Robert McKee is a master of story.

He offers a short insightful video look at the power of story to engage.

• Are you relying too much on data data, authority authority
• Are you relying too much on coercion: bribe, bully, coerce?
• Are you making use of story?

Robert provides us with a strong 6 minute powerful “PowerPointless” video on how to use story to engage. He concludes with the comment, “I’d rather hear a fact woven beautifully into a story than look at a pie chart.”

If the video fails to load in this window, click here.

Don’t wait until once upon a time, start making use of story in your employee engagement work today.

Here is the description that accompanies the YouTube video:

The lovely and amazing performance poet Gabrielle Bouliane performs for the audience at the Austin Poetry Slam.

This would be her last public performance.

Gabrielle was diagnosed with Stage Four Cancer shortly before this video was filmed. Our dear sister fought hard, but she ended her fight January 29, 2010. She was surrounded by family and friends, and her passing was in a very quiet, peaceful room full of love and affection. She was so brave.

Please share this video with everyone you know. I am sure it would tickle her to no end to have this video get as viral as a video can be. Tell the world.

Bunny up!

Warning. She uses strong language but this is a a much needed strong message.

If the video fails to open in this window, click here.

Are you ready for major Marshall Goldsmith Mojo?

Marshall’s Mojo. Are you working with Mojo and does your work give you Mojo? Marshall Goldsmith’s latest book is called Mojo. My mental image of Mojo is often something coming from a 7 foot 260 pound NBA player driving to the net so it is intriguing to watch the gentle but tenacious CEO coach with a Buddhist background, Marshall Goldsmith, focus on Mojo.

Mojo and Nojo. Here is a  diagram from one of Marshall Goldsmith’s Business Week posts last year:

Mojo defined.  Marshall Goldsmith explained Mojo in his latest newsletter:

My definition of Mojo spins off from the great value I attach to finding happiness and meaning in life.  Mojo plays a vital role in our pursuit of happiness and meaning because it is about achieving two simple goals: loving what you do and showing it.

These goals govern my operational definition:

Mojo is that positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside.

To attain Mojo, we must consider what we can start doing in order to achieve more meaning and happiness in our lives. That’s the payoff of having Mojo. More meaning. More happiness. It’s not just for organization al leaders; it’s for all of us, and it applies to all aspects of our lives because, as our research clearly documents, people with high Mojo at work tend to have high Mojo at home.

Video explanation of Mojo. Watch Marshall offer this 3 minute presentation:

If the video fails to load, click here.

5 Mojo questions:

1. Do you have clarity on what gives you meaning?
2. Do you have clarity on what contributes to your happiness?
3. How are you doing at finding, creating, sustaining and engaging in Mojo endeavors.
4. Are you tapping into your inner spirit that fuels your energy for employee engagement and also returns that energy back to you?
5. What can you do right not to start and extend more Mojo moments?

Next step. Read Marshall’s Mojo book and find your Mojo.

—–

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement expert. He founded and hosts the 2012 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com.

1. Positive psychology view of empowerment at work. http://bit.ly/9xFcs6

2. Great Break. Death Cab for Cutie – Little Bribes. http://bit.ly/9xF43T

3. How to face your critics from John Baldoni, HBR. http://bit.ly/cz1ANq

4. A transtional/transformational experience to being laid off. Lemonade the movie. http://bit.ly/aTwQv9

5. Walden 2.0. Poetry. Warsaw. Etc. Read David Zinger’s last 20 employee engagement blog posts. http://bit.ly/cfj7x

6. 2010 Employee Engagement Network. 2010 members now in the year 2010. http://bit.ly/rKCXH

7. Elizabeth Perry offers a 5 second tea break by looking at her drawing. http://bit.ly/9EojR9

8. 6 Questions to Increase your Accountability Muscle http://bit.ly/a186AZ

9. 7 questions for influence by Steve Roesler. http://bit.ly/d0wt9I

10. Still Employed…Still Dissatisfied. http://bit.ly/bcudeb

11. Grow your people, grow your business http://bit.ly/9sg5Sx

12. The risks of disengaged employees grow more real… http://bit.ly/bNM1v7

13. 6 Ways to Empower Employees as Brand Advocates Online. http://bit.ly/atT06z

14. Keys to Employee Engagement from Canada’s Best. http://bit.ly/coPDkx

15. America’s Unhappy Workers – Inclusion, Creativity, Flexibility Key to Turning Things Around. http://bit.ly/cp2Wkt

16. Great discussion forum on questioning employee engagement. http://bit.ly/9YRe74

17. This year’s survey also underlines the important role managers have in keeping their team productive and motivated. http://bit.ly/aDVeXc

18. Some keys points about employee engagement surveys. http://bit.ly/9aZ5v3

19. 47 well composed slides on A Field Guide for Change Agents. http://bit.ly/dvk5F9

20. Terrific motivation post from HBR . People tend to think of themselves as stories. http://bit.ly/dyibjU

21. That’s Right. Going from Great to Good. It is good enough for me. http://bit.ly/9QVwcF

22. Employee Engagement. What’s a Leader to do?: http://bit.ly/aA6Yne

—–

David Zinger, M.Ed., is an employee engagement expert. He founded and hosts the 2012 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com.

A Saturday afternoon experiment. I started this community 2 years ago on January 26th., 2008. It began as a Saturday afternoon experiment. My motive was to learn more about social networks for business and to see if I could gather 50 to 100 people together on the topic of Employee Engagement. I succeeded on both counts!

Our 2000th. member. Bev Mate – a director of competency development for HR in New York – is our 2000th member. Of course she would not be 2000th without the joining of 1999 members before her.

My contributions. I have worked hard to make this a welcoming, connected, informed, and engaged community. My work has ranged from personally welcoming every new member to suggesting, compiling, and creating our free resources. I have learned so much from this community and can only imagine how much I will learn from them this decade.

300 rejections. I have also declined about 300 members who wanted to join but were not really focused on the topic and may have had other motives to join and use the community.

A special thanks to John Junson. This network would not be what it is without the contributions of John Junson. John, is a friend of mine from grade 9 at Bruce Junior High in Winnipeg. John has enhanced the design, created compelling graphics, designed the e-books and book, and also created 2  great work related cartoons every week! Thank you John.

Our contributions. A huge thank you to everyone who has joined and an even bigger thank you to all the members who have made such fine contributions:

• We have created 3 great free ebooks.
• We are publishing a top 10 book.
• We have 113 videos to view related to employee engagement.
• We have 507 forums for open discussions on employee engagement topics.
• We have 556 blog posts.
• We have 26 special interest groups.

Our future. We have a network on employee engagement that has grown to 2000 members, has become a community and is headed towards becoming a strong movement. We are the #1 place to be for employee engagement.

—–

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert. He founded and hosts the 2000 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership.

Book David for education, speaking, and coaching on engagement today for 2010.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com.

Frigid January in Warsaw

walking down windy frozen streets

in the city leveled

to ruin and rubble (1945).

Chopin pieces play from

push button street benches

giving note to his 200th birthday.

As the frozen mermaid stands guard

singing a song of resilient rejuvenation.

Walking in Warsaw

I realize

we can rebuild,

we can always rebuild.

There is no quit in Warsaw

Warszawa – Dziękuję bardzo .

Employees need to monitor and receive daily engagement data.

We cannot withhold employee engagement data from employees

if we expect data to become a measure and a motivator of engagement.

Daily employee engagement. This is a weekly reporting of a one year project monitoring, measuring, and assessing daily employee engagement. You can see the  original project plan, intention, measures and tools by  clicking here.

Challenged in week 3 and 4. Week 3 and 4 became more of a challenge in the daily monitoring of employee engagement. Part of the reason was a trip to Warsaw Poland right in the middle of this time.  I have inserted a screen shot picture of the data for the last two weeks of engagement.

Here are my week 3 and 4 reflections:

Assessment and Review. There was an overall consistency in scores as they begin to average out yet there were daily fluctuations from scores of 94% and 92% for the last two days of week 4 and 54% for the Tuesday of the same week. I was very challenged to conduct daily monitoring and it was easy to let the scoring slide. I believe the lack of engagement in monitoring is a problem that can allow my work engagement to slip. Monitoring is making me more aware of the variability in daily engagement.

Engagement in Teaching. Teaching or education days are the days of highest engagement for me personally.

Conclusions and Recommendations.  It was surprising to see the consistency of average scores but I know the project itself is a great tool to be mindful of engagement. Getting data and reflecting on data about engaged performance is great feedback and motivation to change.

Employee Engagement Overall Take-away. I think the first month of the project indicated how important it is to give employees the data of their own engagement and to offer that data back as quick as possible. Ultimately during this decade, I believe it will be imperative to move away from yearly surveys to real time daily data that is shared with all and makes use of hand held technology.

—–

David Zinger is an employee engagement expert. He founded and hosts the 2000 member Employee Engagement Network. His website offers 1000 articles relating to employee engagement and strength based leadership. David is available forl education, speaking, and coaching on engagement.

Email: dzinger@shaw.ca  Phone 204 254 2130  Website: www.davidzinger.com.

1. Wicked PDF. How can we use cooperative action & deliberative democracy to make life better? http://bit.ly/dt5jHa

2. How do you engage people not to wear pants on the subway? http://bit.ly/baTlrs

3. Make your model sharper. Rajesh Setty. http://bit.ly/aaUxX3

4. Take Me to Pandora, or The Positive Psychology of Avatar by Louis Alloro http://bit.ly/9UuxX9

5. Engaging Work Dialogues. Another close look at dialogue at work by Jerry Pounds. http://bit.ly/bbghLy

6. Living on the Edge of Incompetence. Another fine post from my friend Scott H. Young. http://bit.ly/94WRPY

7. Values Are The Bedrock of Hard Reality. Rosa Say said it well. http://bit.ly/a3k6HL

8. Dan Oestreich writes magnificently. I appreciated his post ON APPRECIATION. http://bit.ly/a9Zm07

9. Building a White Paper – Images as bricks and text as mortar. Get the picture! http://bit.ly/96mBt9

10. No Hurry, No Worry. Build your Zen habits. http://bit.ly/bcl02M

11. Work-Life Initiatives are the Foundation of Authentic Organizations ~ CV Harquail’s work. http://bit.ly/d2dUzO

12. Why should anyone care about you? Seth Godin interview. Well done by Rick Cecil. http://bit.ly/9k6VTe

13. 3 ways to give the best of yourself by Anita Bruzzese http://bit.ly/dy962R

14. Reconcile Your Relational Accounts. Right on by Steve Roesler. http://bit.ly/9NqjTW

15. 10.6.2 theory: Employee engagement 10% increase -> increase discretionary effort 6%, performance 2%. http://bit.ly/bcGfUv

There are lessons to be learned here for employee engagement. We will need team leaders, architects, P.R. specialists, espionage experts, and C.F.O.s:

Gary Hayes created this terrific collection of 1000 quotations relating to social media:

Work has a different pace

than a 2 minute downhill Olympic ski race.

Relax into your daily performance

and you will sustain work for an entire career

while constant and never ending improvement

has you chasing pots of gold

at the end of rainbows.

If you give 110% you are giving more than you’ve got.

If you go the extra mile you will pass your destination.

And even if you go the extra yard will may end up out of bounds.

Burning the midnight oil is too much focus on toil

without a restful lack of focus, called sleep.

Good is good enough

without having to go to great

and you don’t have to burn out to avoid fading away.

Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are

for exquisite employee engagement

preventing you from missing

your four year old daughter’s surprise birthday party.

Rat races are only for rats

and work does not have to be a myopic focus on going downhill fast.

Perhaps stronger is lower and slower not

Citius Altius Fortius

…

Photo Credit: Creative commons ski photo from Flickr.

Employee engagement is specific. We cannot sustain engagement all the time and everywhere. When we talk about engagement we need to ask: Who is engaged, with what,  for how long, and for what purpose?

Employee engagement is connection. Connection is the key.  When we disconnect we disengage. Employee engagement is the art and science of engaging people in authentic and recognized connections to strategy, roles, performance, organization, community, relationship, customers, development, energy, and happiness to leverage, sustain, and transform work into results

Employee engagement must create results that matter. This means results that are important to the employee, manager, leaders, organization, and customers. There is little point in having engaged employees if they are not contributing and creating significant results. Also, if the results only matter to the organization and not the employee – or the employee and not the organization – employee engagement will not sustain over time.

Employee engagement is always a human endeavor. Engagement is depersonalized when we refer to employees as human capital or human resources. I manage capital or resources, I work with people! Engagement will involved thinking, behavior, emotions, and relationships.

Employee engagement is fueled by energy. We must pay close attention to mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual energy at work. In addition we need to enhance organizational energy through meaningful connections and high quality interactions.

Employee engagement is more encompassing than motivation. Employee engagement embraces our emotions about work, how hard we work, how much we care about the organization, etc. It is a richer and more complex concept than  motivation and includes bidirectional engagement from managers, leaders, and organizational communities.

Employee are responsible for their own engagement, we are all accountable for everyone’s engagement. No one has a bigger role in engagement than the individual themselves – if engagement it to be it is up to me. We are accountable for other people’s engagement and we can influence their engagement – if engagement is to be it is up to we.

Employee engagement makes a difference. Employee engagement can improve organizational performance while also contributing to individual performance. Engagement is much more than an attitude, a feeling, or employee satisfaction.

Employee engagement is vital in recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. The majority of workers want to be engaged and look for work that will engage them. People will often leave organizations when they feel disengaged. It may even be worse for all if they remain when they are disengaged.

Employee engagement is here and now. Don’t wait for survey results or diagnosis from a management consultant. Look at the work you are doing right now and determine how you can engage with it more fully. Look at who you are working with and determine how you can help them to be more engaged.

—–

Principles created and revised by David Zinger

www.davidzinger.com /  dzinger@shaw.ca

January 26, 2010

Think again and check out these numbers:

1. 3 business scale questions:1. globe-spanning? 2. world-changing? 3. life-altering? http://bit.ly/8bXTES

2. The 7 Psychological Principles of Scams: Protect Yourself by Learning the Techniques http://bit.ly/4XzUms

3. You must read Sandy Pentland. Big impact next 10 years. Measure the Power of Charisma. http://bit.ly/5LV53e

4. Getting through your day. Are you scripting or improvising? http://bit.ly/8JqSqP

5. Good review of SWAT. Helpful journey though working. Review by Scot Herrick http://bit.ly/5cSu70

6. Free 33 page ebook. Over 100 contributors with 1 sentence each on how to manage employee engagement. http://bit.ly/52q4Ws

7. Carl Rogers has much to teach business about authenticity and relationships. Thanks Lisa Haneberg. http://bit.ly/6PlFuW a

8. Work as play video from Alan Watts. Thanks Alexander Kjerulf http://bit.ly/8hUwKn

9. Is data crowding out faith and action? Good pity points by Seth Godin. http://bit.ly/5kuokd

10. How do you learn a foreign language (or just about anything)? Scott H. Young. http://bit.ly/6JlTps

11. Start your day with 3 stories. Well done and very helpful. http://bit.ly/4G0PXg

12. What we expect from real leaders. I expected nothing less from Steve Roesler. http://bit.ly/4FEbJ9

13. Anemic sterile words. The hole in the soul of business. http://bit.ly/4Agjkb

14. Steve Nash the master of the pass, quickness and improvisation. Model for business and basketball. Love it. http://bit.ly/4wkd1W

15. Open your book open up employee engagement. Thanks for link M. Stallard. http://bit.ly/717wC5

16. 49 new members joined the free and freeing employee engagement network this week. http://bit.ly/rKCXH

17. @junson takes a CLOSE view of office romance in latest cartoon on the Employee Engagement Network. http://bit.ly/rKCXH

Command and control
lose their seat
to conversation and collaboration.

Organizations humanize into communities
while impositions
quiet respectfully into invitations.

Hierarchy is redrawn on the napkin
into a matrix.

Leadership levels
while mastering management
means
shifts happen.

Our white space decade ahead
invites us to get morph from management
than we ever imagined.

…

Photo Credit: Chair Series; Red on Flickr

Are you a manager looking for advice on how to improve employee engagement?

Do you know a manager who could use some help improving employee engagement?

Do you lack the time to read a long book on employee engagement but you are searching for short helpful sentences that could make a difference to your efforts.

Over 100 contributors offer an eclectic pluralism of voices and perspectives on employee engagement.

View and download this great 33 page resource for managers.

The Employee Engagement Network, founded by David Zinger,  is offering our third major collaboration. Over 100 members have created employee engagement advice for managers in one sentence.

This excellent free E-book offer managers the opportunity to find timely ideas and powerful pithy perspectives to play a stronger role in improving employee engagement in their organizations.

Click the link or picture of the cover below to view or download this great PDF resource.

Employee Engagement Manager Free Ebook

Here is the Wikipedia explantion of Whuffie:

Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorow’s science fiction novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. This book describes a post-scarcity economy: All the necessities (and most of the luxuries) of life are free for the taking. A person’s current Whuffie is instantly viewable to anyone, as everybody has a brain-implant giving them an interface with the Net. The term has since seen some adoption as a synonym for social capital, including its use in the title of the Tara Hunt book The Whuffie Factor.

Tara Hunt, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,  has created an informative  slide presentation for a 3-hour Whuffie Workshop she gave to Best Buy. Here is an image of one of the key slides.

View the entire 114 slides below and determine the role of employee engagement in creating good Whuffie.