Happy New Year 2010!

1,850,000. Thank you to everyone who has spent time this year reading some of the posts, poems, prose, links, and cartoon in 2009 at www.davidzinger.com. There were 8,400 RSS subscribers,  1,850,000 page views,  and 3,150,000 hits in 2009.

Have a wonderful holiday season and all the best as we approach 2010.

Watch for even more in 2010!

David Zinger

Warning: This inspiring video will make you think socially.

Take 9 minutes to watch this wonderful, practical, and heartfelt video on social entrepreneurship.  It begins with Muhammad Yunus (a man who never seems to stop smiling) and his use of $27 to bring 42 people out of poverty. Thus began micro credit or micro finance.  The video goes on to offer a variety of moving examples of  social entrepreneurs.

Now that’s capitalism with a capital C for Compassion. This is the spirit I would like to see us bring to employee engagement for 2010.

If the video fails to open in this window, click here.

The giving organization

Miikka Leinonen wrote a wonderful little book on the Strategy of Giving. Staying true to his giving focus, you can get a free copy by clicking here.

I encourage you to look at this book and let me know what you think about Leinonen focus and approach about how giving makes good business. This book predates Chris Anderson’s, Free: The Future of a Radical Price.

Miikka presents very interesting principles, cases, and tools. For example his 6 principles include:

1. Giving creates action
2. Giving is always a selfish act
3. Don’t discriminate
4. Letting the joy of giving shine thru!
5. Find balance
6. Be prepared to receive

Here are my two questions for you:

1. What do you think about this approach?
2. Do you employ the strategy of giving?

Learning from Mike Klein.

Mike Klein is an original think around employee engagement. He joined the Employee Engagement Network recently and I asked him about his nonlinear view of employee engagement and employee engagement seen as a moral virtue. He wrote a comment on my network page that really got me thinking:

Engagement is non-linear: The short answer to my non-linear view of engagement: I think the idea of the path between employee hostility and helpfulness as a straight line called “engagement” is total rubbish. Rather, I see “engagement” as a willingness to connect through some sort of relationship, which can either be hostile or helpful, passive or active, possessive or bereft of long-term commitment, and solitary or collective.

As for my background–while I have more than 10 years of internal communication experience, mainly in Europe, I managed political campaigns in the US for 10 years as well, where I saw other patterns and models of engagement emerge around candidates and issues. That background gives me some perspective around the whole “engagement as moral virtue” piece–for it is impossible for anyone actively in a relationship to be disengaged, whether they are hostile, helpful or hopeless. Ultimately, I think this issue has been horribly mispositioned in the communications and management press, and that professionals need access to new models and vocabularies that don’t treat engagement solely as an employee issue, and solely as a matter of right and wrong.

This whetted my appetite to learn more from Mike about employee engagement or engagement and I received his approval to reprint the blog post below. I have made a few slight changes to make it easier to follow but the post is directly from Mike.  This is not a short blog read but I believe your will gain much if you focus on the engaging metaphors that Mike presents.

An Alternative View of Engagement: Rifle, Mat, Gearshift, Ring

(Original article was published here)

Part of the problem with the whole discussion of “Engagement” is the lack of a consistent definition and approach. But there are some common assumptions inherent in much of what’s being said about “Engagement” including:

• Engagement is about improving morale, commitment, and employee productivity
• Engagement is linear, starting at a point of “zero” or “disengaged”, and moving progressively upward
• Engagement is about employees, period.
• Engagement is the state that all companies should pursue for all employees. Companies that reject this view are bad, wrong and unenlightened.
• Engagement can be successfully delivered hierarchically through top-down-one-size-fits-all approaches, and that’s the only fair way to do it because it’s wrong to treat employees differently.

Dueling Definitions

The above approach to “Engagement” is consistent with a number of popular definitions. The best example is the definition offered by the “Corporate Leadership Council” as: “the extent to which an associate commits to something or someone in their organization.”

But Webster’s offers a much more robust definition than do the fine folks at the Corporate Leadership Council:

• to pledge oneself : PROMISE  : GUARANTEE
• to begin and carry on an enterprise or activity b : to take part : PARTICIPATE c : to give attention to something : DEAL
• to enter into conflict or battle
• to come together and interlock (as of machinery parts) : be or become in gear

Building from Webster’s definition, an alternative view of engagement falls out: There is no such thing as “disengagement” as long as an individual has any contact with an organization. Engagement is neither a virtue nor a vice—merely a characterization of the nature and intensity of one’s relationship with an organization

Four distinct forms of engagement emerge:

• The engagement of the “rifle”—battle: active opposition
• The engagement of the “mat”—wrestling: active disagreement, but within a productive context
• The engagement of the “gearshift”-mechanical: productivity without resistance
• The engagement of the “ring”-mutual, heartfelt, emotional commitment

The Engagement of the Rifle

Current models of “Engagement” may consider active hostility, opposition or sabotage indicative of “disengaged” employees (or for that matter, “disengaged” managers or corporate alumni). But being willing to behave disruptively or attempt to damage the organization or its reputation cannot by any rational definition be seen as “disengagement”. These people are highly engaged. They care about the organization, and they are determined to pay it back for any real or imagined slights.

The implications of having a section of staff reflecting an “engagement of the rifle” can be profound—they can undermine the enthusiasm of fellow staff members, they can make claims about product and service quality on internet bulletin boards—and, in company towns, can spread rumors that can undermine the stability of the company-community relationship. Even those employees who may seem “apathetic” may go home and moan to their spouses, who then do the rumor-spreading for them.

What’s important about looking at the “engagement of the rifle” is not simply that people so engaged are aggressive and hostile. Instead, it demonstrates a level and intensity of engagement that can potentially be channeled and harnessed in a more appropriate direction. For many organizations—finding a way to identify, address, and channel “rifle-engagement” more productively may be the first kind of engagement effort they need.

The Engagement of the Mat

Some may see a wrestling match as a kind of battle akin to that fought with rifles. But there are two major differences—wrestling is physically intense but not lethal, and wrestling is a form of physical engagement that takes place within the context of established boundaries and rules.

Disagreements within organizations can bring friction, discord and disruption to boardrooms, conference rooms, offices and laboratories. But many of those disagreements yield or prompt the innovations, realizations and realignments that make organizations more responsive to customers, more efficient to operate, and more honest places in which to work. Is a manager who is upset about the outcome of a decision unhappy? Sure. But is an unhappy manager who is forming a coalition to seek the reevaluation of an adverse decision “disengaged”? Absolutely not! She is deeply engaged—and she and her coalition are taking their collective engagement to the mat.

Many organizations want their people to be engaged on the mat. They are seeking new opportunities, to achieve ambitious targets with fewer resources, and desperately require internal challenge, and often bring in external support for framing those challenges. Does anyone pay Booz Allen or Accenture to come into an organization and sing “Don’t Worry, Be Happy?” For some organizations, the engagement approach they may first need involves creating, licensing and incentivizing staff to challenge the way they work and the way the organization meets challenges.

The Engagement of the Gearshift

For many people, work is about going to the plant or the office, doing everything that comes across the desk in a way that meets with their supervisor’s consent, and going home and getting on with the rest of their lives. Some may complain that this is a “disengaged” way to work, but examined closely, it’s a mechanical form of engagement—the person comes into the process, does his/bit, and exits the process at the end of the day.

This kind of engagement and the organizations that foster it are heavily criticized by those who see “Engagement” as a kind of moral imperative that must be brought by force to all organizations.

But the “engagement of the gearshift” persists for a number of reasons which are hardly immoral on their face. Some employees do not want jobs or positions that interfere with their non-work lives—they want to go to work, do their jobs, and go home, and have the mind space to worry about their children, churches, crafts or communities.

To be fair, the “engagement of the gearshift” is something that has been the design of companies, and it has manifested itself in many ways. Companies close factories in the West and outsource to contract manufacturers in China. They close call centers in Manchester and replace them with call centers in Mumbai. They hire contractors and consultants to perform short term assignments. With continuing pressure on profits and resources, companies—particularly those who compete on price–will relentlessly continue to pursue the mechanical and flexible form of engagement that the “gearshift” offers.

This is not to say that the “engagement of the gearshift” must be purely one way and transactional. Effective engagement within such organizations can be built out of an honest understanding of organizational, employee and manager ambitions, and by identifying opportunities where participation can strengthen the organization’s commercial offerings or production processes. (Jim Shaffer’s “The Leadership Solution” provides some excellent examples).

The Engagement of the Ring

With apologies to JRR Tolkien, we now come to “the Engagement of The Ring”—the level of exceptional emotional commitment, supernormal productivity, and unbounded corporate enthusiasm many who speak of “Engagement” actively seek.

Indeed, if and when they reach that point, they offer the organization their “ring”—their willingness to “honor, love, and obey”.

In seeking the “engagement rings” of their staffs, however, are organizations willing to wear those rings forever? Indeed, are organizations willing to offer anything at all?

The Corporate Leadership Board’s definition of engagement: “the extent to which an associate commits to something or someone in their organization”, is particularly classic in that it spells out no role or responsibility on the organization’s part in the engagement equation.

Indeed, it is fair to ask whether organizations should want to seek or take the “engagement rings” of its employees. If “Engagement” is a state of mutual happiness in an organization, will it create cultures that stifle dissent, innovation and change? If it is about “extraordinary mutual commitment” and there are deep senses of obligation on both sides, can such an organization withstand competition from companies whose approaches are honest but far more flexible?

Most importantly–if companies who have sought the “engagement of the ring” then decide to seek more flexibility and fewer obligations, will the ensuing sense of betrayal result in the “engagement of the rifle”?

I do see companies for whom “the engagement of the ring” makes sense—companies where personal involvement in the product or the process of delivering it makes it a unique, premium offering. Effectively achieving “engagement of the ring” needs to balance the exceptional things the organization is willing to offer with the exceptional commitment sought from its managers and staff.

In Closing

The “Four Forms Of Engagement” is but a starting point—a first salvo in the effort to inject a new and strategic perspective in the industry’s discussion of engagement, and its effort to formulate approaches that meet client needs and respect the level of participation of all involved.

It does represent a full frontal assault, however, on the idea that “Engagement” is some kind of a one-size-fits-all solution, or a normative result that all responsible organizations “must achieve”.

For we internal communicators didn’t invent engagement, we are not introducing it to anyone, nor are we responsible for its success. Engagement exists in some form among all employees, managers, suppliers and customers of all organizations. The value we can add is by channeling it: effectively, honestly and responsibly.

Thank you Mike for offering this very thoughtful and though-provoking perspective. If you would like to learn more about Mike Klein or more from Mike Klein, click here.

According to the Business Insider, Management consulting services should be a boom industry this decade.  The percentage growth predicted is 82.8% from 2008 to 2018.

Take a look at this screen shot from the article:

Here are 3 tidbit that accompanies the article:

• Number employed in consulting services in 2008: 1,009,000
• Number employed in consulting services in 2018 (est.): 1,844,000
• Percentage growth: 82.8%

According to business insider this will occur because: A generation of highly educated but non-productive workers will swell the ranks of managers and consultants.

Yikes. If this is true, are we ready and how do we help this generation generate sound and effective management for employee engagement?

Arbeit macht frei. This phrase from German means “work brings freedom” or “work shall set you free” or “work liberates.”  I think in authentic employee engagement this may be a valid expression but in the context of WWII is was a sinister message that was being communicated at the entrance to Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

Picture form Wikipedia Creative Commons.

Stolen. And now, the original sign was stolen from Auschwitz on December 18. A replacement sign has already been put into place but there is a massive search for the original sign.

History. The sign bearing the German words “Arbeit Macht Frei” – “work makes you free” – spanned the main entrance to a number of concentration camps including, Auschwitz death camp, where more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed during the Second World War. The grim Nazi slogan was so counter to the actual function of the camp that it has been etched into history:

“The fact is that the ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ sign has become the defining symbol of the Holocaust, because everyone knew that this was not a place where work makes you free, but it was the place where millions of men, women, and children were brought for one purpose only – to be murdered,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the centre’s founder and dean.

Canada’s Globe and Mail wrote that Poland has made the hunt for these thieves a national priority.

Never again. I hope the sign is found and brought back to Auschwitz. I also hope messages like this about the potential of work are never cruelly twisted in such a sinister, mocking, and appalling way again.

Sunday reading

From the Strengths Engagement Track to Art of the Binder Clip. Enjoy.

1. Wonderful White Paper (PDF) by Marcus Buckingham on Strengths Engagement Track. http://bit.ly/7lKrmG

2. Employee engagement, business intelligence and Sunday morning football.Well said by Chris Sands. http://bit.ly/6ypa5z

3. 5 ways to make a great second impression by Tim Sanders. http://bit.ly/5s9Fxt

4. Martial Virtues (Intriguing book review on Positive Psychology News). http://bit.ly/6mPNwy

5. Very funny. Sarchasm to Ignoranus. The Best New Altered Words By Dick Richards http://bit.ly/4xJfFX

6. Bob Sutton on the Heath’s cover for SWITCH. http://bit.ly/6aG41g

7. Bing on Business: We are never tired. We are always tired. And if we stop moving forward, we sink like sharks. http://bit.ly/5tWlOn

8. Career Lost? Best MAP maker around is Curt Rosengren. Get directions here: http://bit.ly/69pqLr

9. GET THE STORY. Craft a Narrative to Instill Optimism By John Baldoni http://bit.ly/4xiytc

10. Take flight with relationship and conversation for ideas. Wright On with Johnnie Moore. http://bit.ly/5T4R8n

11. Jon Rawlinson on Merry Christmas illuminations for Canada’s St. Paul’s Hospital – Lights of Hope. http://bit.ly/8OE2B2

12. Portfolio careers. Interesting site. http://bit.ly/5dVjQG

13. Integrity. Without it nothing work. Wonderful article. Read it now. http://bit.ly/7fS77B

14. Leadership. Take solace with winter solstice. http://bit.ly/7zh0LB

15. Lets make employee engagement and morale a moral issue. http://bit.ly/7uMp2O

16. Harvard Business Review online gets a makeover. http://bit.ly/5mcEGe

17. How to Build Community to Achieve Employee Engagement: 4 Leadership Actions http://bit.ly/5PLSZR

18. Looking for your bailout. See @junson cartoon today at the Employee Engagement Network. http://bit.ly/rKCXH

19. AWESOME. The last 40 pictures from the 120 best pictures of 2009. Thank You Boston Globe for this. http://bit.ly/8ITD8k

20. NO STYLE. Learning styles debunked. http://bit.ly/5rYkj2

21. Positive psychology – How to maintain high energy during holidays ahead. http://bit.ly/7ScWgt

22. Art of the Binder clip. http://bit.ly/4rmm6c

Twitter Lists

One of the ways twitter groups updates is to have members create lists of people they follow because of a certain topic of other criteria. Thank you to everyone who put me on their list. Here are  some of the lists that are following my micro posts on Twitter: Lists following you 104

@eminternalcomms/twibes-employee-engagement Visit http://twibes.com/employee-engagement/twitter-list to join the top employee-engagement Twitter	Following: 24 Followers: 0
@PattiBreckenrdg/conversationlist A dynamic list rebuilt daily of the people you are talking to and about.	Following: 21 Followers: 3
@Passionwerx/twibes-employee-engagement Visit http://twibes.com/employee-engagement/twitter-list to join the top employee-engagement Twitter	Following: 21 Followers: 0
@RalfTometschek/brand-corporate-culture	Following: 112 Followers: 2
@dockane/friendlycanadiens	Following: 103 Followers: 2
@TheMillerCo/rewards-and-recognition	Following: 6 Followers: 0
@SiloamMission/winnipegers-2	Following: 21 Followers: 0
@SiloamMission/manitoba-canada-2	Following: 155 Followers: 0
@carolharnett/hr	Following: 31 Followers: 1
@JoniLiebel/life	Following: 27 Followers: 1
@ZaneSafrit/employee-engagement	Following: 2 Followers: 0
@Thrive9to5/workplace-performance	Following: 21 Followers: 0
@ahoojas/canada	Following: 52 Followers: 0
@campbell_taylor/organisational-engagement	Following: 3 Followers: 0
@JeromyAnglim/io People who sometimes tweet about I/O Psychology, HR, Business, Consulting, or related topics.	Following: 47 Followers: 1
@JonWortmann/canada	Following: 15 Followers: 1
@angelabosscher/workforce	Following: 40 Followers: 2
@psigrist/hr-people-and-ideas All the HR interest, expertise and ideas on Twitter	Following: 16 Followers: 1
@PamFR/hr-od	Following: 14 Followers: 2
@HeatherEColeman/leadership	Following: 91 Followers: 16
@HeatherEColeman/career-coaches	Following: 146 Followers: 27
@JulieKayJKLD/practical-management	Following: 26 Followers: 2
@AskRhon/inspiration	Following: 106 Followers: 4
@MadalinaUceanu/hr-bloggers-international	Following: 20 Followers: 0
@mumblr/business-and-management	Following: 51 Followers: 0
@agencycouture/strategy	Following: 45 Followers: 1
@DanyDeGrave/management-business	Following: 28 Followers: 1
@TheUSpace/employer-communication Employer Branding, Recruitment Marketing, Employee Communications, Employee Referral Marketing	Following: 15 Followers: 0
@TheUSpace/workplace	Following: 44 Followers: 1
@TheUSpace/employer-perspective	Following: 112 Followers: 2
@rickross10/leadership	Following: 36 Followers: 2
@LearnSolMary/training-od	Following: 11 Followers: 0
@LearnSolMary/leadership-biz	Following: 29 Followers: 2
@retailclub/gurus	Following: 97 Followers: 4
@ReviveCoaching/businesssupport	Following: 38 Followers: 4
@noeloreilly/hr	Following: 10 Followers: 0
@ReinventUrWork/leadership Professional leadership gurus	Following: 35 Followers: 1
@AdvisorTools/engage We are all about helping employers engage their employees, and vice versa.	Following: 3 Followers: 0
@rwwh/visionaries	Following: 15 Followers: 0
@sreardon/best-value-content Professionals who consistently add value using Twitter.	Following: 18 Followers: 1
@PattiBreckenrdg/business-strategy	Following: 66 Followers: 12
@chris_bailey/influentialpeeps Folks who influence my thinking and add to my knowledge.	Following: 21 Followers: 1
@WhatMotivates/employeemotivation tweets about employee motivation and engagement – some key contributors to the discussion.	Following: 41 Followers: 1
@ICsaba/internalcomms	Following: 124 Followers: 5
@AGirlNamedSEW/careers-workplace	Following: 54 Followers: 0
@DianaRussoHRBP/employee-engagement	Following: 3 Followers: 0
@mickyates/leadership-development People with an interest in helping others do a better job of leading …	Following: 96 Followers: 11
@LeaderLink/leader	Following: 299 Followers: 18
@yanec/leadership	Following: 14 Followers: 0
@yanec/bloggers	Following: 43 Followers: 0
@pdnforum/twibes-leadership	Following: 263 Followers: 14
@myventurepad/bloggers	Following: 42 Followers: 6
@ZaneSafrit/small-business	Following: 33 Followers: 1
@ZaneSafrit/leadership	Following: 17 Followers: 1
@LDRCoach/leadership-list	Following: 218 Followers: 12
@awardframes/business-marketing-seo	Following: 13 Followers: 1
@SpeakTheCulture/human-capital	Following: 51 Followers: 2
@seanrnicholson/internalcomms	Following: 111 Followers: 12
@hyleung/leadership	Following: 7 Followers: 0
@Iam_canadian/wpg	Following: 378 Followers: 13
@bfederman/engagement	Following: 21 Followers: 1
@RinkComms/icexperts	Following: 11 Followers: 0
@getkeepgrow/employeeengagement	Following: 5 Followers: 1
@ScottBettinger/biz	Following: 118 Followers: 2
@tseamon/engage	Following: 24 Followers: 2
@eaglesflite/followfriday A growing list of my #followfriday choices	Following: 61 Followers: 11
@eaglesflite/leadership Listing that provides resource tweets on Leadership & related topics	Following: 101 Followers: 19
@smaxbrown/great-people	Following: 82 Followers: 8
@gregbd/positive-helpful	Following: 161 Followers: 10
@fredericw/hr	Following: 71 Followers: 4
@Jacqui_K/communicators	Following: 169 Followers: 24
@sharonodea/internalcomms	Following: 12 Followers: 2
@SloanNetwork/work-life	Following: 210 Followers: 34
@shawmu/leadership	Following: 10 Followers: 1
@rhysatwork/lotsalinks	Following: 9 Followers: 0
@RZampetti/hr-people	Following: 35 Followers: 2
@CompassCoaching/consulting	Following: 108 Followers: 8
@dazdarren/hr-ben	Following: 98 Followers: 3
@DebbieLaskeyMBA/mgmt	Following: 34 Followers: 2
@nooc/peggers	Following: 499 Followers: 31
@DebbieJBrown/hrtech-hr-tweeps	Following: 299 Followers: 28
@DebbieJBrown/thought-leaders	Following: 159 Followers: 14
@Hal_Good/lead-motivate-innovate Experts in Leadership, Innovation, Motivation & Management	Following: 82 Followers: 14
@lindagottschalk/talent-business	Following: 61 Followers: 0
@LRothschildPhD/consulting	Following: 47 Followers: 7
@iopsychology/engagement Researchers and practitioners who study and discuss employment engagement.	Following: 2 Followers: 1
@DocGrawitch/employee-engagement	Following: 12 Followers: 2
@DocGrawitch/leadership	Following: 23 Followers: 0
@DocGrawitch/business-psychology	Following: 32 Followers: 13
@DocGrawitch/business	Following: 46 Followers: 2
@PeterMoreton/personality-psychology	Following: 14 Followers: 2
@GautamGhosh/hr	Following: 50 Followers: 6
@Ideafood/management-consultants	Following: 81 Followers: 3
@Adrianaology/hr-business-psych-experts	Following: 59 Followers: 10
@califgirl232/leaders2follow	Following: 121 Followers: 12
@DrDavidBallard/workplace-issues	Following: 40 Followers: 15
@jenokimoto/workforce-and-talent	Following: 82 Followers: 16
@SusanZelinski/rockin-human-resources	Following: 17 Followers: 1
@tseamon/orgdev	Following: 40 Followers: 3
@talson/communications	Following: 12 Followers: 2
@RobertaHill/teams	Following: 3 Followers: 0
@RobertaHill/od	Following: 41 Followers: 3
@TonySharp/internal-communications	Following: 47 Followers: 9

We need to “Get Community.”

I believe that authentic employee engagement occurs when organizations either acknowledge or transform themselves into healthy communities to achieve specific results. The health of the community is mental, emotional, relationship, physical, financial, etc.

The following post is from Becky Robinson on LeaderTalk at Mountain State University. She offers 4 contributions leaders can make to create community. Thank you Becky for letting me re-post your work on creating community:

Creating Community

My friend Helen is looking for community.

One evening, she and I discussed the difference between having connected relationships with people and experiencing community. We agreed people want more than just a few close relationships; people are  hungry for true community. Though you can find community many places — at work, at school, in your neighborhood, through an online network, at your church or other local organization — it’s not automatic that where people gather, there will be community. Leaders who want to create community do so with a sense of purpose and intentionality.

To create community, leaders foster shared relationships. People feel part of a community when they are well connected in relationships. I know you, but I also know the people you know. And they know each other. To foster shared relationships, leaders facilitate this interconnectedness. The more people are interconnected, the more likely they are to have a sense of community.

To create community, leaders initiate shared experiences. When people participate in activities together, collaborating as a whole or working in small groups, relationships have a chance to grow. Even after the activity is over, shared memories with others can contribute to a sense of community.

To create community, leaders cultivate shared goals and purpose. As people rally around a shared cause or goal, a sense of community builds. People feel emboldened by others who are working toward the same purpose.

To create community, leaders celebrate shared achievement. People enjoy being a part of something bigger than themselves, knowing that their contribution makes a difference. Leaders who recognize a groups’ effort build community.

As a leader, how are you creating community in your organization?

The original community post appeared here from Becky Robinson at Mountain State University’s LeaderTalk blog. Mountain State’s main website is at (www.mountainstate.edu) and the LeaderTalk site is at  (www.mountainstate.typepad.com/leadership.)

51 very eclectic and informational resources from the importance of middle management to fantastic pictures of 2009 to engage you in work and the world around you:

1. Make no mistake. Middle management is important. http://bit.ly/5AXaUQ

2. Are you making the most of open source books from Harvard Business? http://bit.ly/77E9Q6

3. Employee Engagement Poem: Take note – Play and hear the music of work. http://bit.ly/76Jkrc 2

4. Do the 360. FedEx Latin America Increases Employee Engagement, Decreases Employee Turnover http://bit.ly/8exMLf

5. 2 minute trainer: Employee engagement builds friends. http://bit.ly/8GkPJj

6. Employee branded? http://bit.ly/8uZbsz

7. Employee engagement: It is rocket science. (Edelman) http://bit.ly/7rBvUa

8. Employee satisfaction / Employee engagement. http://bit.ly/8r1T3L

9. Kevin Burns, Managers Responsible For Poor Employee Engagement http://bit.ly/7Fk69L

10. An interview with Jim Haudan from Roots on employee engagement. http://bit.ly/8TZ5BO

11. Quality Service Marketing offers a gift to improve employee engagement. http://bit.ly/5hqLwn

12. Employee Engagement 2010: How I would change Gallup’s Q12 to the Q13. http://bit.ly/cfj7x

13. Best pictures of 2009 Part 2. Awesome. http://bit.ly/81JY9m about

14. Brilliant pictures for 2009. You gotta see them. http://bit.ly/5EcysY

15. HarvardBiz 21st Century Strategy in Four Words http://bit.ly/6JFQNb Simplistic yet important.

16. WHAT? How to Stay Productive During the Winter Holidays. http://bit.ly/5PzkLa Not Me. I will drift into sloth and joyous inefficiency.

17. Holly Green offers quick perspectives on How to Have Better Performance Evaluation Conversations http://bit.ly/8f3DOi

18. Doing Things Right Versus Doing the Right Things – Operational Work Versus Strategic Work. http://bit.ly/6QBtl7

19. Catch the 5:19. Tom Peters success in 5 words, success in 19 words. http://bit.ly/4AhoBw

20. How to Energize Your Work by Making a Difference (Curt Rosengren) http://bit.ly/7PGp8m

21. Michael Stallard – Leading with the Power of Community http://cli.gs/BVdNN

22. Employee Engagement 2010. 12 horse race? Will Gallup Gallop into 2010? http://bit.ly/52Qy7y

23. Performance Reviews that Energize http://bit.ly/7Oz1bT

24. 8 Questions and why why why why why why why why. http://bit.ly/51MIMp

25. CUPCAKE? Steve Roesler 4 ways to gain support. http://bit.ly/6Rkjto

26. Best business books of the year for 800 CEO. What are you reading? http://bit.ly/4LPAcK

27. Stop being a talking head. I hate v-blog talking head 2-min. video pontifications. There is only 1 Talking Heads. http://bit.ly/7eLxN0

28. Make Good Bosses. Employee Engagement Network. Almost 100 responses on engagement advice for bosses.http://bit.ly/85I5uu

29. THIS BAD? Yet another article about bad bosses and what to do about them. http://bit.ly/50qkpu

30. Employee Engagement 2010: Changing Gallup’s Q12 to the Q13. http://bit.ly/52Qy7y

31. Office intervention for employee engagement? http://bit.ly/8tRpF2

32. Not a prayer? Employee engagement 2010 will require forgiveness and redemption. Off to the confessional. http://bit.ly/7ntxON

33. Superb poster of bottle water. Water water everywhere – drop the bottle now – to the tap we go. http://bit.ly/5olCXz 1

34. Employee Engagement 2010. What Matters Now. Read Today. Free ebook by Seth Godin et. al. http://bit.ly/8OG8qv

35. Employee Engagement. The 10 commandments of horrible employers – http://tinyurl.com/y9qtqbc

36. Employee Engagement and What Matters Now. Check out Daniel Pink on page 25. http://bit.ly/8OG8qv

37. Challenge: Self Promotion for Introverts. Book Review. http://bit.ly/5EheeB

38. Employee Engagement: Rethinking Your Work – Book Review. http://bit.ly/5ATCwo

39. Free E-Book What Matters Now. Organized by Seth Godin. Looks Good. http://bit.ly/8wlHbl

40. Lead less/Manage more: Coach more, Urge more, Support more. Rosa Say(s) it well. http://bit.ly/4WnIq1

41. Strange Combo: Garrison Keillor on Tom Peters. I like it. http://bit.ly/5KK8B9

42. A must view: The Value of Visual Thinking in Social Business with David Armano http://bit.ly/8Paeg1

43. Employee Engagement Legacy: The Great Wall of Saskatchewan. http://bit.ly/77lwav

44. Kiwi employee engagement and the customer experience formula. http://bit.ly/5hVQ2N

45. Employee engagement, CIO and CEO. Information for execution. http://bit.ly/6sTonb

46. Employee engagement/customer engagement. Climbing up Maslow’s hierarchy by Nicky Fried. for http://bit.ly/5NDRo5

47. Employee engagement or conversation? Get talking not checking. http://bit.ly/5KgcAq

48. Detailed post on employee engagement – aligning personal and corporate brand. Insightful and helpful. http://bit.ly/4V8vF4

49. Employee engagement + recognition: 46% of those who quit their jobs because they felt unappreciated http://bit.ly/939SiT

50. Greg Savage – Employee Engagement – How his daughter experiences work. How do we experience it? Excellent. http://bit.ly/7pSG5k

51. Wonderful post. Make me an offer. Vague – Open – Closed. http://bit.ly/8w0WPU