Want Engaged Employees? Act Like a Nanobubble Nanobubbles revitalized Lake Elsinore by addressing its root problems, offering a metaphor for sustainable employee engagement.

Microscopic treatment using nanobubbles can reoxygenate an entire water source that has become toxic, facilitating the ability to heal itself at the source. Lake Elsinore, Southern California's largest natural freshwater lake, became wildly compromised and unhealthy due to climate change.

The lake gets warmer and spawns toxic algae, killing everything and ultimately forcing the lake to be closed to the public. At first, the city's solution was to pump in fresh water to make the bloom recede. This worked for a time as the algae died off, but only for a short while until the cycle would start all over again, whereby toxic algae would find its way back.

The city realized it needed to focus on the root of the problem instead of staying surface-level. After researching and understanding the problem, they invested a lot of money in a long-term solution in nanobubbles, which allowed the lake to heal itself over time. This almost invisible treatment is slowly piped into the lake, and the bubbles, being so dense and infinitesimally small, sink to the bottom.

Over time, the lake accepts the bubbles and oxygenates itself, removing toxins and becoming healthy. Well, that was simple. So, why didn't the city use nanobubbles from the start? Without knowing the real story, my best guess (based on experience) is that the first attempts were faster, easier, and much less expensive, and the city hoped their first attempts would work.

Proof: Hope is not a Strategy.

Those responsible for restoring Lake Elsniore did what most organizations do when they're looking to push the agenda of employee engagement, i.e., a company looking to transform their culture into a high-performing and healthy one from one that is ailing and toxic.

The city treated the sick Lake Elsinore by scraping away the toxic algae from the top and pushing in fresh energy, then, with fingers crossed, hoped 'they got most of it.' They realized the treatment didn't work as it was only surface-level, and the underlying issue returned to take over, sometimes worse than before.

Same with companies looking for easy, fast and cheap solutions. When there's a target of employee engagement, which is a critical success element for an entrepreneurial business, organizations will push out surface-level opportunities and quick hits like a luncheon or a team volunteer opportunity or even having leaders cascade the message of 'you all need to be more engaged.'

Typically, this is done without asking what's making the team or company unengaged (or toxic) to begin. It's a classic 'ready, fire, aim' approach — exactly like what happened with the lake.

While these one-off quick-hit opportunities can bring value, they are one-offs and cannot sustain change on their own, and organizations are faced with the fact that the feeling of engagement 'didn't take.' In fact, when improperly facilitated, acts toward an engaged group can have the reverse effect and drive your humans more deeply into disengagement.

What should you do? Act like a nanobubble:

1. Quietly, get to the source.
2. Learn what's blocking engagement.
3. Treat people the way they want to be treated.
4. Build trust with small actions, over time, with consistency.
5. Be patient.

Related: A Leader's Guide to Boosting Employee Engagement and Motivation

1. Go to the source, stealth-like

No need for a huge announcement that there's a new 'Employee Engagement Initiative!' (i.e., please do not start a huge, internal communication campaign with branding and, wait for it, a new name for the program to elevate engagement like 'Electrify Engagement' or 'Let's Sing Kumbaya.'

If your company truly desires to engage and truly lean into its Discretionary Time (the time it doesn't have to put towards the betterment of your company, but it chooses to), then you have to start talking to people.

Have lunch with someone on your line whom you don't know well, observe a meeting you normally would never attend, get honest feedback from your first line or even do some 360 assessments — even on yourself.

If you want your people to feel engaged, they must feel you are engaged. So, engage.

2. Understand the root of what is creating disengagement

Most likely, leadership has a hand in disengagement. And this may mean you personally.

If you want to see positive change in your company, you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Listen with an open mind and heart. Being defensive will immediately make for an even more disengaged company.

Be sure to drill down when you ask questions. There's always emotion wrapped up in business (if anyone says, 'This isn't personal, it's just business, that person has never run a successful business.) Work is packed with emotion, which must be validated and acknowledged.

So do that — acknowledge what you're hearing, validate the feelings of others, be sure you've drilled down to the root cause so you can now take action to help the block and then commit to doing that.

Related: Why Everything You Know About Employee Engagement Is Wrong

3. The platinum rule is way better than the golden.

The Golden Rule we learned in kindergarten is to 'treat others the way we want to be treated.' If you treated your team the way you wanted to be treated, you would probably lose most, as your way isn't always their way.

The platinum rule is to treat others the way they want to be treated. This is where the magic happens. This is where you and your first line treat each employee the way they feel respect. This is what we'll call the Nanobubble Effect. (I just made that up.)

For example, an employee may want public praise for a job well done but hasn't seen any of that or felt appreciated, and (even though you were aware of their greatness) this person becomes resentful. It might take a while, but over time, they ask, 'What's the point?' and start bringing toxicity to the lake. By focusing on each person as an individual and teaching your leadership team the importance of the Platinum Rule, then holding them accountable to follow said rule, this is where you'll start to turn the ship.

A critical element for those of you with a first line is to ensure you communicate this expected change to the team and hold them accountable to facilitate their own Nanobubble Effect. You have to share what you expect and inspect what you expect consistently. For this shift in engagement to take place, it has to start with you, and your first line is of equal or even greater importance, with no exceptions.

4. Consistency

You can't hit the treadmill for the first time today, run 18 miles, and then say, 'Sweet, I'm ready for the marathon this weekend.' Using the Platinum Rule takes time; depending on the level of distrust and disengagement, it could take a long time for the Nanobubble Effect to take off.

The key word is consistency. Build trust with small actions over time. Every day, make a conscious decision to act in a way that people want to follow. As part of your leadership morning routine, take pen to notepad and focus on what you'll accomplish that day and be sure there are engagement elements within.

Related: 3 Strategies to Boost Employee Engagement at Your Company

5. Be patient.

There's no magic pill. You can't point your finger in a person's face and say, "You there, feel engaged. Now." (I've tried, believe me.) Free will is a funny thing, and as much as we leaders try to control it, we just can't.

All we can do is control our own behavior and patiently wait for those to see, see it again, see it one more time, and then believe. Be the nanobubble, wait, and they will heal and shift.

When leaders act like nanobubbles and go to the source to consistently treat their employees the way they want to be treated, an organization oxygenates and engages on its own—not because it has to, but because it wants to. And it stays engaged on its own.

Just look at Lake Elsinore.