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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

Burnout: 1000 Paper Cuts

For many, 2020 has been a year of 1000 paper cuts. Rather than one big event resulting in a dramatic case of spontaneous combustion it has been the one thousand paper cuts shredding our optimism, cutting away at our self-efficacy, and dicing our energy into exhaustion. Rather than wallpapering our mind with premature resilience, I […]

Mindful Noticing: A Pathway to both Liking and Engagement

A simple, yet very powerful, employee noticing practice. Your mindfulness is expanded when you take time to notice new things or see old things in new ways. Ellen J. Langer’s research on mindfulness demonstrated that when we notice more about others and things we like them more and are more engaged with them. So you […]

Personal Engagement Launched over 30 Years Ago

“I’d like you to think about a time when you’ve been attentive and interested in what you’re doing, felt absorbed and involved. A time when you didn’t think about how you’d rather be doing something else, and you didn’t feel bored. Can you describe a particular time when you’ve felt like that here at work?” […]

Engagement and Burnout: “You’ve got to give a little…”

To me, engaging means giving of myself to my work. I mindfully give but do not mindlessly lose myself in my work. I work with conscious intention and know as Christina Maslach stated: “giving of yourself must be balanced with giving to yourself.” There may be times of full engagement when you need to give’er […]

Stopping Burnout

Pause. Stop. Recover. Case Closed. Burnout can result from never-ending work. According to Derks & Bakker people can become trapped in a continuous cycle attempting to address the inherent lack of closure in contemporary work. This reminds me of the old statement that work expands to fill the time available for it’s completion. How do […]

No Monopoly on Burnout: Burning Down the House

According to Gallup the level of burnout of people working from home has risen this year from 18% to 29% and the amount of people working entirely from home has risen from 4% to 40%. This nullifies the idea, “that there is no place like home.” Keeping the home fires burning for too long or […]

Frazzled by Burnout

Work offers us structure, purpose, meaning and contribution. Work can make us well, but when burnout occurs positive emotions can feel fleeting, engagement is threadbare, relationships are frayed, meaning is murky, accomplishments are infrequent, and our personal strengths languish. Let’s prevent and alleviate burnout – the cost is too high.