Employee Engagement: There will be a continued growth in employee-engagement programs. If the economy continues to falter, we will see more corporations supporting NGOs and nonprofits via employee volunteer programs, rather than just writing checks. A recent sustainability study by Green Research found that 80% of major corporations are planning to invest significantly in employee engagement in 2012. According to Gallup, 86% of engaged employees say they very often feel happy at work, compared to 11% of the disengaged. Additionally, companies with highest levels of employee engagement saw increases in their bottom line: On average they improved 19.2% in operating income, while companies with lower levels declined 32.7% (Towers Watson). Engaged organizations also grew profits as much as three times faster than their competitors. The Corporate Leadership Council reports that highly engaged organizations have the potential to reduce staff turnover by 87% and improve performance by 20%.

I heard once that most  people feared public speaking more than they feared death. Is it about vulnerability? The fear of looking foolish? If we can speak to one person, why can’t we speak to six or six hundred?. Is it that there are strangers in the audience? Would we be less afraid if everyone in the audience was a friend or a family member and thus would be more forgiving?

This I do know, if you face your fears often enough, they shrink in size and become manageable. So, if you’re fearful of an audience hanging on your every word, I have an offer you shouldn’t refuse. Become a voice for Susan G. Komen. Learn to speak to groups of people about the importance of early detection of cancers, and explain why supporting Komen will lead to a cure.  And in the process, battle your own fear of public speaking.

On August 13, 2011, the LA County Affiliate of Susan G. Komen will hold a training session on how to stand up and be heard on the important issues concerning breast health. Be a vocal advocate for a disease that devastates women and their families in frightening numbers.

Comment on this post and I will respond with the details of where the training session will be held.

Sharon

Does that mean the development of a vaccine that will prevent an individual from ever having breast cancer?   Would there have to be lots of different vaccines because there are multiple types of breast cancer? Would there be a pill or a machine that would nullify cancer cells, or disarm them somehow? What will a cure look like? And when will it happen?                


When a normal cell divides, the cell’s DNA is copied more or less perfectly. But each division of a cancer cell brings about new changes in the DNA. So a drug might be able to kill some but not all of the cancer because each cell is a little different. 


Another problem is inherent in the ability of a cancer stem cell to hide. Chemotherapy might effectively kill an entire tumor, but cancer stem cells might evade the drugs and cause a relapse of the cancer years later. In a sense we cure breast cancer today. The problem is when somebody is diagnosed with breast cancer, we can’t tell that woman that she is cured, until she dies at 95 of something else. So, we know we cure breast cancer, but we never know if any one particular person is cured at any one time.


So where does this leave us?  We are without a cure that we can point to, and women are dying everyday. Does that mean we give up? We can’t. We made a promise to end breast cancer forever. 


Sharon