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?
Category Archives: Intentional Connectors
Great News Today From Katie’s Oncologist
Forgive me for this self indulgent post but I feel like shouting to the world what my wife Katie’s oncologist just told us today: Katie is not likely to have a recurrence of ovarian cancer after being in remission for nearly five years now. We celebrated the good news with Dr. Hensley, our oncologist, and Nick the doorman (and now receptionist) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who I’ve written about.
In honor of the occasion, I’m posting an essay I wrote about our experience, how our family members and friends helped us through a difficult season, and how the experience changed my life. Feeling that people really cared for Katie and our family helped me see how important relationships are in life and to employee engagement in the workplace. Here’s the essay:
Many inspiring articles have been written about cancer survivors and how the experience of facing cancer and overcoming it changed their lives. Fewer are the stories of those who walk beside them. Just as a stone tossed into still waters sends ripples to every shore, the impact of a cancer diagnosis stirs up the lives of more than just the patient. This is my story of walking beside my wife Katie during her battle against first one cancer and then a second a year later, a journey that has changed my life in expected and unexpected ways.
Will You Surf The Perfect Storm Ahead…or Be Drowned By It?
Following is a sneak peak of an article I wrote for the American Management Association’s Journal. It’s about the necessity for organizations to increase employee engagement (including leadership development, team building and talent management) as the forces of globalization and demographics collide.
A perfect storm is brewing that will threaten many a firm’s survival in the decades ahead. Market forces, like storm fronts, are colliding to produce volatile conditions. Companies that anticipate and prepare for these threats can convert them into major opportunities to leap ahead of their competitors. There’s plenty of evidence that savvy companies are already moving to gain a competitive edge. Rather than being crushed by the massive waves, these companies are effectively surfing them and will leave competitors in their wake.
Strip Joints, Salesmen and Employee Engagement
John (not his real name) read Fired Up or Burned Out and contacted me about a dilemma he faced. John is a salesperson. One evening following dinner with a customer, John’s boss said he was taking the customer and John to a strip joint. John’s boss does this regularly and views it as a legitimate best practice among salespeople. John’s wife learned about it and expressed her disappointment. She also warned that if it happened again, she would leave him. John understood her disgust. He felt disappointed too. John told me that frequenting strip clubs was against his values. He also disclosed that he had little financial resources as well as a wife and several children to support, some of them in college. He asked me for advice. What would you advise John to do?
The Incredibles: Everyone has a “Voice” at Pixar
Connection Cultures have three elements: Vision, Value and Voice. When people feel connected to the organization’s identity, to their colleagues and to their day-to-day tasks, they thrive (and so does their organization). Here’s a link to an article in Harvard Business Review by Pixar CEO Ed Catmull about how Pixar fosters creativity. It should come as no surprise that Voice is an integral part of Pixar’s culture. With a string of hits that are the envy of the entertainment industry, I think it’s fair to say Pixar is thriving. You might even conclude, they’re “Incredible!”
To learn more about Connection Cultures and how they increase employee engagement, productivity and innovation, download “The Connection Culture Manifesto“at changethis.com.
Webcast with David Zinger, Employee Engagement Expert and Founder of the Employee Engagement Network
Join me tomorrow at 11:00 AM Eastern when I will host a webcast with David Zinger, employee engagement expert and founder of The Employee Engagement Network. David has a wealth of knowledge and wisdom, as well as strength of character. He’s an inspiration to me and to many other professionals who work helping organizations engage their employees. In the webcast David will share his thoughts about the diverse connections that help engage people. To sign up for the webcast, click on employee engagement. If you are unable to join the live webcast, you can still click on the link to see the webcast recording.
IBM: Big, Blue and Damn Proud of It
Wow! The more I look at IBM, the more I like what I see. They* have smart people. They have scale. They have a global presence. They’re doing cool things that help organizations perform better and cranking out patents at an unbelievable pace. If that’s not enough, the IBM culture seems to get better all the time and they’re leveraging the strength of culture with cutting edge social networking capabilities that connect IBMers so that they are “better together.”
In recent interactions with IBMers, I’ve noticed a sense of pride about being at IBM that I haven’t seen in 20 years. There are clear signs to me that IBM is developing the Connection Culture I write about. Take a look at CEO Sam Palmisano’s inspiring email about the importance of IBM values and how they were developed through collaboration via IBM’s “Values Jam.” Check out IBM’s “Beehive” social networking capability.
I suspect these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for more. In the coming months I’ll be learning and sharing much more about IBM and other organizations that are helping their employees feel connected to their corporate identity (mission, values and reputation), to the people they work with and to their daily tasks at work.
* I intentionally use the term “they” rather than “it.” Although organizations are a legal person they are, in reality, a community of people. It’s healthier, in my view, to refer to and think of organizations in this way.
Increasing Employee Engagement at Lockheed Martin
Recently I presented to a group of 60 leaders at Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense company. The leaders I met were part of the aerospace group. It was an inspiration for me to hear their stories including one about a dramatic savings of time and money when a front line worker’s idea led to a software breakthrough. I was pleased to see some business units were using the Start-Stop-Continue exercise. Both of these reflect the Connection Culture element of Voice. I was also inspired hearing how one leader felt extremely proud of his company and its important work when his young son saw up close the remarkable military aircraft his dad worked on (which reflects the element of Vision). I get goosebumps just thinking about these stories and how the bright, dedicated and motivated employees at Lockheed Martin are creating a Connection Culture!
U2’s Unity Featured in the American Management Association’s “Moving Ahead” Publication
An article I wrote on the band U2 was just published by the American Management Association as the lead article in its popular Moving Ahead: Management Insights for Business Success publication. The article is entitled “Great Teams: The Extraordinary Unity of U2.” Thanks goes to Shari Lifland, the editor of Moving Ahead, who made some very clever changes from the original article that was published last month in The Economic Times in India.
Are Weak Connections Via Twitter Worthwhile?
Clive Thompson wrote a fascinating article for the weekend’s The New York Times Magazine entitled “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy.” I clearly see the benefit of weak connections online that come from LinkedIn and Facebook. I question the value of weak connections that are less substantive in nature, the type that are maintained via Twitter, especially if it crowds out time for personal reflection which I believe is necessary to thrive in life. What do you think?