Pizza parties

piece of cake

cookies too

donuts dunked

in copious coffee quaffed

chocolates on desks

stacked in Inukshuk figures

guiding the way to the lunch room

weaving by assorted candies scattered

around the office like seashells at a beach.

The challenge is not

to be fed at work

it is to

prepare

share

and create work

that nourishes

stomach and soul

without heaping on the bonbons.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., works with organizations and individuals foster engagement.  He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2700 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you  1100 free posts/articles on the engagement. David is committed to fostering a movement to increase employee engagement 20% by 2020.

Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  -  Phone 204 254 2130  -  Website: www.davidzinger.com

We need a break

or work gets broken.

Stop the constant work

with a

b

r

e

a

k

today.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., helps organizations and individuals improve engagement.  He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2600 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you  1100 posts/articles on the engagement reaching  over 1,000,000 page views in the first 4 months of 2010.

Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  -  Phone 204 254 2130  -  Website: www.davidzinger.com

If our work was World Cup Football

we would feel the crowds around us

be able to wither in pain when our proposal is rejected

get yellow cards for stealing someone’s lunch out of the fridge

and a red card for stealing someone’s brilliant quality improvement idea.

We would not receive a golden handshake

but someone would get the golden boot.

We could kick up a fuss and run like mad inside the field

as announcers commented on our lack of engagement

while our every move was debated

and instantly displayed on replay monitors around the world.

And we would be given a few extra minutes to work before lunch

or at the end of the day to make up for the time we wasted

pointing fingers of blame and lamenting our fate.

Of course nobody would hear us above the roar of the crowd

or the amplified hive-like buzz of the vuvuzelas.

From a distance you would notice that

most of us would just be watching

while only a few people pitched in.

Of course this is not time for poetry

I must head to the closest television to watch Maradona’s

flamboyant coaching of  Argentina

while I shudder to think of him running naked in Buenos Aires.

Ja Yebo

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., helps organizations and individuals improve engagement.  He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2600 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you  1100 posts/articles on the engagement reaching  over 1,000,000 page views in the first 4 months of 2010.

Contact David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  -  Phone 204 254 2130  -  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Is waiting a room

you sit impatiently in

feeling the weight of the world

holding you back

from what you seek

or is waiting

a space you inhabit

as long as your are there?

What are you waiting for

and where are you

while you wait?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., helps organizations and individuals improve engagement.  He is a writer, educator, speaker, and consultant who founded the 2600 member Employee Engagement Network. David’s website offers you  1100 posts/articles on the engagement reaching  over 1,000,000 page views in the first 4 months of 2010.

Connect with David Zinger today to improve engagement where you work.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  -  Phone 204 254 2130  -  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Courage

at work

is expression

not impression.

Not medals

but meddle

into what

we care about

not exclusively

but inclusively.

Courage is

the heart at work

and hearty work.

Rather than

a course in courage

courage is following our course.

Of course also

making corrections

while remaining true.

We don’t find courage

we express it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. David founded and moderates the 2400+ member Employee Engagement Network. His personal website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and reached over 1,000,000 page views in under 4 months in 2010. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Connect with David Zinger today for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca Phone 204 254 2130 Website: www.davidzinger.com

Nobody talked

As the project tanked.

At least

not

in public.

Heads bowed.

Eyes averted.

A few tongues bitten

to avoid

possible tongue lashing.

There was no conversational alchemy

Only a fool’s gold

of thought transmuted

into working whispers

and empty silence.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2350 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and reached over 1,000,000 page views in under 4 months in 2010. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Imagine getting pulled over at work or coming to your desk and finding a ticket.

What would you be cited for?

Changing lanes without a turn indicator because you can’t be bothered to  let others know when you change.

A speeding ticket for going too quickly on a job.

A parking ticket because you spend your time parked in the lunchroom or on one task.

A stop sign violation because you worked right through your son’s baseball game.

A noise violation for eating carrots too loudly at your desk.

Running a red light because nothing comes between you and your work.

Making an illegal turn for leaving a stalled project requiring work for a  shiny new  project full of promise.

Using the diamond or carpool lane with nobody else in your vehicle because you don’t work well with others.

Driving at night without your headlights because you hate to see where you are going.

Hitting another vehicle because you need to bump coworkers who get  in your way.

…

What’s your ticket?

It is time to pull over, slow down, quiet down, and fill your energy meter.

Stop making stupid violations at work.

Of course you’ll never get a real ticket at work

But you may succeed in ticking many people off at work,

And that’s not the ticket.

by David Zinger

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2300 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons Parking Ticket.

Dwelling above the bottom line

our contributions

our meaning

our routines

our relationships

our passions

our connections

our fears

our hopes

our irritations

our time

our lives.

Business is looking up.

It doesn’t all come down to the bottom line.

—

Flickr Creative Commons: Numbers.

—–

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. He offers exceptional contributions on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2180 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 posts/articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is involved in the application of Enterprise 2.0 approaches to engagement and the precursor, creating engaging approaches to communication, collaboration, and community within Enterprise 2.0.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com

If I was an information architect

I would imitate Gaudi

Expressing Spanish flair fused with Barcelona beat

Into artistic displays of moving information

The information would be beautiful

Creating towering displays of data

That would continue to be built well past my short shelf life.

I would wave information

Transforming data points

Into curved beauty

Abandoning myopic reliance

On straight lines.

I would invite my information patrons

To walk through the data build

Unable to keep their hands off of the implications

While grabbing hold of meaningful measures

Conveyed in waves of inspiring information

but wasn’t there.

Focus blotched

by last night’s

Fear Filled Family Fight.

Invisible scars

deep inside

slicing into her sense of self

she valiantly but vainly

tries to do her job

like she knows she can- – -

But she can’t.

Last night’s cutting words won’t mute.

We cannot see

what isn’t there

But connect the dots

and we are drawn into an invitation

to punctuate the veil of silence

as we realize our co-worker

was diminished

knocked off  balance

by verbal violence flaring behind closed doors.

This is not the time to tuck our head

deep down into our cubicle shell.

…..

Lacuna n. pl. la·cu·nae (-n ). 1. An empty space or a missing part; a gap.

—–

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement expert. He offers exceptional education and consulting on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2025 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com.

Employee engagement is not a soft skill.

And it is not a matter of pure will.

You don’t go to a training room to learn engagement.

Training is for dogs – education is for people.

We can certainly go to a classroom to learn about engagement

But we must show class by demonstrating that education

is as much about what you give as what you get

and that a learning community resides within the group

and we need to bring learning out while creating community

Don’t just put more stuff in with participants who are already loaded to the max with too much to do and too little time to do it and going to a course just seems to be putting them further behind and they shudder at the possible imposition embedded in training to do a whole bunch more stuff when they leave the session with time and energy they do not have.

Education and engagement must be invitations not impositions.

Engagement is no more a  soft skill than accounting is a hard skill.

Engagement is a fluid approach embracing skills  in relationship to

our work, each other, our organization and our customers.

And this fluidity is what keeps the fixed skills from seizing up.

Lets melt our rigid concepts of hard and soft skills training

into fluid and fixed learning and actions that achieve results that matter to all.

We must say no to something else while maintaining laser-like focus on performing

the smallest thing we can that is most significant in creating and sustaining engagement.

—–

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement expert. He offers exceptional education and consulting on employee engagement for leaders, managers, and employees. David founded and moderates the 2025 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com.

Frigid January in Warsaw

walking down windy frozen streets

in the city leveled

to ruin and rubble (1945).

Chopin pieces play from

push button street benches

giving note to his 200th birthday.

As the frozen mermaid stands guard

singing a song of resilient rejuvenation.

Walking in Warsaw

I realize

we can rebuild,

we can always rebuild.

There is no quit in Warsaw

Warszawa – Dziękuję bardzo .

Work has a different pace

than a 2 minute downhill Olympic ski race.

Relax into your daily performance

and you will sustain work for an entire career

while constant and never ending improvement

has you chasing pots of gold

at the end of rainbows.

If you give 110% you are giving more than you’ve got.

If you go the extra mile you will pass your destination.

And even if you go the extra yard you will end up out of bounds.

Burning the midnight oil is too much focus on toil

without a restful lack of focus, called sleep.

Good is good enough

without having to go to great

and you don’t have to burn out to avoid fading away.

Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are

for exquisite employee engagement

preventing you from missing

your four year old daughter’s surprise birthday party.

Rat races are only for rats

and work does not have to be a myopic focus on going downhill fast.

Perhaps stronger is lower and slower not

Citius Altius Fortius

…

Photo Credit: Creative commons ski photo from Flickr.

Command and control
lose their seat
to conversation and collaboration.

Organizations humanize into communities
while impositions
quiet respectfully into invitations.

Hierarchy is redrawn on the napkin
into a matrix.

Leadership levels
while mastering management
means
shifts happen.

Our white space decade ahead
invites us to get morph from management
than we ever imagined.

…

Photo Credit: Chair Series; Red on Flickr

Organizational ladders

suddenly morph

into snakes

as we slide down the board.

Career held together

by random roles and rolls of dice.

Latest roll:  snake eyes.

Move two to the right

land on ladder and

climb organization 8 spots.

Ready to roll again

yet feeling so boxed in

this is not

paradise.

Photo Credit from Flickr: Games7

Is there a torch within your workplace

lit with the flame that burns within

while also being passed along?

We need  Prometheus like people  at work

with the courage to steal fire from Zeus

and champion human kindness.

Catch a flame and pass it on

swifter  higher  stronger.

As you carry the torch the torch will carry you.

Flickr Creative Commons Photo Credit: Two Roads Diverge.

Let me tell you a tale

about the disengaged.

A tell tale sign is

you are told not asked,

you are fringed not foreground,

work is an energy drain,

not an energy gain,

you would rather be anywhere else,

yet you seem stuck in place.

And you have to stay

because of

the pension

the economy

the fear

the benefits

or just the plain inertia of it all.

It is time to tell a different tale

where you are connected

in the foreground

gaining energy

and making contributions.

If that tale cannot be told

get your tail out of there

you only have so many days to work

and when you work in the those days

and those days work for you

it makes all difference.

…

by David Zinger

We need more music

in our workplaces.

Not insipid elevator tunes,

ear bud iTunes isolation,

or another recruiting video in the form of a lip sync office dance party.

Rather, music that joins and moves us.

Don’t

blow your own horn,

trumpet out a new program,

or drum something into us.

Teach us to hear and make the music

that resides within us, between us,

and from the results of our efforts.

Let’s orchestrate a

co-created symphony of heartfelt work.

with  Zander-like shining eyes,

goose bumps on our arms,

and notable work taking us from wire to wire.

Flickr Photo Credit:  Make Room For A Little one!

How do we manage change

while barely changing ourselves?

We are caught in no man’s land

charging out of trenches

to who knows where and

we can’t go back.

Yet we are not moving forward.

We keep our heads down as

barrages of tips and advice on

critical success variables

innovative strategic planning

killer app tactics

process improvements

lean approaches

and mutating technology

explode over our heads

while 3 more  screens scream,

“LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME.”

Face down in the mud

We hear the management consultants bellow out

the latest 55 rules of success and the

200 competencies we need to achieve them.

Or they send us anemic marching orders

dressed up as a large font 100 page parable book

about moving cheese or learning 5 secrets.

Perhaps it is time to just stop in the muck

See where we are and if we really need to

storm the next trench.

Let’s look ahead and look carefully at what we leave behind

before we race head long into a Passchendaele parade.

Work flows like a raging river

washing over sandbags of effort

all sense of calmness washed away

and “where the hell is that file?”

Our stress management skills

no longer hold back the flood of

demands, threats, conflicts and hassles.

Even a broken paper clip can snap us into stress.

We are mired knee deep in irritation

as our heels sink into the mud and the shine leave our shoes.

We grab a late latte lunch

to make it past 2:30 without dozing at our desk.

We must craft a raft.

A raft of resilience fused with equal parts of

calming breaths, realistic expectations, and human kindness.

Using NO as our rudder to steer away from

turbulent waves of relentless work.

When the water recedes,

will the cherry blossom bloom?

by David Zinger

Photo Credit Flickr Creative Commons: Chrysler Building in Cherry Blossom