The Future of Free Hugs During The COVID-19 Pandemic
Anyone who’s been a part of the Swift Kick family over the past 14 years knows that introducing the Free Hugs campaign to new people is a core part of our training. It’s how we teach people to build a Culture of Connection™ where everyone feels welcomed, connected, and engaged. But what about now, in […]
Creating an Engagement Dashboard for Your Organization
For two years, I sat on the board of the NY Entrepreneurs’ Organization as the Head of Member Engagement. At my first board meeting, I asked the group for some prior data on member engagement. My aim was to find a baseline level of engagement which I could use to build goals for the future. […]
After You Make An Introduction, Get Out Of The Way
This post is a continuation of our last post about creating affinity groups through shared interest introductions. Tom talked about how he connected two strangers at an event because they were both wearing Batman shirts for International Batman Day. Read the post here if you need a refresher! After I made the Batman introduction happen, […]
Is Batman in Your Organization?: Creating Affinity Groups
A common practice of mine during my trainings to greet as many of the participants ahead of time. During one training, a guy walked in wearing a unique looking Batman shirt, so I made a comment. His face lit up, and he excitedly said to me, “Did you know that today is International Batman Day?” […]
What’s Going On? -The Question Every “Neutral” Asks
In the previous blog post, I talked about a game my friend Kevin made up called “Scream and Run.” In case you need a recap: “Your challenge is to run as fast as you can towards the rest of the group while screaming. Then run back doing the same.” The group laughed again. “Oh, but […]
The Two Ingredients Required for Successful Engagement
At some point, every facilitator eventually runs out of activities they can do with a group. It’s natural and bound to happen. This exact thing happened to a friend of mine, Kevin Prentiss, who was running a 10-day long summer program for a group of students at Stanford University. After 10-days of facilitating activities and […]
When Recruiting… Make Sure To Show Not Tell
During a recent visit to Pittsburgh, I set aside some time to visit with a former intern of ours studying at Carnegie Mellon University. As we walked through their beautiful University Center, I noticed a large number of campus clubs with tables set up trying to solicit students to join their organization. Every table was […]
Get in the Habit of Giving Praise With Your Team
It was easy to see the smiles exponentially light up around the room as the co-workers gave each other praise for various things. Even the thickest skinned member of the team couldn’t help but smile when a co-worker thanked him for supporting her with an RFP coming due. The team of hard-nosed marketers turned into […]
Pillow Fights and Multiple Levels of Engagement
DFT Lesson #2 is the foundation for the rest of our philosophy on engagement. Because from now on, you’ll know that there are multiple levels of engagement and the goal is to keep moving people towards Level 5 because that’s were the action is.
Houston We Have A Problem…with Employee Engagement
In 2013, Gallup undertook a massive effort to study the current state of employee engagement around the world. After surveying 73,752 employees in 141 countries, Gallup found that 24% of employees are actively disengaged, 63% are not engaged, and 13% are engaged. You will find that when an employee is disengaged with their work environment, […]