How to energize your organization

I just discovered a fascinating article that appeared in the Sloan Management Review about how individuals increase energy in organizations. Several of the practices are germane to employee engagement and Connection Culture Theory. Here’s a copy of the article what-creates-energy-in-organizations

Note: The free download of this article was available on co-author Professor Wayne Baker’s website at the University of Michigan.

Q&A from My AMA Webcast on Employee Engagement

During the recent webcast I did for the American Management Association, participants submitted more questions than we were able to answer in the allotted 15 minutes for Q&A. The AMA sent me the questions so that I could answer them on my blog. Although I am not able to answer them all at once, I will continue to chip away at the list and post all the answers below.

Speaking at a Social Media Conference in San Francisco

I wanted to let you know that I will be presenting at the Advanced learning Institute’s “Social Media For Internal Communications Conference: How To Engage Employees, Drive Change & Improve Your Bottom Line Using BLOGGING, PODCASTING & The Latest WEB 2.0 Technologies,” November 17-20, 2008 in San Francisco, CA.  This conference will focus on how to use social media for internal communications and leverage the latest interactive tools and techniques to advance your organizational goals. You can save $200 by mentioning email code “SPK” when registering and another $400 on top of that if you register by October 2nd (the “early bird” registration deadline).

My session topic will be:“Giving Employees A Voice: How H&R Block Built An Online Community”

For more information or to register, see below or click 
here to go to the conference website. 

Hope to see you there!

Book Review: Why is Everyone Smiling?

Paul Spiegelman, CEO of the Beryl Companies, has written a wonderful book about Beryl Companies and its extraordinary culture.  Rather than write a review of Paul’s book, I’m posting the review written by the business maven and book reviewer extraordinaire Robert Morris (see below).  On Monday at 11:00 AM Eastern, I will be hosting a webcast with Paul Spiegelman and you can sign up for it by clicking on employee engagement.

Robert Morris review of Why Is Everyone Smiling?

Do Your Company’s Mission, Vision and Values fall flat?

A well-articulated mission, vision and set of values increases employee engagement. It’s the responsibility of an organization’s leadership to understand and communicate mission, vision and values. Sadly, most leaders dismiss it as window dressing. Great leaders, however, are serious about this responsibility. Howard Schultz of Starbucks did a remarkable job when he wrote the book Pour Your Heart Into it. Here’s another outstanding example below from the commander of the nuclear submarine, the U.S.S. Montpelier. Next month Jason Pankau and I will holding a training session for managers at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics. They build nuclear submarines. When I recently read Montpelier Command Philosophy, my thoughts were on the people I’ve met and worked with at Lockheed Martin Aerospace and who build and maintain military aircraft and those I’ll meet who build nuclear submarines. Their work is so important to protect liberty on the world. I hope they appreciate it.

The USS Montpelier Command Philosophy