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You are here: Home / Employee Engagement / Employee Engagement: Carry the Olympic Torch

Employee Engagement: Carry the Olympic Torch

January 5, 2010 by David Zinger 5 Comments

Susan with Olympic Flame

Today my wife, Susan,  was up at  5 a.m. in Northwestern Ontario to carry the Olympic Torch for 300 meters through Keewatin Ontario.

She ran Canada’s Olympic Torch relay in the dark at 7:26 a.m. with the temperature at -25 Celsius.

It was fabulous to see not only how engaged Susan was with this big day but how engaged everyone was who was involved in organizing and conducting this event.

Work is obviously more than a 1 day event but I believe there are lessons here for employee engagement.

I plan to think this through over the next few days but wonder before I do if you have any thoughts about lessons or parallels from this type of experience to our everyday work.

It was inspirational just to be with here and see the celebration.

Even with such frigid temperatures it was not cold…it was cool!

Thanks to RBC and the Canadian Olympic Committee for making this possible. You have engaged a lot of Canadian in the Olympics.

Filed Under: Employee Engagement

Comments

  1. Terrence Seamon says

    January 6, 2010 at 8:11 am

    Wow how cool and wonderful! Congratulations on your wife Susan carrying the Olympic torch!
    Terry

  2. Wendy Woods says

    January 8, 2010 at 8:42 pm

    I love the blog on engagement and carrying the olympic torch. When we are passionate about what we do, we are engaged and alive. We are ‘in the FLOW’. The challenge for many of us is finding that work that gets us there. I think younger generations coming into the workforce may get it right.

  3. David Zinger says

    January 9, 2010 at 12:41 am

    Terrence and Wendy:
    Thanks for the feedback and it was very much an honor to be with my wife and see the flow of engagement.
    David

  4. Paula Kiger says

    February 10, 2010 at 1:53 pm

    I think one of the reasons these Olympic torch relays are so memorable is the “protocol” around them. There’s a procedure, people know it’s a privilege to participate, and the effort that goes into the torch run is very intentional — they know they’re making memories! The torch run came through Tallahassee Florida in July 1996 — my daughter was about 5 days old but we have a picture of her out there “being there” in the moment. I think no matter our ages, and whether we are baby boomers, millenials, gen y’ers or something else, sometimes we all need a little structure to make our celebrations and milestones memorable. It is in making the celebration a “moment” that we strengthen our bonds with each other; this is applicable to businesses, families, and all kinds of groups.

  5. David Zinger says

    February 10, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    Well said Paula. I like the term, “making the celebration a moment.”

    David

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David Zinger

Email: david@davidzinger.com
Phone 204 254 2130

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