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Get Small and Simple for Employee Engagement

August 25, 2015 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

In employee engagement — SMALL IS THE NEW SIGNIFICANT!

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How has that big employee engagement program been doing? Is your large employee engagement initiative making a difference? I have no doubt that employee engagement can make a big difference but that does not mean employee engagement approaches have to be big to matter. Small is the new significant.

Pyramid of Employee Engagement and Engaged Well-Being

We need to determine and act on small and simple behavioral practices that can be practiced daily by leaders, managers, and employees themselves. I am currently at work on taking the 10 block pyramid of employee engagement – making it action-oriented – articulating the actions as simple rules – and helping leaders, managers, and employees reduce the 10-block pyramid to a personalized 3-block pyramid embracing simple rules to govern their engagement work.

Here is a perspective from the School of Life that inspires me to keep on this path:

Rikyū reminds us that there is a latent sympathy between big ideas about life and the little everyday things, such as certain drinks, cups, implements and smells. These are not cut off from the big themes; they can make those themes more alive for us. It is the task of philosophy not just to formulate ideas, but also to work out mechanisms by which they may stick more firmly and viscerally in our minds.

David Zinger is an employee engagement speaker and expert from Winnipeg, Canada

3. Employee Engagement Creates Iatrogenic Disengagement – Adding More

May 22, 2014 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Stop with discretionary effort and making engagement something extra or more.

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This is the third post in a series on iatrogenic disengagement. Iatrogenic disengagement occurs when our efforts at employee engagement fail and cause disengagement. Read the first post here and read the second post here.

We may be causing disengagement when we keep asking or telling employees to do more or do extra. We may also be causing disengagement when we view employee engagement as something added or extra to what we are already doing at work.

Cure: The cure is to begin engagement by seeing what we can end or stop doing. To look at what we may be able to subtract rather than add. To ensure that engagement is not another program, rather it is integrated into all the facets of how we work, manage and lead. We must create space and room for engagement by eliminating, ending, subtracting, and reducing.

David Zinger Employee Engagement Speaker

David Zinger is an employee engagement speaker and expert who continues to focus intently on the small, simple, and significant things we can do to enhance employee engagement.

The 6S’s of Employee Engagement Actions

November 12, 2013 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

A Simple Guide to Employee Engagement Actions

I am currently creating a 12 module action-based course on engagement. It will help you with over 40 practical and tactical actions you can enact to increase and improve employee engagement for yourself or others at work. Below is a page on the 6’s of employee engagement actions from Module 1.

The 6 S’s acronym offers simple guidelines to determine, enact, and assess ideal actions to improve engagement as you apply the content and tools of the course.

Small – Small is the new significant. Steer clear of huge programs that are additive and overtax an already overloaded workforce.

Simple – Keep actions simple. We often race to find complex answers to big problems when simple things done daily may be the lever small enough to fully engage the organization.

Strong – Although the action can be small and simple strive to ensure it is powerful and robust.

Significant – The action should be significant, meaningful, and matter.

Strategic – The action should align and contribute to the overall strategy of the organization.

Sustainable – The action should be sustainable over time — accomplished by making the action small, simple, strong, significant, and strategic.

David Zinger is a Canadian and global employee engagement speaker. He is currently creating a powerful 12 module course on employee engagement. If you want to improve engagement where you work by getting involved with the course contact him today at: david@davidzinger.com

Employee Engagement Needs to Be Small, Simple, Strong, Significant, Strategic, and Sustainable

September 24, 2013 by David Zinger 2 Comments

I am personally and professionally moving to a more declarative approach to work and engagement based on small, simple, significant, and sustainable actions. I will leave big programs and initiatives to others. I want engagement now. I think we have undermined the value and sustainability of good people doing good work for good organizations in our search for excellence and constant striving for greatness. My proposal is not a moon shot but I do believe we can reach new heights in engagement with one small step by individuals translating to one giant leap for engagement and organizations.

We need a new equation to recalculate and improve employee engagement:

Strong Employee Engagement = Small Steps + Good Work.

Here are seven of my personal and professional adjustments to demonstrate the stronger yet small and significant approach to engagement:

A new simplified design of my site: www.davidzinger.com. This will keep being improved over the next six weeks. I encourage you to take a tour and let me know what you think of some of our first steps.
Shorter yet more frequent and powerful blog posts.
Powerful keynotes and courses based on small, simple, significant and sustainable actions based on the pyramid of employee engagement.
Meaningful coaching for engagement for HR professional and other managers/leaders wanting to improve engagement. I want to strengthen each client while multiplying the strength of one with the power of many in their organizations.
Fundamentally we change engagement with work one person at a time so I will offer coaching for individuals (leaders, managers, employees, or self-employed individuals) wanting to improve their own career and work engagement.
A powerful new course on work engagement fusing the themes of small, simple, strong, significant, and sustainable actions aligned the 10 block pyramid of engagement will be unveiled in February of 2014. After all, full work engagement is less than 10 blocks away. The course can be taken independently through 12 short modules once a week or once a month or it can be delivered as a half day or full day workshop for managers and leaders. Engage along with me, the best is yet to be.
I will slowly change my language from employee engagement to work engagement as engagement resides in the task, the context, others, and the organization. To me, it is less about being an employee and more about engaging with your work, your organization, with your co-workers, and with customers.

A sincere thank you to John Junson for all the work he has done on my work. We go back to grade nine at Bruce Junior High in Winnipeg and I know that my work would not be what it is without his efforts, influence, and perspective. His weekly cartoons on the employee engagement reminds me that “angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.” I also appreciate my “brand” new relationship with Shawn Phelps, she offered fresh eyes, strong suggestions, and a new buzz with engagement and honeybees.

Let’s get small and significant with engagement right now and change work for the better for everyone!

Go ahead and ask yourself: What is one small thing I can do right now to improve my own engagement with work or increase the engagement of another person?

David Zinger is a Canadian employee engagement and work engagement speaker, expert, and coach. David is on Google+

12 Daily Employee Engagement Prescriptions for 2012

January 3, 2012 by David Zinger Leave a Comment

Here are 12 prescriptions for Employee Engagement in 2012

Strive for everyday simple, small, and significant actions.
Lighten up your perspective, workload, and intensity.
Stop consuming information unless that information contributes to meaningful and important action.
Transform the endless quest of more and more into vital focused contribution.
Ask yourself if you really need any more data before you engage.
Only measure employee engagement elements that you are ready, willing, and able to change.
Set 3 to 6 daily focused power periods from 10 to 30 minutes to fully engage in specific tasks.
Be mindful and masterful in helping others engage more fully in their work.
Target achieving results and building relationships as your twin goals for engagement.
Make progress a daily work expectation, essential and experience.
Don’t let the allure and immediacy of social media fritter away time and energy for your important work.
Engagement only comes alive as a verb so engage today!

Prescription: Repeat daily for the remainder of 2012.

David Zinger looks forward to an engaging and productive 2012 as he follows his own prescription and also focuses on his 2012 three-word work theme: Stop – Focus – Finish.

Extra Strength Prescription to help you lighten up: