Is employee engagement an if for you?

Sometimes employee engagement seems iffy:

• If only my managers was better.
• If only I didn’t work with this team.
• If only I could change jobs.
• If only this was a different company.
• If only I was younger or older.
• If only I wasn’t so tired.
• If only I could find something I believe in.
• If only someone else or something else would change.
• If only they would pay me better.
• If only someone would recognize me.
• If only I could retire.
• If only I didn’t have so many family demands.
• If only I was in charge.
• If only I wasn’t in charge.

Don’t make engagement an iffy proposition. Determine what you can do right now without the if or the when to experience engagement as a selfish gift to yourself. And if some things need to change, as they often do, don’t forget to get engaged in working at making those changes.

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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 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

Employee Engagement: When You Don’t Have a Prayer

For Leaders

God grant me the courage to accept a poor quarter, tenacity to always do what’s right; and wisdom to know I am an employee too.

For Managers

God grant me the insight to accept employees I cannot change, moxie to manage star performers; and wisdom to know the difference.

For Employees

God grant me gumption to express myself through my work, teflon to not get snagged by negativity, and wisdom to have my work energize  me.

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David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. David founded and moderates the 2380 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

Small is the new significant. If we want to create change we need to focus on the small. The vital few behaviors that can produce the biggest results. I think this is vital in our over extended and over taxed organizations if we want to have significant results from our employee engagement initiatives. I will focus a future post on the specific possible vital behaviors of employee engagement but before I do this I would like to focus on the power of vital behaviors.

Focus on vital behaviors. As a facilitator for Shared Visions delivery of Vital Smart’s The Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, in Saskatchewan and Manitoba – Canada, I have become quite enamored with the concept of vital behaviors. If we want to influence something we need to focus on using personal, social, and structural motivations and abilities applied not to  results but to the few key behaviors that will make those results occur. Influencing 2 or 3 vital behaviors gives us focus and leverage.

But what are the vital behaviors? The challenge is to determine the vital behaviors for the result we are trying to achieve. For example if you declare that you will create a 10% increase in employee engagement by May 15, 2011 you want to determine what are the vital behaviors that could make this occur then stack the deck to ensure this happens. You don’t influence the result, you influence the behaviors. You also don’t influence all the behaviors you influence the vital few that will make the biggest difference. As I have been declaring for the past 5 years: small is the new significant!

Take the course and be mindful. I encourage you to read The Influencer or take the course to learn how to determine vital behaviors and I encourage you to start paying close attention to vital behaviors in all facets of your life.

Run with it. For example a vital behavior for me to jog is to go out at 6:05 a.m., 3 times a week, with 2 of my neighbors. I have learned this mostly through trial and error and experience.

59 Seconds. It is imperative that you do your research to see if someone else has already determined the possible vital behaviors for a change you want to create. This brings me to Richard Wiseman’s insightful book, 59 Seconds: Think a little, change a lot. In the book, Richard focuses on happiness, persuasion, motivation, creativity, attraction, relationship, stress, decision making, parenting, and personality. The strength of the book is the very solid foundation of experimental psychological research Richard draws upon to determine vital behaviors to influence these areas. Richard makes this a very compelling read and distills his conclusions to 10 techniques in 59 seconds!

Sample Vital Behaviors. Here is a sample of some of his vital behaviors from his book. I encourage you to read the book to sharpen your focus on how we use research to determine vital behaviors to create change.

1. Happiness: Listing 3 things you are greateful for in life or 3 events that have gone well over the past 7 days can increase happiness for about a month or even one small act of kindness can boost happiness.
2. Mirror, mirror on the kitchen wall. Reduce consumption of unhealthy foods by hanging a mirror in the kitchen. This resulted in a 32% reduction in people’s consumption of unhealthy food.
3. Be a plant manager. Office creativity: Add a plant to the office can boost creative ideas of males by 15%
4. A light touch. Increase agreement. Lightly touching people on their upper arms makes them far more likely to agree to a request and to influence the status relationship between 2 people.
5. Write your relationship. Partners who spend a few moment each week committing their thoughts about a relationship to paper boost the chances they will stick together by 20%
6. Visualize do versus done. If you visualize yourself taking practical steps to achieve your goal you are more likely to succeed than someone who visualizes outcome.

What’s next? If you are involved in create change around employee engagement I strongly encourage you to take the 2-day Influencer Course to begin the process of designing and developing your influence. I encourage you to be on the lookout for vital behaviors around any change and to read 59 Seconds to not only learn about some powerful and specific vital behaviors but to learn how to think about determining vital behaviors and how to use research to make your work more robust.

Future post. In a future post I will focus on the vital behaviors for employee engagement.

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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 2415 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

Are you using Social Media to foster and enhance employee engagement?

Angela Scappatura, with Canadian HR Reporter TV, has a 5 minute conversation on social media and employee engagement with Jennifer Rock, director of employee communications (U.S.) for Best Buy. This is an informative interview outlining the benefits of social media adoption from Best Buy’s perspective.

If the video does not load in this window, click here.

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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 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

Circling work

I sit

in a cubicle

at the bottom

of the pyramid.

Distant voices

cascade down the structure

cajoling me to

work harder

work smarter

work it out

keep working.

I don’t long.

I don’t belong.

I churn out unread reports.

Pyramids were built

to house dead people.

Yet I’m alive

I’m here

Hear me out

Seek me out

Let’s throw this pyramid a curve

Smoothing sharp edges

Into a circle

A circle of connection, healing, and hope.

Join the  circle of work.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 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

The 14 Elements of  Employee Engagement Model

David Zinger voiced a 3 minute video overview of his Employee Engagement Model while in Poland earlier in 2010. One element of the model has changed since then from Achieve Happiness to Experience Well-Being.

If you would like to learn more about the model and each part, click here.

Click on the model above to get a larger view.

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David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant. David founded and moderates the 2380 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

Engage these resource to build learning, relationships and results.

1. Get lean. http://bit.ly/c4GoBS
2. Terrific and comprehensive summary of lessons learned from Seth Godin by JD Meier. http://bit.ly/cpNR86
3. How to stay on top of the world of info-graphics. Great resource. http://bit.ly/aGJLEI
4. WOW. Leadership is the ball: leadership is a collective process not an individual attribute ~ Didier Marlier http://bit.ly/dvkSnh
5. Is social media replacing something we have, or adding a new thing? with Kevin Jones. http://bit.ly/bXM6pa
6. Do you have a learning partner? http://bit.ly/dgr16d
7. I love it. Thanks Eric Klein. 18 reasons Love is more demanding than Law. http://bit.ly/atasNf
8. The 80/20 Rule and Strengths-Based Development By Jerry Kail http://bit.ly/dxdmyS
9. Terry Strabucker has created a free, simple, elegant, and powerful leadership ebook with “glass.” http://bit.ly/b369kp
10. Julian Dobson with 5 counterintuitive tips of creating community and changing the world. http://bit.ly/bmhztR
11. Joseph Grenny video interview on how to ask for your vacation time. http://bit.ly/b6wlL4
12. Terrific free 41 page PDF on The Power of Accessible Leadership by Dan Oestreich. Download it now. http://bit.ly/cxyWNe
13. Take a look at 6 feet of death and taxes in US. Awesome data display. http://bit.ly/azfJqA
14. Light living – think of nothing that happens as either good or bad. Stop judging, and stop expecting. http://bit.ly/c9XhmW
15. Why Newcomers Often See Things More Clearly Than Old Hands. http://bit.ly/bS7J05
16. 1 minute video message: Get rid of the crappy stuff. Advice from Steve Jobs to Nike. http://bit.ly/cEfM2R
17. Powerful. The High Cost of Mistrust by Judy Bardwick. http://bit.ly/cgA5BZ

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David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement writer, educator, speaker, coach, and consultant.  David founded and moderates the 2380 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

Engage! It only take one person to start a community.

Questions of engagement. Do we fail to engage with community? Do we passively wait to find a community? Do we take a step to create a community?

Click on the image below to watch this page of the employee engagement community expand.

Alone in Winnipeg. A little over two years ago I was feeling quite alone in Winnipeg. Who could I talk to with and who could I connect with on the topic of employee engagement?

Creating community. The answer was simple. If you really engage, you don’t wait to find a community you create a community. A community can start with one and spread to many. So I created the Employee Engagement Network. My approach was to:

• offer the best I can.
• extend invitations.
• welcome people.
• connect people.
• create meaningful contributions.
• let the community evolve in its own directions.

Gratitude. I am so thankful for the 2370+ people who have joined the employee engagement network. This community has enhanced my knowledge and perspective on employee engagement a hundred fold.

Communities change individuals. The employee engagement community has put the we in me. The Employee Engagement Network community:

• educates me,
• enthralls me
• irritates me
• makes my day
• puzzles me.
• refutes me
• acknowledges me
• supports me,
• extends me,
• creates me.

Click. Even if we are on our own we don’t have to be alone. Creating your own community might be just one click away. Reach out. Connect. Engage. You can do this too on any topic you have passion and energy for.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 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

A Canadian Example of Employee Engagement Impermanence.

Caution. This is one customer’s opinion (mine) and does not represent a controlled study of employee engagement. Levels of employee engagement were also inferred from levels of customer engagement.

Frequent flying. I do a fair bit of flying for work and vacation in Canada. WestJet has always been touted as Canada’s  air carrier with terrific employee engagement — a shining example of engagement while Air Canada was often cast in a negative light and this was also my experience while flying with them. When I booked flights, I always tried to book with WestJet and avoid Air Canada.

Air Canada trumps West Jet in 2009 and early 2010. This has switched in the last year, based on a year’s worth of flying and talking with many other Canadian flyers.

• I now seek out Air Canada because of their service delivery and engaged employees!
• At WestJetI have been offered too many apologies over the past year for a wide variety of things ranging from late flights and broken reservation systems to no on board refreshments and tired crews.
• The once surly cabin staff on Air Canada have been going the extra mile and more welcoming with genuine smiles.
• The Air Canada check in process and greetings have been enhanced.
• I sent a letter of complaint to WestJet about a few issues, it was a challenge on the website to find where to send the letter, and I never received a response to my concerns or an acknowledgement that they received the letter.
• Air Canada held a plane in Toronto for my wife, myself, and 3 other passengers to make a connection. They were waiting for us, had preprinted boarding passes, and welcomed us on board. Employee engagement is based on connection and that was a very helpful and caring connection!
• I am hearing from numerous other travellers that they are also winging back to Air Canada and enjoying the flying experience and appreciating the more engaged staff.

The bigger employee engagement lessons:

1. Engagement is not permanent. Just because you were good at one time does not guarantee permanently engaged staff. Once you have engaged staff don’t take them or engagement for granted.
2. Engaged change is always possible and if you have high levels of disengagement you can make changes to create more robust engagement over time and your customers will notice.
3. Engagement is more than smiles and funny greetings it is ensuring the work gets done. I tire of “canned” repeated humor announcements  by the cabin crew, this can wear thin after many flights. It is also nice to see grimaces being transformed into genuine grins at a once surly airline.
4. As your employees engage your customers will notice (I did). They will talk about it (like this) and they will choose you more and fly with you more.

What’s next? Because engagement is impermanent, things can change again. I look forward to both airlines having fully engaged employees who demonstrate high levels of customer engagement as the year progresses and makes my flying a tough yet pleasurable choice regardless of which carrier I choose. I would like to see fully engaged employees not as something extra but as the foundation of both organizations, and all organizations for that matter.

What about you? As I continue flying during 2010 I will keep monitoring employee engagement played out before my passenger seat location. What has been your customer or employee engagement experience flying in Canada?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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

How to be a TEDTalker

Sebastain Wernicke presented a funny and insightful analysis of TEDTalks.

Free Resource. Near the end of the 6 minute talk he encourage viewers to visit his site offering 2 great free one page handouts on killer phrases and phrases that will kill you on TED. Click here to get the online and PDF version of his tip sheets.

Click here if the video fails to open in this window.

Where is David Zinger?

Google tool. Google has a nifty tool to turn your searches into a video.  I appreciate how quickly you can turn 7 or 8 Google searches into a story with music.

Presentation or Enterprise 2.0? I encourage you to consider personalizing this tool the next time you want a quick 30 second introduction for a presentation on employee engagement or perhaps you can use it to create a dynamic start to your Enterprise 2.0 site. You determine the search terms and you can set it to different types of music. You can search webs, images, blogs, etc.

Click here to see a promotional search video I did for my forthcoming book, Zengage.

How you can do it. The link to create your own search appears at the end of the video.

Click here if the video failed to load in this window.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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