I like to frame employee retention as tent stakes. When pitching a tent, one hammers tent stakes into the ground to keep the tent from blowing away in a brisk gust of wind. Similarly, in one’s employment, there are specific reasons, articulated or not, why someone sticks with a company.

When reorgs, strategy shifts, and market downturns start ripping up some of the tent stakes, as long as someone has enough remaining in the ground, the tent doesn’t blow away.

Common tent stakes include I like my manager! I like my role! I like my project! I like my teammates! I like the technologies/tools I’m using! I like how much I’m learning! I like the company’s future financial prospects! I like my salary!

The most durable tent stakes are those that are least likely to change – I like the company’s mission! I like the company’s values! I like the CEO! These may not be sufficient on their own to keep someone around, but the employees that have them as tent stakes often have a positive viral effect on the rest of the team.

Understanding your employees’ motivations enables effective change management, and it starts at the recruiting process. Hiring people motivated by the most durable tent stakes and not hiring those who seem overindexed on variables that are the most likely to change allows you to shape your team to one that will stick around through thick and thin.

I’ve also found that the tent stake analogy also applies to personal resilience and mental health. Life’s tent stakes – where one finds satisfaction and self worth – include work, family, hobbies, friends, health, religion, community, possessions, personal achievements, etc. Nothing goes well all the time, and the more places one finds satisfaction, the more places one might seek comfort while hammering a tent stake back down.

But if your life is defined by work and you don’t get that job offer or promotion, or your personal happiness depends on playing sports and you break your arm, your tent may be at risk of blowing off the ridge. Having the time and means to explore in a variety of passions and tent stakes is a luxury, but if you’re fortunate to have that opportunity, taking it can increase your likelihood for sustained satisfaction and happiness.

And according to a song I learned growing up of which I can’t find a trace on the internet, “what’s life? life is a big stack of pancakes.” Probably because “what’s life? life is sustained satisfaction and happiness” doesn’t have the same ring to it.