagement
For years, companies have measured employee engagement as the gold standard of workplace health. Surveys, sentiment trackers, and pulse checks all designed to gauge whether employees are "engaged." But engagement is a lagging indicator—a surface-level readout that often tells you what’s already broken, not what’s driving success.
If we really want to understand what fuels high-performance teams, we need to stop measuring engagement and start cultivating fulfillment—the deeper, goal-oriented development that makes work meaningful. And the most powerful driver of fulfillment? Leadership communication.
Employees don’t disengage because they’re lazy or apathetic. They disengage because they don’t see a clear connection between their work and something bigger.
Typically, this is a communication failure, not an engagement problem.
o Clarity over hype: Employees need specific, tangible explanations of how their work contributes to the organization’s larger goals.
o Context over control: Engagement surveys ask, “How do you feel?” Fulfillment comes when employees are given context—the “why” behind decisions and the agency to contribute meaningfully.
o Para-Cultural Communication: Culture isn’t built through one-off emails or occasional all-hands meetings. It’s reinforced every single day through the informal, unstructured, and often overlooked micro-moments between leaders and teams. We call this Para-Cultural Communication—the connective tissue that builds trust, alignment, and momentum.
Instead of focusing on engagement scores, the best organizations are asking:
Do employees know how their work ties into the bigger picture?
Do they feel supported in their professional growth?
Are we communicating in a way that creates clarity, trust, and momentum?
Engagement is passive. Fulfillment is active.
Employee Engagement Is Dead: Why Fulfillment Is the New Metric for Workplace Success
Employee engagement metrics are outdated, advocating for a shift towards measuring fulfillment—defined as employees' meaningful, goal-oriented development—which has been linked to significantly higher revenue growth in organizations.
As Power Shifts Back to Employers, They Need to Avoid 3 Pitfalls
There’s a huge opportunity coming for employers to utilize the shift to really energize employees, not punish them.
Pandemic Deemed 'Over' by 59%, yet Future Health Crisis Feared
So 41% don’t?
The company makes up 20% of South Korea GDP. Crazy.
More Than Half in U.S. Want Daylight Saving Time Sunsetted
But another half don’t. Who doesn’t like longer days??
How Much Does a Trip to 'The White Lotus' Season 3 Luxury Locale Cost?
Culture Edit Podcast
Ep. 081 – Aaron Lutze, Second Nature Media
This week’s guest is fellow podcaster Aaron Lutze. He’s the co-founder of the Second Nature, a pod focused on the business of outdoors along with his co-host Dylan Bowman. Aaron is a brand and marketing expert with experience at Red Bull and Oura. We talk about signing Kate Courtney as a junior, unique interview strategies, discoverability versus loyalty, building mountain bike skills, having a plan B, athletes as creators, quality over quantity, and “save it for the pod” moments. We go deep on what today’s athletes should be focused on: adding value, building a community, and ultimately – relationships are what matters.