Employee passion - is it being directed toward work?

On Sunday I had the pleasure of attending a multi-cultural choral performance featuring choirs from the Italian, Chinese and Jewish communities here in Vancouver. The finale involved all 160 voices singing songs from the three traditions.

It was a remarkable performance – and of a quality that one would expect from internationally acclaimed groups. And yet it was put together and performed by volunteers, ordinary folk; possibly the man or woman in the cubicle next door to yours. These people gave up their free time to give something astonishing back to their communities. Sometimes the effort was considerable - I know because my husband was one of the organizers.

I can’t help but wonder if the organizations these people work for understand the fabulous talent they employ – and I’m not talking about the ability to sing. What if these people gave just some of the passion they put into their singing, to their work?

It’s a question I can’t fully answer. But given what I saw over the weekend it would seem that a little bit of effort on the part of organizations to involve and enthuse employees would probably be more then worth its weight in gold. Performance improvement is in our people!