The Employee Engagement Network

Michael Kanazawa's Page

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Jacquie - You're so right. Especially when changes are taking place due to tough market conditions, it can be really hard to take the time to truly listen and to engage properly with employees. Thanks for the additional thoguhts on this topic.
Mike, web 2.0 technologies present great opportunities but I have not personally been involved. I have used film in a creative fly on the wall setting to demonstrate the change process and the people representation. This has without a doubt speede...
I hear this all the time. At one recent networking event another trainer told me that I should not even use the word change in my language as it causes most people to run. At one time I might have taken her advice. But this time, when I took a ste...
David, Thanks for the additions. You are right on point with the last sentence. We have been exploring new web 2.0 technologies for generating the kind of engagement and exchange of ideas that has traditionally needed to be done through workshop ...
Doug, Those quotes sound EXACTLY like the ones I've heard so many times as well. And it is astounding that something so powerful is so rare! We've tried to bottle up the learnings across companies between myself and my business partner/mentor/co-...
Michael, building on the points made by Guy, Ben, David and Doug, I too have found that involvement is the key ingredient in any successful change programme. To involve is to engage. I have facilitated change programmes in organisations by bringi...
Michael - you got that right. My research shows this is one of the single biggest reasons why change fails. Our people told me: We don’t finish what we start We don’t engage, we tend to dictate We are not specific enough We don’t communicate chan...
Michael, I love the title. I think we are living much more in a time of invitation than a time of imposition...even with the fearful economic cuts. I spent a few days in Europe listening to employee engagement survey work. Much of it was designed...

Profile Information

Who are you?
Early in my management career I worked in cubicle 4S450N, just down the hall from Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert (he was in 4S750R). That experience showed me the best, worst and funniest that corporate life has to offer. Since then I've been on a quest to find a better way.

That's taken me through running a corporate strategy team at a F500 telecom company, serving as a partner in a strategy consulting firm, and now serving as CEO of Dissero Partners and co-authoring BIG Ideas to BIG Results (FT Press/Pearson Hall, 2008).
What is your interest or involvement in employee engagement?
Our ACT (Accelerated Corporate Transformation) process is used by executives at companies driving strategic changes, launching major initiatives, taking over as new leaders, and boosting corporate perforamnce. One of the key ingredients of ACT is how to rapidly develop leaders at all levels who are truly engaged in the business. In fact, engagement is the topic of chapter 7 in BIG Ideas to BIG Results.
Website:
http://www.bigideastobigresults.com
Where are you located?
San Francisco Bay Area

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At 10:49am on December 12, 2008, Bay Jordan said…
Michael

I am delighted to receive such apositive response from you, and to learn that you have the same sense that there is great scope for us to share ideas and perhaps collaborate. It might be easier to communicate directly, so if you are agreeable you can email me at bay@zealise.com and I can tell you more.

Bay
At 6:36am on December 12, 2008, David Zinger said…
Michael,
I really like the new picture you posted. A fine image. Have a great holiday season.
David
At 12:55am on December 12, 2008, Bay Jordan said…
Hi Michael

Thank you for your reply to my question. It is obviously good advice and I will try to start working with publishers on that basis. Given you are a big ideas person and my ideas fit that category, I wonder whether you have any contacts in that field that I might "get in" with. At the moment it is a bit of a chicken and egg because I don't have a "name" or reputation.

Thanks
Bay
At 12:45am on November 12, 2008, Paul Herr said…
Hi Michael,

Your book sound very interesting. I, too, just wrote a book on employee engagement, but from a hard science perspective. I claim to have discovered the simplest, most logical and scientifically advanced approach to employee motivation on the market. Would you like to exchange a couple of chapters?

My book is titled "Primal Management: Unraveling the Secrets of Human Nature to Drive High Performance." It will be published in April, 2009 by the American Management Association (AMACOM Books).

Galley proofs will be out in early December and I am begining to work on the promotional plan for the book. Would you mind sharing your experiences in this department? For example, how involved did you get in promotion, and what worked best for you? Did the big national media cover your book? Also, did you hire an outside publicist or did you go with your publisher's internal publicist?

If you're curious about what I am doing, check out paulherrconsulting.com or primalmanagement.com. I just put these website up, so they are still rather crude.

My book includes an intrinsic reward survey and two metrics (Horsepower Metric and Tune-Up Metric) to track wether employees are functioning optimally or malfunctioning. You might find these tools useful in your consuting work.

A survey company called Quantum is currently testing my survey at 175 companies to see if it correlates with hard business outcomes like profitability and growth. Quantum currently administers 1 million employee engagement surveys at 4,000 companies. If the validation testing is successful, Quantum will begin marketing my survey tool in late December.

Well, it's late here in Wisconsin, so good bye for now.

Best,

Paul Herr MS, MBA
Author of Primal Management
At 10:45am on July 16, 2008, Wayne Turmel said…
Michael, a word of advice- never check your blackberry at 5:30 in the morning. In an early morning fit of incompetence I meant to erase your email from my handheld, and wound up erasing it entirely.... i'm going to grovel for forgiveness and ask you to resend it.
Thanks so much.
At 10:25am on July 2, 2008, Terrence Seamon said…
Hi Michael,
My colleague Florence Stone just showed me the article you wrote for Executive Matters on change programs. Nice article. I like how you bring in the importance of employee engagement.
Terry
At 12:13am on July 1, 2008, Michael Kanazawa said…
Jon,

In my work one of the keys has always been helping leaders at all levels engage their teams in designing action plans and "operationalizing" strategies. I recently was a guest blogger on Sramana Mitra's site (columnist for TheStreet.com) where I talk about the challenges of engaging global teams and some technology solutions. I'm interested in learning more about the best ways to keep a global team engaged with each other.

Blog post
or... http://www.sramanamitra.com/2008/06/15/engaging-your-global-team-new-technology-solutions
At 11:41pm on June 30, 2008, Jon Hoel said…
Thanks for joining Michael.

It'd be great if you could tell us a little bit about your interest in social media and what you hope to get out of the social media discussion.
At 5:41pm on June 29, 2008, Michael Kanazawa said…
Jon,

Thanks for starting up the new sub-group. Not sure where the conversation will go, but it is a very important topic and challenge for many leaders today. I'm especially interested in any new technologies that people find useful.
At 5:40pm on June 29, 2008, Jon Hoel said…
Michael,

Welcome to the new sub-group Using social media in the workplace. Please share any experiences comments or questions you may have.

I'll look forward to connecting with you around the topic.
 
 

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Welcome to the Employee Engagement Network. Click the PDF link above to learn ways to engage here.

Latest Activity

In our previous survey, with the question "What you dislike most in the organization?", most answers are: - Not propper performance assessment, and its affecting to their career path. - Not enough opportunities or wrong assignment, so they can not...
Hi Murali First of all - Thanx for your comments! I fully agree on the role "Communication' plays. I had put it as one most important word for EE when David had asked for. I had put it like giving Ear to employees. Which practically translates as ...
Frode Heimen added 3 blog postsyesterday
Hi Craig! Thank you so much for your help and feedback! It means a lot to me.
Hi Vijay As a practitioner of human resources, and healthy EE practices, I would attach 'communication' paramount importance. Every employee feels good when he is communicated to by the organization and its leadership. It is so critical to keep co...
Craig Althof added a discussionyesterday
(whew…I wore myself out thinking about the title for this discussion!) Father Jim Roselli recently joined our merry troupe of troubadours. His background and interests were intriguing to me, and I noted him: I am looking forward to a dialogue on ...
Values and strengths..... the closer the match with the organization and position, the more engaged the individual. Had to dig a bit deeper for this stuff. First, a great parable from Soar With Your Strengths (book highly recommended)..Let the Ra...
Greetings once again, Frode: What you are laying out is absolutely critical. I posted a blog some time ago that is dead-on with what you are embarking on, based on personal experience. A short excerpt: The depth of my passion for the BlessingWhi...
Gordon Schmidt, Noah P and George Pór joined The Employee Engagement Networkon Saturday
Hi Goug I welcome your comments. Thanx for the posting. I would further like you to express your experiences on what people dislike most in the org.. vijay
Matthias Olavi updated their profileon Saturday
David Zinger added a videoon Saturday
A wonderful 1 minute review of famous failures. Don't let failure thwart your engagement with your work.
David Zinger left a comment for George Póron Saturday
Salvatore: Indeed networking is old. I was in Nipawin Saskatchewan 1 month ago. Went for a run at 6:30 a.m. I passed Carla's dinner and outside there were 14 pick up trucks parked. Inside the farmers were having coffee and conversation. I bet it w...
Not been around lately, but always willing to join the conversation. Net working is an ancient activity when you think about it. What technology offers us -- is the ability to carry out our intentions. Someone smarter then me, taught me that. One...
Earl Gray updated their profileon Saturday

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