Episode: 577

Episode Title: Engagement Is Ownership

Giving young people ownership is a key strategy to keep them engaged in the task at hand. Here’s why it works, next on The Perna Syndicate.

Ep 577 show:

Welcome to The Perna Syndicate! What’s the best way to get a young child to eat a new food? There’s lots of parenting advice on this topic, but one thread running through it all is the idea of involving the child in the preparation. A child who is actively engaged in the steps of creating the dish will be much more likely to actually eat it when it’s ready. 

Why is this? Well, for one thing, the new food is no longer foreign to them, something presented out of the blue that they’re expected to consume. Instead, they’ve already invested, they know what ingredients were used, and they feel proud that they helped create it. 

And you know what? Gen Z is sometimes no different from a young and picky eater who just needs to be involved. The biggest way to engage them is to give them ownership in the task at hand. 

This simply means giving them choices, to whatever extent is possible in your environment. If they have to complete two tasks, let them pick which one they want to do first. This doesn’t mean they run the show, but you give them a voice and you actually listen when they express a preference. 

Like the child encountering a new food for the first time, we should involve Gen Z in every step that we possibly can. Most times, they’ll get interested, maybe even in spite of themselves. Giving up a little control in favor of them taking ownership is the secret sauce to engage them in trying new things. 

Tomorrow: Brought up on social media, Gen Z craves attention. On the next episode of The Perna Syndicate, we’ll talk about how this trait can serve your engagement strategy. We’ll see you tomorrow!