Be careful about the words you use...

...because you can never be sure who's mouth they've been in!

I wish I could remember where I first read that but it seems quite appropriate to the thought that occured to me the other day when I was musing about 'engagement'.

In the last couple of years it seems to be the word on everyone's lips and it's rapidly become as devalued as 'strategy'.  We all know lots of people who use it in subtly different ways - and with resulting confusion.

Some people use it for a concept that is all about workplace co-operation.  Others use it to describe what I used to call employer branding and others for discussing just employee retention programmes.

But most worrying, many of our colleagues in general management use it to mean 'gaining attention'.  Someone used it the other day to describe to me a programme that was visually striking and memorable.  "We really achieved employee engagement with that" they told me. 

And in a dictionary sense they are all right.  Funny how as communicators we can be some imprecise about something so important....

Liam