Employee Engagement: Resources for the Movement

Michael Lee Stallard — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:56:03 +0000

Here are resources I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in getting up to speed and understanding employee engagement as well as staying plugged-in to the emerging employee engagement marketplace of ideas. I will continue to add to this post as I consider new resources and I encourage you to add resources you highly recommend to the comments section below.

Overview of Employee Engagement

To begin, download this FREE digital copy of Fired Up or Burned Out: How to Reignite Your Team’s Passion, Creativity and Productivity. It describes the elements of a culture that motivates people to give their best efforts and align their behavior with organizational goals. The book was published by Thomas Nelson Publishers in 2007 and has been widely endorsed including by bestselling author Marshall Goldsmith, Leader to Leader founder Frances Hesselbien, and the global executive search firm founder Russell Reynolds, Jr., to name a few. Full disclosure: I wrote this book after years of research and I believe in its contents. The book includes 20 case studies of leaders throughout history from business, government, the social sector and sports who created cultures that engaged the people. It also contains best practices and group study questions. If you prefer a copy of the book over the download, you can purchase it through booksellers including Amazon.com or 800-CEO-READ. If you prefer to read a brief overview of the ideas from the book, here is a free download of the manifesto I wrote for changethis.com entitled The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage.

Other books I’ve read and highly recommend as overviews of employee engagement are The Enthusiastic Employee, First Break All the Rules and Happy Hour is 9-to-5.

Books on Organizations That Engage Employees

It’s Not About the Coffee by Howard Behar

Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Schultz

Setting the Table by Danny Meyer

Small Giants by Bo Burlingham

The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack and Bo Burlingham

Why Is Everyone Smiling? by Paul Spiegelman

[more to come]

Articles/Case Studies

Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway

Ed Camul of Pixar Animation

Chicago Bulls Basketball Dynasty

Frances Hesselbein of the Girl Scouts of the USA

A.G. Lafley of P&G

Ann Mulcahy of Xerox

Dr. Herbert Pardes of New York-Preybyterian Hospital

Howell Raines of The New York Times (Note: Shows How Not to Engage Employees)

Anita Roddick of The Body Shop

President FDR

Howard Schultz of Starbucks

The Rock band U2

General George Washington

World War II Generals Bradley, Marshall and Eisenhower

Employee Engagement Communities and Marketplace of Ideas

There are several organizations doing outstanding work on employee engagement that I have faith in based on my personal interactions with individuals in them.

The Employee Engagement Network, founded and maintained by David Zinger, is the best place to connect online with individuals who are interested in the field. It is an absolute must for anyone committed to advancing the field.

Other organizations I know and respect that are involved in employee engagement include:

American Society for Training and Development

American Management Association

Athenaonline.com (and its parent, the Institute for Management Studies)

Best Practice Institute

Blessing White

Corporate Executive Board’s Corporate Leadership Council

DDI

Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement (part of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism)

Gallup Organization

Great Place to Work Institute

Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership