There’s a lot of talk about self-discovery, self-help, and self-development these days. This is especially true in the business world. It seems that you can’t walk into any book store or read any blog about there being an element of self-improvement advice right in front of you. The trouble with all of this advice, however, […]
We live in a culture of yes. In the business world, we are taught to engage, be assertive and never turn down an opportunity. All of this behavior results in a whole lot of yeses (and time commitments). After all, saying yes is fun; it often feels a lot better than saying no. To further […]
Connecting with coworkers, clients and customers has never been easier. Gone are the days when we had to drive across town to chat with someone in a different office. When we run into a challenge or have a question regarding our work, we have a plethora of communication tools at our fingertips: email, text, instant […]
In his book, Seeing What Others Don’t, Gary Klein retells the story of a seminar attendee. It illustrates perfectly the contrast between what managers should and should not do if they want to be fully engaged with their employees. The person in question said that when she went into her boss’ office, he was focused […]
Many believe that organizations have to continually reinvent themselves in order to keep up with all that is changing around them. They point to the fact that those who cling to the status quo eventually die or are acquired by those who don’t, and they often – quite proudly – point to themselves as the […]
Deep organizational transformation is a combination of changed processes, procedures and behavior. While changing procedures may be relatively easy, transformation processes often stall a missing consequential behavioral change. A different dance “If you want a different dance, change the music.” This African proverb reminds us: If you want to stimulate different actions, find the driving […]
For decades, organizations have used the same blunt instrument to reward good work: a promotion. The best salesperson becomes a sales manager. The strongest engineer takes over the engineering team. The most reliable analyst gets handed direct reports. We tell ourselves we are advancing top performers. What we are actually doing, in most cases, is […]
Nearly three out of four Americans say that they’re bored at work.* They feel that their knowledge, skills and abilities aren’t being used, and that their companies don’t care. To give you an idea of the size of the problem, imagine that instead of boredom, they were all too sick to even show up. The streets […]
John Packham
Jesse Jacoby
Erika Jacobi
Jeff Shuck
