Let’s boil employee engagement down to the basics. Engagement relates to the psychological contract between employer and employee. Fundamentally it moves away from the idea of “economic man (or woman)” which even economists now recognise fails to predict much of human behaviour. Instead of a “you chop a hundred logs I pay you one pound” contract, the form is that “both parties will make their best endeavours for the other”, to do their best in a business setting. Some organisations operate a hair trigger “fail and be fired” policy while others regard moving someone on to greener pastures as a catastrophic failure of organisational culture. The model we promote is “tribal”. If someone has worked successfully for years and now needs leniency for a time you give it. If the tribe’s shepherd has kept everyone supplied with mutton for years but now has a performance issue, bear with it. He or she may well bounce back more committed than ever, as they don’t want to let their tribe down.