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As Benjamin Franklin has said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

You get excited by the possibilities and reach out your co-workers to involve them in your ideas. You are stunned and frustrated by the stonewalling and resistance. Then you are overcome by curiosity, after all, it is highly unlikely that Ben was wrong. Besides, it makes perfect sense.

Then it dawns on you to ask whether Ben ever explained how to involve him. You look at the diverse stakeholders in your workplace, wonder how you will figure out how to involve each and every one of them, and think to yourself, “this is a lot of work.”

Fortunately for us, the steps to involve and engage have been documented for us (here is one example, here is another). Yes, it is all about managing change.

The key point here is, involvement for involvement’s sake is a waste of time. There is a business goal in the workplace, make that your end game and involve/engage your co-workers towards that end. This will work best when it is not be about you or your ego, and when you are open to ideas that will achieve business goals faster, cheaper, and better.