What Does Awareness Have to Do With It?
"Create Awareness-Bewusstheit schaffen"
October 26, 18:30, Wirtschaft Neumarkt, Zürich
Would you like to heighten awareness in your relationships with colleagues? Then come join Roman Borboa, Ph.D. and me for this special session on Monday, October 26 (18:30), Wirschaft Neumarkt, Zürich, that we will be presenting for the International Coach Federation Switzerland (ICF). Our aim is to heighten participants' knowledge of how they create awareness in the coaching process. We will present frameworks that illustrate how thoughts, feelings and actions create meaning in life - the task of a mindful coach. Register at: www.coachfederation.ch. Workshop & Apero: CHF 50, ICF Members: CHF 40.
Dialogue with Christopher Reich
NY Times Top Selling Fiction Author in Zürich
As many of you know, my work portfolio includes periodic work with media related clients (producing, writing and hosting programs). I was recently invited to moderate a reading and Q & A session with NY Times top-selling fiction writer Christopher Reich in Zürich on Saturday, October 31 at Orell Füssli's 'The Bookshop.' As part of the shop's 10th anniversary celebrations, Reich will be signing books (17:00) and then sharing a reading session and Apero at 20:00.
As in my consulting work, I will be looking to create engaging dialogue between the author and the audience.
Reich's newest book, Rules of Vengeance, is currently on the NY Times best selling fiction list ( see author video ). He has Swiss and American roots and has lived a good part of his life in California . His previous espionage thriller, Rules of Deception, is primarily set in Switzerland and is rich with various local references. Register soon as space is limited ( english-orders@books.ch ) Admission: Free!
Great Golf - Great Cause!
Would you like to combine an afternoon of golf and an evening of entertainment, all for a great cause? Come join the Swiss American Golf Championship (SAGC), September 5 at Golfclub Hittnau. Yours truly will be Master of Ceremonies for the event with proceeds favoring the SOS Children's Villages. Friendship, open dialog, fun and sporty competition. More information is at www.sagc.ch
Are Your Emotions Helping or Hindering You?
Can you bring out the best in others during trying times? Now, perhaps more than ever, organizations need leaders who can remain calm, be present, clear and focused. Your emotional intelligence (EI), including self management abilities, can keep you and your colleagues in the "calm zone" and help create a positive work environment.
How Can EI Can Help During Trying Times: Video by EI expert Dr. Daniel Goleman, http://www.haygroup.com/ww/Media/Details.aspx?ID=16555.
The relationship between performance and stress is interesting. When stress is low, performance is low. This means that people are not involved. There is good stress, which goes from low to optimal performance. A high performing company needs its workers at this level, as explained in this video.
Would you like to learn more about your EI profile through a process of anonymously soliciting feedback from your direct reports, team, peers and important stakeholders? Certified to administer with the Hay Group's Emotional Competency Inventory, Macsay & Associates would be honored to work with you.
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Industry and Hot Topics | Managing Transitions and Stress on the Job
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
10:50 11:50 | Breakout Sessions:
Back by popular demand! This session was a hit at SAM Summit 08 and it has been updated for 2009.
Change management is more than a systematic approach to implementing software fixes and new servers. Your ability to work with the often-perplexing nature of coworkers behavior is an important factor for influencing positive change. In this session, you'll learn how to manage organizational change under stress and to work better with other by identifying your personal style for relationship building. We'll also look at techniques to bridge communication and knowledge gaps among functional teams. This session is facilitated by James Macsay, Organizational Consultant to IBSMA and Rick Fenwick, PHD, Fenwick Koller Associates.
Register at the SAM Summit 09 website or contact Macsay & Associates (011 41 76 434 0861) for further information.
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Mindful Leadership Retreat
(1/2 day - morning)
March 12, 2009 - Felsenegg (Adliswil)
CHF 150 (Znüni and energy food provided)
The "new normal" crazy-busy economy - is it pleasure or pain for you? Some are prospering, while others are being challenged and experiencing heightened uncertainty for themselves and the world at large. It's a perplexing time that requires a special attitude and energy to sustain and thrive. We invite you to join us for this 1/2 day retreat that will inspire you to tap into a new energy that can help you to transcend challenges and be fully present in daily work/life activities.
New beginnings happen all the time.
All that is required is expanding your awareness and perspective - looking beyond the storms of change to find what might also be breaking through.
Come join me and long time colleague Roman Borboa for a 1/2 day retreat centered on the theme of "Mindfulness." Our common interests and commitment to the field of Human Development have inspired the creation of this unique and refreshing approach to the notion of Mindfulness. Our leadership process is aimed to support human resilience in navigating the turbulent waters of change. Elements of the process include the following:
• Nature of Stress
• Presence of Self
• Cognitive Competencies
• States of Consciousness
• Meditation and Wellness
Within the session, our aim is to raise your awareness, knowledge, experience and commitment to relying on your own abundant source of energy and insight. We will have dialogue, provide information and offer some simple experiences aimed to generate a sense of resilience and wellness for you (your team and or organization). It is our hope that you will experience mindfulness and take away some ideas on how our approach could be of value for other learning and development processes you are considering for your team and or organization.
About Us: Together we have worked on staff at General Motors Europe in the HR areas and contributed to executive, organization development and employee education programs. As external consultants we have also collaborated in the areas of organization change and learning and made substantial contributions to culture and leadership. Further background information on both our practices is found at: www.borboa.ch and www.macsay.com.
Please call or e-mail to reserve your place. Details will be provided.
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SwissBizUSA-Ann Arbor, MI - Energizing America's Midwest
The SwissBizUSA Stammtisch on December 3, 2007 - the second event of its kind - attracted local business and arts leaders. Participants networked, and also were inspired by guest speaker Gustav Meier, the international "guru of conductors." Click to view PDF of Swiss Review article about SwissBizUSA in 2007.
The first SwissBizUSA Stammtisch in the Michigan area was held in Ann Arbor on November 9, 2006. Attracting a diverse group, the business forum focused mainly on networking. Participants came from the Southeast MI region (part of the Chicago Consulate footprint), and from the nearby states of Illinois and Indiana. Swiss organizations represented included ECO PHYSICS, INC., George Fischer-Boehringer, Liebherr and UBS Financial Services. USA-based Comerica Bank and Zimmer (Warsaw, IN), which acquired Centerpulse, also were represented.
James Macsay of Macsay & Associates -- a Swiss-American organization development consultant -- inspired the event, with support from Karl Pfister, Honorary Consul of Switzerland. The event was hosted by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne. The group convened at the Ann Arbor offices of Denison Consulting, a global supplier of tools and services for diagnosing and improving organizational culture. Dan Denison, a Founding Partner, commutes regularly to Lausanne, as Professor of Management and Organization for IMD.
Pfister, Honorary Consul since 1984 and an active force with the Detroit Swiss Society, said: "Ann Arbor is a natural backdrop for this type of event. Its presence in the region as an international academic community, strong in the arts and humanities, social values, innovation and high tech industries -- attracts the Swiss."
Macsay worked in human resources for GM Europe in Zürich, and repatriated to Ann Arbor in 2000 after 13 years in Switzerland. "Being part of a Swiss-American community helps me to maintain my cultural ground," he said.
Alongside a classic Swiss-style apero, the group talked in depth about the unique cultural challenges faced conducting business between Swiss and American organizations.
The academic and fine arts communities were well-represented at the event. Participants included "Bundner" Clemens Sialm, Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Michigan Business School; Margit Zinggeler, from Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI); and Gustav Meier, who leads the conducting program at the Johns Hopkins University Peabody Institute.
Sialm, an international thought leader, is often quoted in the media. Zinggeler co-created Swiss Studies, an agency that focused on U.S. teaching about Switzerland for kindergarten through 12th-grade, and post-secondary education. Meier, a world-renowned conductor, was born in Wettingen, Switzerland, and immigrated to America in the late 1950s. His work takes him all around the world, but his home for several years has been Ann Arbor. Recently, Meier marked 35 years as music director for the Greater Bridgeport (Connecticut) Symphony.
A follow-up: SwissBizUSA -- inspired by the Ann Arbor group -- is being planned for 2007.
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