Engage with David Zinger

When work gets broken…

There are at least twenty-three possible symptoms when we fail to build a pyramid of engagement within our organization. 1.     There is a lack of clarity of results or even a lack of results2.     Too many results are attempted without enough capacity3.     Results are clear but lack any meaning or significance for employees4.     Performance is reduced to a management system rather than the daily lifeblood of work5.     There is a failure to hold engaging conversations when performance fails to meet expectations6.     The connections between performance and results are weak or nonexistent7.     There are too many people and structural barriers to progress8.     Setbacks trump progress and managers fail to maximize the benefits of progress to engage knowledge workers9.     Collaboration tends to result in setbacks and disengaging interactions10. Relationships are sacrificed in the name of results11. Relationships are viewed as mushy unimportant stuff or depersonalized as human capital12. Social media within the organization fails to align with engagement and employees’ participation in social media is an

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Hey Shrink #5: Safety Extinguishes Anxiety

“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” — Swedish proverb Welcome to the fifth issue of Hey Shrink. The first series of issues of this new newsletter is devoted to understanding, reducing, managing, and transforming anxiety. “Safety IS the treatment. — Stephen Porges Sit in safety. Dr. David Martin, a psychologist who taught and wrote about counselling at the University of Manitoba was instrumental in teaching me how psychological safety extinguishes fear. His teaching was in regards to a counselling relationship where the safety created by the counsellor allowed the client to look at, and deal with, many fearful experiences and thoughts. As the client “sat in safety” talking about their anxious thoughts and feelings they experienced the anxiety extinguishing because of the power of psychological safety. Caring is the key to safety. I taught about 100 Crucial Conversation and Crucial Confrontations courses. The more I taught these helpful and insightful courses, the less

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Hey Shrink #4: Does Anxiety Have Your Number?

“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” — Arthur Somers Roche Welcome to the fourth issue of ‘Hey Shrink.’ This first series of 6 to 8 issues of this newsletter is devoted to understanding, reducing, managing, and transforming anxiety. “I love you like a river that understands that it must learn to flow differently over waterfalls and to rest in the shallows.”  – Paulo Coelho Anxiety like water. Imagine you are standing in water. My question for you is, how deep was the water? Was it 6 feet deep or just a few inches? (If imaging standing in water or being in water makes you anxious, remember, not to do the exercise as you don’t want to do things in the name of anxiety reduction that create more anxiety for yourself). Standing in anxiety. Now, imagine

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Hey Shrink #3: Extinguish Anxiety with Oxygen

Issue #3 of Hey Shrink: Breathing into Anxiety “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” ― Amit Ray Welcome to the third issue of ‘Hey Shrink.’ The first series of posts for this newsletter is devoted to understanding, reducing, managing, and transforming anxiety. Takeaway. Don’t let anxiety take your breath away. Anxiety Defined. If you joined us late I am using the Cambridge dictionary definition of anxiety: the uncomfortable feeling of nervousness or worry about something that is happening or might happen in the future. Perls of Wisdom. Fritz Perls, the mover and shaker of Gestalt Therapy said, “fear is excitement without oxygen.” We can’t live without oxygen. We may also live less anxiously if we breathe into anxiety. As an aside, Perls encouraged us “to lose our minds and come to our senses” (something I encourage you not to think about too much).

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Hey Shrink #2: Making Room for Anxiety

Welcome to the second issue of Hey Shrink: Psychological Zingers for Better Living, Working and Wellbeing. This issue continues with anxiety and focuses on expanding awareness of both the consequences and possible benefits of anxiety to provide you with a roomier view of anxiety because sometimes rather than fighting anxiety it can be helpful to “sit with it” for a while. You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. ~ Franz Kafka Visit the two rooms of anxiety. I invite you to imagine that your anxiety resides in two rooms. Imagine yourself taking a seat in each room and considering a different facet of anxiety in each room. Of

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Hey Shrink #1 – Lower Anxiety: Stop Taking Mental Selfies

Hey Shrink #1 – Lower Anxiety: Stop Taking Mental Selfies In 2017, according to the World Health Organization, over 264 million adults experienced anxiety. With COVID and the disconcerting levels of uncertainty over the last 5 years that number today is much higher. The Cambridge dictionary defines anxiety as the uncomfortable feeling of nervousness or worry about something that is happening or might happen in the future. My daughter, a school psychologist was asked to do a presentation on anxiety for the teachers and staff of a school. I taught Educational and Counselling Psychology at the University of Manitoba for 25 years so Katharine asked if we could briefly talk about her presentation. While doing this, I realized how much I missed working in psychology — you can take David out of psychology but you can’t take psychology out of David. So here is the premier newsletter on Hey Shrink: Psychological Zingers for

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Snow Falling Up

During a brief spring snowfall yesterday I paused to watch the snow fall. As the snow made its way to the ground I saw how much of the snow was falling upwards, at least temporarily, on its journey to the ground. Many of us have felt like we are falling over the past few years with COVID, changes in where and how we work, isolation, mental wellbeing challenges, burnout, uncertainty, the war in the Ukraine, and so much more. To fall upwards we must take ourselves lightly. As snow rides the currents of the wind we too can ride the currents of this decade. I am not asking you to be a positive thinker — I am inviting you to take yourself lightly and fully experience the lighter moments in a career journey that inevitably includes falling. We may be more like snowflakes than angels but I trust you can

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The Simple and Gentle Path to Building Psychological Safety at Work

I first encountered the phrase psychological safety thirty-two years ago in William Kahn’s brilliant article on ‘The Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement.’ I loved the focus on safety but I believe over three decades it has become jargon and management speak which also happened when we went from the term personal engagement to employee engagement. Once something like psychological safety gets in the hands of experts, authors, consultants, trainers, and coaches it tends to become more complex, convoluted, and requires a twenty-two point action plan, and of course mandatory training for all managers with a one hundred page binder explaining psychological safety. The gentle and beautiful monk Thich Nhat Hanh encouraged us to be more simple in our ways of living and working by focusing on such basics as breathing and smiling. If you need some authentic and real perspective and guidance on psychological safety take the handoff from William

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An Interview with David Zinger on Employee Engagement

Patrick: When I was getting my pilot’s license, my flight instructor told me that there would be few pilots in the world that would be able to achieve 20,000 hours of pilot in command time. The idea of doing anything for 20,000 hours seemed daunting to me, and I remember thinking, “Wow, you really need to love what you’re doing to do it for that amount of time.” Well, my guest today clearly loves the world of employee engagement as he has been a practitioner in the engagement space for over 45 years. That’s more than 24,000 hours of experience. David Zinger has accomplished and experienced so much from teaching educational and counseling psychology at the University of Manitoba for over 20 years to working with hundreds of organizations on their employee experience journey and even authoring four books including Zengage, How to Get More Into Your Work to Get More

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