The Weltchek Weekly

If you look up engaged in the dictionary, you’ll find nearly 20 definitions for a word many people just associate with getting married. Today we have engaged employees, engaged customers and for those in the healthcare industry, engaged patients and engaged providers. While engagement in the business sense is legitimate, its meaning is often vague, as it was in this line from an annual report: Our employees engage with and contribute to their communities. What does engage add that contribute doesn’t cover? If people are active in their communities—which I took it to mean—they’re contributing to them.

Enough said.

And then there was this example, Engaged employees attended the summit. Engaged how? This feels like buzzword-itis, which is what happens when a word gets trendy. Everyone uses it—everywhere!

Last week I heard a landscaper say he was interested in how people would engage with his garden. He could have easily said enjoy, a natural-sounding, happy word that conjures up all sorts of things a person can do in a garden—gather flowers, stroll along tree-lined paths, sit on a bench and contemplate life.

Even get married.