I believe the majority of managers are committed to engaging with and motivating their workforce to achieving the best they can for themselves and your company. So why does it seem so difficult to make a reality within our workplace? I think it has to do with the knowing – doing – being gap!

A lot of us have applied the "knowing"; we've read the books, heard the talks, struggled with the latest model or theory, and applied the correct thinking around a strategy to maximise our business position. Most of us know and understand that our organisations are all about people; and engaging people is a win-win; beneficial to individuals and to the business. Intellectually it makes sense.

A lot of us will have put this knowledge into practise. We will have taken the recommendations from the research, survey's, books, articles and implemented them in our businesses. By doing this we may have changed our behaviour, which in turn may have impacted on others behaviour and on business performance. All too often the change is not sustainable. While 'doing' the implementation we have tried to overlay the new processes or practises on an existing way of working. It may make a difference in the short term, but it will unlikely be a long-term transformation.

To genuinely make a difference, to create a sustainable change, we can't just overlay new processes on existing ways of working. The change needs to be integral to the way we work; we need to 'be' the change we want to see. The change in itself isn't the whole answer; its how we go about changing our ways of working that is critical. It's paying attention to what we are being while we are doing what we are doing.