primers for engaging confersations

The

EmployeeEngagement

Network

Primers for Engaging Conversations

Welcome from David Zinger

In the age of engage I believe conversations become one of our key tools to cre-ate engagement. How do we prime engaging conversations?. Our various authors offer an eclectic collection of good questions and strong phrases to prime engage-ment. We only excerpted the key statement or question from each author. Many of our authors had more to say than we could put in this book so I encourage you to visit http://employeeengagement.ning.com/forum/topics/primers-for-engaging to learn more about the context and contribution from each author or to directly link to go to the each contributor’s personal pages on the network.

Thanks to all the contributing authors from the Employee Engagement Network, to Craig Althof for editing and suggesting the e-book, and to John Junson for his stellar design work.

David ZingerFounder of the Employee Engagement Networkwww.davidzinger.comwww.employeeengagement.ning.com

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http://employeeengagement.ning.com/forum/topics/primers-for-engaging

www.davidzinger.com

www.employeeengagement.ning.com

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Introduction from Craig Althof

Questions Anyone?

Aren’t questions intriguing? That subtle rising inflection in the voice opens a magical door, prompting others to think. Does that make questions more essential than the answers they evoke?

Questions may engage others, gently nudging them toward that magical state we are committed to pursuing. This e-book set out to capture some of those engaging questions.

A question intended to ask of others may also be engaging introspectively. Why not ask yourself some of the questions that follow? I tried it, and it works! Be honest, give the question the consideration it deserves and see where it leads you.

Here’s an intriguing question….does asking engaging questions of others serve to more fully engage the questioner? Or is that a question for another time?


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A question is just a bunch of words followed by a funny-looking punctuation mark, until it is asked with sincerity. And, as my senior leader reminded me the day before I set out to finish organizing our e-book’s contributions…if you ask a bear to dance you’d better be ready to keep dancing until the bear wants to stop.

Are you ready to dance with the bear?

David said that after viewing the contributions for this project through the eyes of an editor, I would gain a much deeper appreciation for the individual and collective con-tributions. He was right. I am honored to have been involved with this project.

Thank you!

Craig Althof


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Terrence Seamon

Julie Lynch

What do you think?David Marklew

Tell me more.

OK team, this is going to be a tough year ahead. To get through it, we need everyone’s ideas. All input is welcome. What are your thoughts on ways we can weather this crisis?

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Debora McLaughlin

Marc Michaelson

How much do you feel a part of this community?Doug Shaw

Is the work you are doing aligned with your core values?

Imagine it is December 2011 and we are celebrating our great suc-cess, we achieved more than we ever envisioned: what happened that brought us here?

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Phil Gerbyshak

Sybil F. Stershic

What are some of our Square Wheels?Dr. Scott Simmerman

If you were a well-respected consultant in our industry, what advice would you give this company?

What have you done in the last month that’s excited you the most?

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Roberta Monville

Jeannette Paladino

I want to understand every roadblock in the way of making you successful.John Hallonquist

How can I help you achieve your professional goals?

How well do you feel you are adapting to changes taking place within your role, team, and/or the organization?

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Karl Edwards

Marjorie Munroe

If you could make one improvement to the way we work, what would it be?Les Hudson

I would like to better understand your perspective on this.

What disincentives to taking ini-tiative would a visitor observe in our company?

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Randi Sandlin

Julia Benbow

How can I help you today?Kathy Legg

How can we do unto our employees as we would have them do unto our customers?

If you were king (or queen) of this company, what would you do here?

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Terrence Seamon

Naomi Caietti

What three things can we do as individ-uals and as a team, to ensure we meet our professional aspirations?

Ashim

As leaders in this organization what inno-vative initiatives could we develop together to foster growth of high performing teams and delivery of competitive services in the marketplace?

Team, now that we have turned the corner and are starting to hire again, what are your ideas for shaking off the gloom of the past couple years and getting everyone engaged, en-thused, and energized again?

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Dick Friedman

John W. Hall

Is the work that you are doing giving you a sense of satisfaction?Kanupriya

What’s the best thing we can do for our customers today?

What is it that you and your team are doing well that we should be recognizing you for?

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Laura Huckabee-Jennings

Suzanne Mitten

What are you going to do today to help at least one person thrive?Roy Saunderson

What can I do to be a beneficial presence at work?

What part of the current situation do you own, and what can you per-sonally do to encourage a change?

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Michelle M. Smith

Skip Weisman

What do you as a person and in your role want to contribute to our collective dream?Katharina Schmidt

What 3 things do you see are in the way of our team performing at higher levels, and what would you suggest we do about them that would make the biggest difference?

Tell me how we might incorporate elements from your most fulfilling professional experience you’ve ever had to enrich your role, add value to the organization, and help you thrive personally.

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Susan Costante

Craig Althof

In what ways do you recognize your employees for good work? Bonnie Mattick

What’s your “One Thing”?

Many of us have one “To Do” on our list which keeps getting de-pri-oritized, what is stopping you from accomplishing that item today?

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Maggie Chicoine

Jeremiah Soucie

Help me learn more about you. What are your thoughts and feelings about your work, your goals, what’s working, and what would you like to change?

Rosemarie McGuire

What are the barriers, hurdles, or obstacles that prevent you from being in the present moment?

On this blank piece of paper, write your “contrarian” perspective about the issue we’re discussing, starting with the words “Ya But...”

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Sayeda Homam

David Marklew

How could you personally make the greatest contribution to what needs to be done in the organization?

Michelle M. Smith

How can I help you achieve even more today?

If each one of us is an enterprise, what are the changes that we will bring to our enterprise for the great-er good of our company: what are some of the things that you would stop doing right away if you could?

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Glain Roberts-McCabe

Dorothy Matthew

If you were in charge what’s the first thing you would change, and with what intention?

Anja Schuetz

What should we stop doing, start doing and continue to do, to make sure 2011 is our best year yet?!

One of the things that I love about what we do here is that it’s not just about putting money on the bottom line; we’re changing our clients lives.

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Kristin Reed

Carl Bonura

Would you team with me to change paradigms, look to future with a much wider and brighter outlook and harvest the goodies of being out of the box?

Ned K. Kaloub

Do we have an engagement strategy that truly supports the company’s mission, vision, values and goals?

Tell me about your favorite thing to do outside of work: what is it, what specifically are you doing, and how does it make you feel?

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Glain Roberts-McCabe

Scott H. Span

This organizations’ mission and initia-tives are a collaboration. Only together can we come up with the best way to build our future. Where do you think we should be going next?

Gordon Schmidt

You and your ideas and input are valued in this organization, so please share.

Let’s talk about how we’re going to raise the bar for ourselves this year.

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Kevin Burns

Rudolf Peter Lanc

What really worked for you today and what was frustrating for you today?Ray Baumruk

If business success is a reflection on how we all wish to develop ourselves to be a success, what would you do to try your best for all around you as well as yourself?

If you need to run something by me, I’m here for you. You can do this. I have faith in you.

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David Zinger

Warrick Glynn

Tell me about a time when time stood still for you, and what specifically contributed to that sense for you?

Bill Scott

Do you feel that you have any influence over the big decisions that affect your work?

What is the one thing you can do right now to enhance your own engagement or the engagement of another person in our organiza-tion?

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Steve Laswell

Scott H. Span

What ideas would you suggest we explore about our core values, business processes, projects or products and services to help move our team from average to great?

Nels Pedersen

Help me help you to succeed in helping us help our customers succeed.

If you were managing you, what would you be sure to do, and not do?

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Michael J Hart

Joe McCauley

Think about a time when you were the re-cipient of extraordinary customer service, and a time when you believe you delivered extraordinary service…what words and actions resulted in these situations being seared in your memory banks?

Bill Scott

We’re already good, we might even be great. So what can we do to get better?

If you have a few minutes, I’d like your thoughts and ideas about an important matter.

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Lisa Sibley

Jacob Schneid

When do you feel appreciated the most, here at work?Steve Laswell

What is the most important achievement you’d like to make here?

What are the top three ingredients you need to be fully engaged?

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Julie Lynch

In what ways does your work contribute to achieving our strategic goals?Stephen J. Gill

If you could wave the magic wand, what one change would make the biggest positive difference?

Jon Harvey

OK, I know you have heard a lot of patronising claptrap about ‘staff engagement’, and I know you are not exactly convinced by all this ‘hippy’, fuzzy stuff about empow-erment, listening & goal alignment etc but let me ask you one question: if not this stuff then what?

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Vijay Kumar Shrotryia

This service thing really brings everyone to the same page; the challenge however is how to so define or describe it that it takes on a profound meaning to all, individually and collectively: what do you think?

Johnson Ikube

Why Do We Live? What is that which drives us to work? What is it that we ultimately aspire to in life as well as at work?

Joe McCauley What can I do to make you better?

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It is time to stop reading and start talking.

How are you going to prime your next engaging conversation?

To learn more about employee engagementand to jump into conversation visit or join

the Employee Engagement Network.

http://employeeengagement.ning.com/

primers for engaging confersations

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