Cultivating an Engaged Attitude

How do teams build real momentum and commitment together? 

Discover how small shifts - like rotating leadership and showing authentic presence - can spark engagement and creativity in group projects.

In this episode of the Practicing Connection podcast, Coral and Jessica take a real-life approach to cultivating an engaged attitude - essential for building commitment and making group projects thrive. 

They explore the power of rotating ownership in meetings, why engagement ebbs and flows for everyone, and how showing up - whether as a leader or a supporter - fuels stronger teams. 

Jessica shares practical strategies to move beyond autopilot, including rotating facilitation, intentional participation, and appreciation. 

Together, they reveal how engagement is built day by day, with honest effort, small shifts, and shared leadership.

Further links and resources from this episode:

• Join our LinkedIn group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12879756/ 
• Send us a message: practicingconnection@oneop.org 

Transcript

CORAL OWEN: [00:00:00] Hey there. Welcome to the Practicing Connection Podcast. I'm Coral. Today we'll be talking about cultivating an engaged attitude. It's a key to building commitment and advancing group projects, and Jessica is going to be sharing a practice with us.

Jessica, how's your week going?

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Hey Coral. I'm doing pretty well this week. You know, as I started to think about this topic, I realized that most of the time I stay on track and maintain good momentum. Kind of chugging along. 

But like anyone, there are times when I just don't feel as engaged, or I get distracted or I notice that I am participating mostly because it's what's expected in that moment.

I have a feeling that those moments happen for a lot of people, maybe everyone. And it's just kind of part of the normal rhythm of work. But I've been thinking about it quite a lot this week as I've been preparing for this.

CORAL OWEN: I really, as always, appreciate you [00:01:00] sharing that. I think everyone cycles between, you know, various levels of focus and autopilot, and it actually really makes me appreciate those moments when something shifts, either for myself or someone else, and suddenly we're all a little bit more invested again.

Right? So maybe this is actually kind of one of the more honest ways to begin this conversation about engaged attitudes today.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: By not claiming that we're engaged all the time.

CORAL OWEN: All the time.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: No. Exactly. I think that part of cultivating an engaged attitude means noticing those moments and kind of getting a little curious about what helps us reconnect, or even just admitting that, “Today I'm here because I should be,” which I know we just talked about this, right.

Don't do things just because you should. But just showing up is okay sometimes, especially if you notice that like, “You know what, today I'm just showing up.” So sometimes starting there is the most authentic choice we can make.

CORAL OWEN: Absolutely. And as [00:02:00] always, we do love to extend the invite to you all our listeners to let us know what's inspiring you. So you can always drop us a note via email at Practicing connection@oneop.org, we do see and respond to every message, and we can't wait to hear from you this week. 

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All right. That honesty gives us such a great starting point for today's conversation. Jess, let's learn a little bit more about cultivating an engaged attitude, and can you tell us a little bit more about the practice you're gonna be sharing today, and why you chose it specifically?

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, of course. I really wanted to focus on rotating ownership today. Rotating roles more specifically in meetings rather than just kind of asking everyone to be engaged, and giving tips on how to do that. Although I do have a few tips on that because I've noticed that when the groups I've worked with switch up who takes the lead, so whether that's running a meeting, guiding a [00:03:00] discussion, sharing observations and feedback, running different parts of a project, it's a really small but powerful way to get everyone involved at different times. 

And so teams with shared leadership roles can see more commitment and more creativity and stronger group bonds because the work isn't just falling on a few people.

You know, it kind of gives each person a real stake in the group's progress. And as I've noticed myself sometimes, stepping up or supporting someone else as they step up, which I think is really important sometimes ,ust stepping up or supporting someone is exactly what helps you move out of autopilot and kind of back into engagement.

And like we talked about in the opening, there are days when you're not leading and it would be easy to tune out. But in those moments, engagement might mean, well, it might mean showing up, right? We have those days, but it might mean also [00:04:00] paying closer attention. Asking a question, giving genuine shout out to someone who's trying something new, or just supporting the person taking on a leadership role by trusting their process and participating fully in it.

So rotating ownership I think can help everyone reconnect, whether you're upfront or in a support role.

CORAL OWEN: I love this idea of this practice. So how to actually go about it. Jess, could you walk us through how a team might try this?

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, absolutely. So, this is two steps with a third optional step. The first step is to actually rotate leadership. So you could rotate leadership for parts of a project, for meetings, or even for individual meeting agenda items or roles. But let's focus on a standing meeting. The easiest way to do this is to set up a schedule and rotate the meeting facilitation, even if it's just for a 15 minute standing meeting.

The meeting facilitator's job is going to be to ensure [00:05:00] that you connect to the meeting's purpose and guide the agenda. Basically, the meeting facilitator would engage fully with the why and the how of the meeting. Even if all you do is rotate who the meeting facilitator is for your meetings, it has the potential of having really big benefits.

And a couple of tips: if it's your turn to be the leader, you might consider preparing a discussion point, a reflection prompt, or just simply checking in with the group on something meaningful. Or, you might consider asking for feedback. Inviting the quiet voices, right? That's a tip for facilitation.

If there's always one or two people who are speaking up, make sure those who aren't speaking up as much have some space too, and make sure to model openness so you could ask others and you could share yourself. “What are your hopes about this project?’ Or, “What could make our work together smoother?”

Okay. Step one is really just the rotating leadership. Step two,. [00:06:00] if it's not your turn to be the leader, you're going to practice presence. If you aren't leading or facilitating, you still have ownership over your presence. Again, sometimes we recognize sometimes just showing up is all you can give that day.

But most of the time you're going to be able to challenge yourself to bring two unique things. First, maybe a question or reflection. So this means asking an honest question, sharing maybe a brief observation or appreciation presenting a creative solution or voicing a hope for the team's process, even if it's really tiny.

And then the second thing that you could challenge yourself to bring is genuine appreciation, right? So this means that you could actively watch and listen for opportunities to celebrate wins, or share appreciation for something a team member did or said during the meeting or in their recent work.

And if you're stuck on that, if you're like, “I didn't hear anything,” you could start by [00:07:00] acknowledging the person leading, right? So, “Thanks for guiding us through this,” or, you know, “I like the angle that you're bringing,” or, “I enjoyed the way you facilitated the reflection.” Whatever that is, that's where you could start.

So, challenge yourself to either ask a question or a reflection, and share a genuine appreciation, or do both of those things for a bonus. So this step is really about pushing yourself gently to kind of move from passive to present. Sometimes all it takes is a thoughtful comment or a gesture of support to be engaged, and what those two things are doing, the rotating of the facilitation role in a meeting and the others who are not facilitating or leading the meeting making a point to be engaged in one of those two ways. It's really helping to build a culture, a team, or a group culture that is engaged.

Okay, step three is the optional step. I think it could be really powerful [00:08:00] if you choose to do this, but I know that not all teams like this would not be something that you would have the time to do always. But if you can do it, I think it would be awesome. 

So at the end of the meeting, take a moment or think through this yourself. How did it feel to lead or to intentionally support the leader? You guys can discuss this, or you could just think about that. “So how did it feel to lead or to intentionally support the leader?” Did rotating roles nudge you out of autopilot even briefly, and maybe what new perspectives or creative ideas surface? Did anyone seem more present? 

It's okay if engagement doesn't look or feel dramatic, just being a little more present, a little more open can bring momentum over time.

CORAL OWEN: I just love this, Jess, and it really is so flexible depending on what sort of structure and culture your team has. [00:09:00] There's something that I think every person can take away from this. And it also reminds me of what you shared at the top of today's episode about sometimes just chugging along until you're pulled into action.

The rotating roles and even just the act of noticing and participation. It just means everyone has moments to be seen. Step up, even if it looks different each time.

JESSICA BECKENDORF: Yeah, and you know, because it looks a little different every time, some really rich discussions and ideas can come out of it that maybe wouldn't have happened otherwise.

CORAL OWEN: 100%. So first off, I do want to say just thank you so much for sharing today's practice, and we want to thank all our listeners for joining us for today's episode as well. If you did enjoy today's episode, click the share button in your podcast app to share it with a friend or a colleague.

Be sure to tune back in next week. We'll have a new episode and a new practice for you. And until then, you know what it is - keep practicing.

[00:10:00]

CREDITS: The Practicing Connection Podcast is a production of OneOp and is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, US Department of Defense under award number 2 0 2 3 4 8 7 74 3 3.