5 zingers

5 Zingers on Trust Works! (Ken Blanchard)

May 13, 2013 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

This is a biased review of the book, Trust Works! by Ken Blancard, Cynthia Olmstead and Martha Lawrence

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This is a biased review of Trust Works! It is biased because I had the opportunity in San Diego to meet and spend time with Ken Blanchard and the Blanchard Company two weeks ago. I was impressed by how down-to-earth and open Ken, his wife Margie, and the Blanchard Companies are. Ken signed my book with my special request to put in a line that he and Norman Vincent Peale wrote in The Power of Ethical Management: there is no right way to do a wrong thing.

The Blanchard family has been to Churchill Manitoba which is in my home province. Not only were they enthralled by the polar bears they demonstrated a willingness to go anywhere for an enriching experience.

Trust is fundamental for employee engagement.

Here are 5 zingers from the book:

Cats and Dogs. This book goes to the cats and dogs. An easy story to read about trust based on a fighting, backbiting, and a sabotaging cat and dog. Please know that trust does not have to go to the dog house and there are specific steps we can take to build trust for lasting relationships.
Assessment. There is a short and practical assessment we can complete on our own trust level and have others do a similar form to assess our trust. Trust me, if you do this it will help you understand and assess trust at a personal and interpersoanl level.
The ABCD’s of Trust. Trust is based on the four dimensions of Able, Believable, Connected, and Dependable. Trust in organizations starts with the first four letters of the alphabet.
Trust is in the eye of the beholder. Memorize this quotation: “Trust is a delicate thing. It takes a long time to build, yet you can blow it in a matter of minutes. All it takes is one incident of behaving inconsistently with what someone considers trustworthy behavior for that person to pull away from you.”
The Defining Competency. “Smart organizations are increasingly taking proactive steps to build high-trust cultures, because they’ve seen clear evidence that it helps improve the bottom line. With trust, creativity flourishes, productivity rises, barriers are overcome, and relationships deepen.” Remember, trust works.

I encourage you to buy the book, it will make for a short and trusty companion on your next flight or afternoon read at the beach.

David Zinger is a global employee engagement expert who in 2013 has worked on engagement in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Berlin, Prague and New York. He builds and sustains his own engagement in tight 24-minute periods. He has pioneered a number of significant approaches to engagement. To access Mr. Zinger’s services email him: david@davidzinger.com.

5 Zingers on The Spirit of Kaizen (Robert Maurer)

April 29, 2013 by David Zinger 3 Comments

Small is the new significant. The Spirit of Kaizen is a small book by Robert Maurer that offers excellent guidance on making changes one small step at a time. This is an invaluable resource in employee engagement to counter the withering away of employee engagement because of the failure of many large scale programs and change initiatives. Back in 2009, I wrote a short review of Maurer’s other Kaizen book: The Kaizen Way: One Small Step Can Change Your Life.

Here are 5 small zingers from the book:

Full contribution. One failure of employee engagement work is the attempt to get everyone on the same page. The problem stems from not giving employees the opportunity to write on that page. As opposed to handing down the page or program Kaizen invites every member of an organization to contriubute, and the employees like the idea of being part of the solution.
Small steps to skip big fears. Our brains are wired to respond to change with fear and in the process deny us access to the mental resources we need to create change. Maurer claims that small steps are like cat burglars what quietly, slowly, and softly pad past your fears.
Three small steps to engagement and morale. Show appreciation, defuse difficult people, and encourage employees to take small steps toward solving their problems. It is amazing how many big scale changes are accomplished by repeatedly performing a few simple behaviors.
Get the ball rolling. Maurer talked about changes made by UPS to expand into Europe. David Abney the president of UPS stated: We chalked up a little success and then built on the momentum. You don’t notice a snowball going down a hill until it grows to become the size of the stomach of a big, fat snowman. Within months, we saw small changes that eventually snowballed into a turnaround.
Begin with small questions. Questions engage and small questions engage with less fear. Start your engagement by asking: What is the smallest way we could improve engagement at work. My favorite employee engagement question, seldom used is to ask employees at the end of the survey: What can you do right now to increase employee engagement right now for either yourself or another employee of our organization? Maurer holds a special regard for asking ourselves questions and not trying to answer them right away. Just keep asking and “let” the answer develop.

David Zinger is a global employee engagement expert who in 2013 has worked on engagement in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Berlin, Prague and New York. He builds and sustains his own engagement in small 24 minute periods. He has pioneered a number of small approaches to engagement. To access Mr. Zinger’s services email him: david@davidzinger.com.

5 Zingers on The Little Book of Talent (Daniel Coyle)

April 22, 2013 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Daniel Coyle wrote a practical and pithy book with 52 tips for improving your skills. I love this small 120 page book. Coyle gets right to the point and you are offered an eclectic collection of 52 tips to improve your skills.

Normally I choose 5 gems from different parts of a book. For this book I will write about the first 5 tips. I encourage you go get the book to read about the other 47. Here are 5 zingers on The Little Book of Talent:

Stare at who you want to become. Use models and watch people in person. Post pictures. Watch YouTube videos.
Spend fifteen minutes a day engraving the skill on your brain. Even a short period of focused time can help you engrave patterns of performance into your thinking and doing.
Steal without apology. Adopt or adapt the way someone else does something into your own repetoire.
Buy a notebook. Keep a journal, a blog, a collection on Evernote. Capture your learning and impressions.
Be willing to be stupid. When you reach beyond the familiar know that you will sometimes fall and fail. Embrace stupidity and banish perfection when you are building a new skill.

David Zinger is a global employee engagement expert who in 2013 has worked on engagement in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Berlin, Prague and New York. He builds his own skills and talents in 24 minute periods. To access Mr. Zinger’s services email him: david@davidzinger.com.