Blogs: A Very Engaging Read

A number of people have asked me which blogs I read. I read and follow a very eclectic list of over 200 bloggers. I don’t read every post by every author but I check them all and delve into the ones that capture my attention.

If you ever thought blogs were just some type of diary kept by teenagers then I encourage you to see it very differently by visiting some of the blogs I have included on my list.

Click here to visit the list of blogs I read or you can always find a link to the list on my menu bar at the top of this site under the heading: Blog List.

Employee Engagement Network Reaches 100 Members (MMP #45)

The Employee Engagement Monday Morning Percolator #45.

Click here to visit the employee engagement network. In just under 4 weeks we reached 100 members. I strongly encourage you to both visit and join this network. It is for people who focus on employee engagement at work, people who want to enhance their own work, or people who are involved in writing, consutlting or doing other work related to engagement.

We have been very active in 4 weeks with over 25,000 views!

Here is just a sample of 12 of the over 100 members you can interact with:

Tim Wright who was the first member to join after I founded the network and who write a marvelous blog on culture to engage.

Terrence Seamon who is a very active and insightful community member from the American Management Association.

Rosa Say who brings a whole lot of Hawaii into her leadership practice.

Michael Lee Stallard who wrote a wonderful book and knows the importance of connection for engagement.

Michelle Malay Cater who writes with style and substance.

Judy McLeish from Toronto who writes another great blog on engagement.

Kathy Lankford who has made some very insightful comments on the network.

Michael Kanazawa who had a cubicle close to Scott Adams the creator of Dilbert and who works on big ideas to big results.

Scott Herrick who writes about careers in Cube Rules.

Guatam Ghosh who offers frequent contributions and adds a perspective from India.

Patricia Ryan Madson who brings the spirit of improvisation to the site.

Andrew Rondeau who jumped right in and got very involved in our conversations.

Obviously this is just a very partial list and it is the combination of EVERYONE who joined to make this a leading resources for anyone interested in employee engagement.

Photo Credit: The worlds network by http://flickr.com/photos/saschaaa/152502539/

David Zinger, Host – Employee Engagement Network.

Employee Engagement Extra: Making Projects Unique

Welcome to the Employee Engagement Extra.

I encourage you to watch Moshe Safdie talk about what makes a building unique. I encourage you to think through Mr. Safdie’s experience with buildings for the employee engagement you may be working at building in your organization. View the 17 minute video by clicking on the screen below or by clicking here to go to the TED Site.

Mr. Safdie concludes the video with the following poem he wrote:

He who seeks truth shall find beauty
He who seeks beauty shall find vanity

He who seeks order shall find gratification
He who seeks gratification shall be disappointed

He who considers himself a servant of his fellow beings shall find the joy of self expression
He who seeks self expression shall fall into the pit of arrogance

Arrogance is incompatible with nature
Through nature the nature of the universe and the nature of man we shall seek truth
If we seek truth we shall find beauty

~ Moshe Safdie

ZENgagement: The Holographic Organization

Chris Bailey has written an excellent post contrasting a monolithic versus holographic image for organizations.

Rather than viewing an organization as a bland, uniform, static structure, consider the organization as a hologram. Within a holographic image, each section contains a complete image of the original object. So the real beauty of the holographic perspective is acknowledging that the organization is a vibrant collection of all the individuals within it. It recognizes that each individual is fully reflected in the whole. The organization is the individual and the individual is the organization. The interests of each individual and the organization are interconnected and interdependent.This approach offers a more human organization. ~ Chris Bailey

Do you have an expansive enough view to see, “the organization is the individual and the individual is the organization”? I believe this view can move employee engagement as a “get” strategy >>> trying to get employees engaged to a “let” strategy >>> letting employees become fully engaged in the connected organization.

Photo Credit: Caught In The Cube by http://flickr.com/photos/kecko/137369633/

David Zinger

Employee Engagement Network Host

Employee Engagement: A Youth Movement

Carmine Gallo writing in business week outlined five ways to successfully engage with twenty-somethings. I encourage you to read the article outlining 5 keys to engage this age of worker:

1. Don’t manage, mentor
2. Don’t assign, explain
3. Don’t dictate, solicit
4. Don’t ignore, respond
5. Don’t conceal, communicate

Carmine believes effective communication is to respond to Gen Y’s craving for empowerment.

My favorite tip was from Marisa Mayer of Google who brought a university professor practice to business by having posted office hours for her staff.

For 90 minutes each day at 4 p.m., her staff can sign a sheet outside her office for a 15-minute impromptu meeting…although these employees may have spent only a few minutes with Mayer, they leave knowing they have been heard and that their opinions matter.

If you are a leader or a manager in your organization how do you foster employee engagement in younger workers and how available are you to the people you lead or manage?

Photo Credit: 15 minutes … by http://www.flickr.com/photos/kdcyyz/299156833/

David Zinger

Founder of The Employee Engagement Network

Do you need a hand?

Here is a fine visual break from more words on employee engagement:

Daily drawings and paintings in a small sketchbook celebrate and record everyday life in this blog by Elizabeth Perry. In the future there will be an interview with Elizabeth on how she engages with her art and possible implication or applications to work engagement.

Employee Engagement: Go Ahead, Make Their Day (MMP#44)

Employee Engagement: Monday Morning Percolator # 44

An interview with Cindy Ventrice to get your work week percolating with engagement.

It is my pleasure to interview Cindy Ventrice, author of Make Their Day: Employee Recognition That Works. Cindy is from Santa Cruz California and has worked with a wide variety of organizations including Cisco, MIT, WorkSafeBC, and State Farm Insurance. She works to improve engagement through enhanced recognition efforts.

1. Cindy, what do you see as the relationship between recognition and employee engagement? How well is this being done in the current workplace?

First, David, you need to understand that when I talk about recognition, I am not talking about handing out company logo pens or t-shirts. Recognition is a behavior not an award.

With a management style that leaves employees feeling recognized the ties with engagement are extraordinary. With solid recognition practices employees are more productive, produce higher quality products, give better service, create a more safe work environment, and work to engage each other.

2. As you know, I love the title of you book, it has a Clint Eastwood, Make My Day connection for me. Briefly, if we are a manager why do we want to make employee’s days?

If you think about a manager who really made your day, hopefully more than once, you will realize that you would go the extra mile to make that manager look good. It really is a reciprocal relationship.

3. Explain to the readers why you believe employees want to love their job. Isn’t a job just a job?

Study after study shows that while employees talk about the importance of money, they will stick with a job that lets them use their skills and strengths, challenges them to grow, and allows them to help their organization achieve its goals.

4. In the book you talk about the importance of everyday recognition as opposed to giving out T-shirts and having gala once-a-year recognition ceremonies. How do I do this as a manager when I am so busy already.

You are right, everyone is challenged for time. In fact, I have had no luck getting managers to add recognition to their extraordinarily long to do lists. That’s why, a number of years ago, I started telling managers not to put recognition on their to do lists, but instead I ask them to make recognition the header of the list. I want them to look at that list from a new perspective; ask themselves where they can build recognition into what they already have to do. For instance, when they have a project to delegate they can tell each member of the team why they were selected. It might be because of stellar work on a previous project or because it provides an opportunity to build skills that will help them grow. Both offer recognition.

5. We need to identify and acknowledge the people that work with us. You write about the 4 elements of recognition that work. You give us a PORT (Praise Opportunity Respect Thanks) to anchor our recognition efforts. Can you leave the readers with one example of how we can use each of these 4 factors to both recognize employees and enhance employee engagement.

Thanks, or appreciation is pretty self-explanatory. Simply thank people for their efforts. Don’t take them for granted.

In the previous delegation example we have Praise for previous work and Opportunity in the form of a new challenge. Praise acknowledges success and accomplishments. New opportunities demonstrate that the manager really understands what the employee values.

It is important to remember that there is no recognition without the element of respect. I often ask employees to tell me about the most meaningful recognition they have received. One said it was when her manager said she couldn’t take her vacation at the same time he did! How many people would consider that recognition? He had developed such a strong respectful relationship that she interpreted his comments to mean that she was too valuable to be gone at the same time.

Interview by David Zinger