Employee Engagement Dialogue: Elizabeth Lupfer and David Zinger on the Social Workplace

Employee Engagement and the Social Workplace: A Dialogue with Elizabeth Lupfer

This recorded twenty minute dialogue between Elizabeth Lupfer and David Zinger discusses the social nature of work and engagement. Here is a snippet from the recording:

Yes. Let me think about how I want to phrase it for you, but what my big statement would be or my big mission is that it’s really that the relationship between employees and managers has historically, in my opinion, been taken for granted, and what I love about the emergence of social tools is it has really refocused our attention on employee engagement, and how to drive a high performing organization, and but more than that, it’s that having a high performance organization, and having an engaged workforce are actually very complimentary goals, and those are necessary for maximizing business success, and on top of that it’s also realizing that employee engagement is multifaceted.

Employee Engagement Dialogue: The Social Workplace with Elizabeth Lupfer and David Zinger from David Zinger on Vimeo.

David Zinger: My name is David Zinger and welcome to the employee engagement dialogues. I’m speaking and have the honor of speaking with Elizabeth Lumpfer on the social workplace, and Elizabeth you are what I would consider a maven of the social workplace and a prolific curator and writer about the social workplace. On the slides right now there’s a little bit of your formal background, but I’m wondering if you can say a few things about your background and your interest in the social workplace, Elizabeth? [00:30]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Sure, and I want to say thank you; I have never really considered myself a maven, but I suppose it’s kind of grown to be that. I started out always professionally in corporate communications, and employee communications, and recently it’s definitely evolved to include HR communications – learning all facets of what it’s like to really drive the employee experience within my professional work, and it just so happens that my passion personally is how to further engaged employees. So, when social media first started emerging into the market it really was a focus on consumer engagement and marketing from that perspective, and I’ve always wondered how we could take the things that we were learning from driving engagement with consumers, to internalize that within the organization, and that’s pretty much how the social workplace first started, and it’s become a really big opportunity for me ever since. [01:45]

David Zinger: Yeah, and not only an opportunity for you, but a contribution to so many others. What engages you most in your work, Elizabeth? [01:55]

Elizabeth Lupfer: I think I’m one of those people that as soon as I hear about a new platform, if something’s in alpha, I want to be on it, if it’s in beta, I want to be on it. So, it’s really about emerging trends for me, and but it’s not so much about adopting what’s emerging; it’s also making sure that it’s making me personally more productive and streamlining my activity. I’m a web developer at heart and there’s a rule that we have in web development, and it says that if you do something more than three times, then you need to automate that process, and so that’s really what drives me is OK, if I’m someone who needs it to be automated, because I am probably actually one of the most least productive people in the world, because I’m easily distracted by shoes mostly, but… I know. All right, I have ADD when it comes to shoes; I’m like oh my gosh, there’s this new shoe, I need to have it. So, it’s how to make sure that I stay focused, and then also how to keep employees focused as well and not always looking at new shoes like I am. [03:16]

David Zinger: You’re the first person who… I know lots of people who get distracted by shiny objects, but you’re the first person with shoes in that equation. I want to back you up for a moment, and that’s my perspective, and it might not be yours is that you do talk about interesting new tools, and you use them so well – everything from info-graphics from Pinterest, and we’ll touch upon that, but you see the social workplace as something much more than tools; it looks to me like you use those tools to really further advance and connect that social element of work? [03:47]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Yeah, well, because it’s easy to say, you know, create a collaboration site or to integrate Yammer and then say oh, we’re a social company, but the problem is, and I would say for the companies that have quickly adopted social tools, it was a hard lesson, because what happened was you would have an initial push for a collaboration site or for Yammer or Chatter, what great tools by the way, but what you want to drive or build is the sustainability, and the only way that you’re going to do that is if you actually integrate those tools judiciously within your business processes, within HR transactions, with, and what I like to say, and what you’ll often find on my blog is how to enable employees to learn, plan, and do their work and personal lives. [04:53]

David Zinger: So, there’s learning, planning, and doing, but your unique focus is social, and a real strong weave with engagement, hence bringing you into the employee engagement dialogues with that. I have a slide up right now of kind of my passion of trying to collaborate and engage honeybees, and my fascination with those small creatures is 50,000 in a hive and they really learn to work together, and the next slide is the tagline for the social workplace – where community and collaboration mean productivity. I wonder if you can enhance that comment and just say a little bit more about that? [05:34]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Well, sure, and it’s really speaking to… If you want to use your honeybee example, and I really love the dialogue, the back and forth that we had, David. Just for everyone’s frame of reference, when we first started talking about the honeybees I was like oh, isn’t that interesting that the queen bee is the one that, you know, is the driver, but really what it’s, and what you told me, David, was that well, you know, it’s not necessarily about the honeybee; it’s about the bee workers, and that’s exactly right, and when you apply that to the organization, it is all about the employees, it’s about the workers, it’s not about the queen bee. The queen bee drives or is a representation of leadership and strategy, but at the end of the day it’s about the workers, and so when I started talking about collaboration, and community, and how it needs to drive that productivity, it was really speaking to how the collaboration and the community are the tools and the productivity is the results, and that’s how you make sure that you strategically align your initiatives, and your programs, and all those social tools, and shiny new things, and make them business drivers at the same time, because no CEO, I think you know David too, with all your work in engagement, you can’t just say oh, we want to be more collaborative; they need to see results, and the results… So, you really need to determine what that result is, and for me it’s about productivity. [07:24]

David Zinger: So, the social, to use your fascination, is what puts the shoes on the feet of productivity, it’s what makes it operate and run, and many times people tend to see the social somehow as something extra or people are wasting time on that Twitter thing or they’re just kind of gathering around the water cooler or however you want to see it. It really is a huge part of that strategic approach and the way that that strategic approach is achieved. [07:53]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Right, well you know it’s so funny that you bring up that analogy, because about two or three years ago I actually wrote a blog post about my finding new heights in social media and in my high heels, because…. And I actually wrote about it because of my fascination with my shoes and my high heels, because I’m known for wearing my four-inch heels wherever I go, and so I wrote a blog post about finding new heights in social media and in my high heels, and it really was speaking to how I personally reached new heights wearing my shoes, and if you ascend that analogy to social tools, businesses can find new heights as well. [08:42]

David Zinger: What a wonderful weave, Elizabeth, and I mean high heels and yet strategic planning, and thinking, and not seeing it as fluff, but owning your kind of own individuality of that, and I’m very appreciative of that perspective that you bring. [08:59]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Well, it’s funny because most people always ask me, because I’m actually in HR, and my friends they often ask me wow, you’re in HR? Because I am the most… HR has a reputation for being policy and procedure enforcer, so I’m your most unusual HR person out there. [09:24]

David Zinger: And so you really are involved in a fair bit of thought leadership, and as I said before, you’re quite prolific, and we’ll talk about the site where people can go to read what you’re writing and to see a collection of info graphics, but you really are a thought leader in that collaborative element. Have you ever written a manifesto on the social workplace? [09:46]

Elizabeth Lupfer: No, actually I haven’t, and… So, it’s I have thought about it, and really what I would like to do, and I have there’s a few colleagues where we have tossed it around, and tossed it around, and because I think that to write a really compelling manifesto or even a book about the social workplace, I have a contribution to a very specific area, so the employee engagement, the social tools within business processes and HR transactions, that for me to write a really balanced manifesto that I think would be beneficial, and knowledge, and practice for a lot of organizations, I have looked to a couple colleagues that I think can speak to other areas that I think are really important components to an effective social workplace. I just haven’t… You know, you see how my blog, and then my blog, David, I think as you know, is not my fulltime job. [10:59]

David Zinger: No. [10:59]

Elizabeth Lupfer: A lot of people think it is. So, it’s I actually have a fulltime job in addition to the blog, so the question is time I suppose, and coordination with the colleagues that I was mentioning before. [11:16]

David Zinger: Well, and that’s your contribution, I mean in a similar vein with the Employee Engagement Network; that’s not my job, that’s a hobby originally started to get five or six people together and it’s grown a bit beyond that. [11:28]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Exactly. [11:30]

David Zinger: If you were… Elizabeth, if you were to write a manifesto or to start, is there one statement or a couple statements that you think would be vital and important in there? [11:41]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Yes. Let me think about how I want to phrase it for you, but what my big statement would be or my big mission is that it’s really that the relationship between employees and managers has historically, in my opinion, been taken for granted, and what I love about the emergence of social tools is it has really refocused our attention on employee engagement, and how to drive a high performing organization, and but more than that, it’s that having a high performance organization, and having an engaged workforce are actually very complimentary goals, and those are necessary for maximizing business success, and on top of that it’s also realizing that employee engagement is multifaceted. It’s very… My company, I know many other companies, and I’m sure, David, in your research and your consulting you ran into this a lot. I saw where a lot of companies want to benchmark on what employee engagement is and means for other people and other organizations, but the problem is that there is no one magical solution, because the drivers of engagement varies from company to company and you really have to take an assessment of your department, your functional areas, and then your individual employees. A culture at Zappos has completely different drivers of engagement than what the drivers of engagement would be for a company like Verizon, so there’s no comparison. So, you really have to two things, and this is something you actually, David, I think you have more knowledge about than I do is really taking a look at your internal employee engagement index and then the external employee engagement index, so that’s using external benchmarks as well as establishing internal benchmarks. [14:00]

David Zinger: Yeah, I really… [14:01]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Wouldn’t you say? [14:02]

David Zinger: Right, yeah, I really personally hunger for the day when surveys don’t have to be anonymous, that there’s safety to talk about what’s going on, and that we can even go downstream a bit and have employees contribute to the questions that are asked on engagement. Many of the benchmarks and survey tools are disengaging in and of themselves, but going to your… I have a screenshot of your site up, and it’s such an engaging site, Elizabeth. [14:33]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Thank you. [14:34]

David Zinger: You write so many blog posts that are so informative and so helpful to people in the workplace, involved in the social element of the workplace, and people involved in the engagement element of the workplace. Any comments about your site or things that just pop to mind when you think about doing it? [14:55]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Well, since you say I can say whatever pops to my mind, I’m going… Most people don’t know this, but the social workplace… I’ve been blogging for many years actually, and… I shouldn’t say many; it’s probably since about 2005, but the social workplace has been an evolution and it really has been an evolution because of my passion for it. But to speak to what we were talking about before was what personally drives me, and it’s really about the social tools, and in many circumstances shiny new tools, not just shoes, and at the time… I know. At the time, there was a shiny new tool that was coming out, it was called the Blackberry Storm, and I actually, my first version of my blog was all about my love for the Blackberry Storm, and there might be some people that have been following me since the beginning that it was actually called Crackberry Girl. [16:07]

David Zinger: OK. [16:08]

Elizabeth Lupfer: And it was all about my love for my Blackberry Storm, and my very first blog post was called “My Crackberry is My Blankie”, and because it’s true, and so if I were to write a blog post now, it would be “Employee Engagement is My Blankie”, and that’s really what the social workplace is really speaking to. It’s something that I live and breathe, personally and professionally. Again, this is something that I have sometimes people who reach out to me because I haven’t written a blog post for three weeks, and they’re like oh, is everything OK, and I’m like yeah, you know, I’ve just been busy, and I just haven’t had the opportunity, I travel a lot, and I know just like you do too, and so it’s you… I write when something inspires me and so that’s really what it comes down to is it’s just a personal passion of mine. [17:08]

David Zinger: Yeah, it’s a fantastic passion and I appreciate you kind of backtracking to the origins, because there’s certainly lots of bloggers now, but there are lots of people in the social elements of workplace and engagement who are a little reluctant to blog, thinking that they’ve got to be at that magnificent level that you’re at now, and that’s not how it began, but boy it sure has evolved, and on the screen… [17:32]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Absolutely. I think if you go back into my archives you might be able to find some of my original Crackberry Girl blog posts. [17:43]

David Zinger: And extensive archives; I mean when you look at it there’s, you know, a post just about every week, sometimes a couple a week, as you say with that, and talking about tools, you know, a number of people in the business and organizational field have thought oh, Pinterest, that’s just something for pictures or whatever, and you have quite a nice site of info graphics. [18:06]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Yes. Well, you know when it came to Pinterest, and my info graphics I was actually using Flickr for those first, and but my sister-in-law is probably one of the most crafty and creative people with crafts that I know, and she actually, I can’t get her to be on Facebook or LinkedIn or any kind of blog atmosphere or social tool whatsoever, but she jumped all over Pinterest because she’s a very crafty person, and she kept telling me, you know, you really need to take a look at Pinterest. I’m like, and I was like Julie, I’m the least current (inaudible) granola person you know, why would I be interest in Pinterest? And then I actually took a look at it, and I saw a lot of value, and at the time, there was no repository, if you will, on employee engagement graphics or info graphics, and I’m a very visual person, so I love info graphics, and I actually one day when I first created the Pinterest account Googled “employee engagement info graphics,” and just looked for every info graphic I could find that was related to employee engagement and pinned them to my board on Pinterest, and then from there it’s grown into I think… I don’t… You have it up, right, David? [19:40]

David Zinger: Yeah, I do. [19:41]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Yeah, so it’s about mobile technology, it’s about human resources, it’s about general social business, as well as employee engagement. [19:53]

David Zinger: Well, I’m very… [19:55]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Oh, and I also have an homage to my geekiness too. [19:58]

David Zinger: Well, I didn’t see one on shoes, but I really do appreciate the collection, and it really triggered before our conversation this morning; I went and took a number of those and put them on my iPad just because there’s times where I don’t really want to read something, I’ve got five minutes or whatever, and those info graphics are a beautiful visual way to kind of look at that. Sometimes I get overwhelmed on a website when I get to it, but I thought oh, that’s a nice thing to have for a five minute break or whatever just to take a look, and I highly recommend it to all of us involved in the employee engagement field and all of us attuned to the community, and collaboration, and social space of the workplace, because you can often get a lot of really good facts and details if you’re making a presentation, or you’re writing a report, or to give to your employees, so once again thank you for your contributions with that, Elizabeth. [20:55]

Elizabeth Lupfer: You’re welcome, and you should take a look at the one I just pinned yesterday about I can’t get no employee satisfaction. [21:05]

David Zinger: Yeah, with Mick; I saw that one. [21:06]

Elizabeth Lupfer: And then there’s only one that I’ve actually put together myself, and that’s the putting social HR in its place within the employee life cycle. [21:19]

David Zinger: Oh, I like that. [21:21]

Elizabeth Lupfer: So, that’s my only original one that I’ve done personally. [21:26]

David Zinger: And it’s a good one with the follow-up article. I was at your website I think even just this morning kind of reviewing before our conversation and went back to that one, and I think that really helps people understand that although you’re the maven with the tools, and the techniques, and the information, that there is a really strong social element underneath this that’s really authentic and could reside even without the tools, the tools just enhance and bring it forward. [21:54]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Right. [21:55]

David Zinger: Thank you very much, Elizabeth, for taking about 15-20 minutes of your time to talk to us about the social workplace. I highly recommend that people go to www.TheSocialWorkplace.com, go to Pinterest. Thanks for taking time with us today, Elizabeth. [22:13]

Elizabeth Lupfer: You’re welcome, and I’m on Twitter. Twitter@SocialWorkplace is the handle, and then just speaking to what you were saying before about just what would be my mantra? If you take a look at the info graphic that I did just… Hopefully close with keeping this in mind for everybody, if you don’t mind me offering it up, David, is where a social workplace considers employee behavior in order to create a truly collaborative and integrated social experience, and that really for me is the essence of a social workplace. [22:55]

David Zinger: What a great conclusion and it goes even one step further; it produces results for organizations and enhances life for individuals too, doesn’t it? [23:04]

Elizabeth Lupfer: Yes it does, absolutely. [23:06]

David Zinger: Thanks very much Elizabeth, I sure appreciate you taking the time. [23:10]

David Zinger is a global expert on employee engagement. He founded and hosts the 5200 member Employee Engagement Network. Contact David today to request consulting, a speech, or workshop on engagement: david@davidzinger.com.