By Griff Hall, small business Owner I often hear leaders say, “What sense is there in strategic planning when the future is more uncertain than ever before? Why shouldn’t we wait until we know more before embarking on a strategic planning effort?” The question assumes you’re already using the most effective methods in planning and…
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Grocery stores live and die based on how well they know your buying habits. Everything has been carefully planned and designed with the goal of getting you to spend more money. Using complex algorithms, stores maximize inventory to match your shopping preferences. Can you say you know your organization’s greatest asset — your people —…
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The clock started and all four teams hunched over their tables and started to strategize. We could feel the tension rise in the room of Type A executives, each wanting to prove their worth on the team they had been assigned. Through teamwork, their goal for the next 12 minutes, was to replicate a structure…
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The results are in. The average U.S. employee has mastered the 4-hour workday. During the 8-9 hour day, an employee has at their disposal technologies that allow instantaneous access to information, products, and people (according to a recent survey we have a habit of spending 11+ hours a day on electronic media). Other recent studies show workers plow through hundreds of emails, calls,…
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How do you get a 747 to veer sharply and change direction? Can you turn a ship to turn on a dime? How do you get an 18-wheeler to suddenly turn sharply without toppling over? I asked these very questions to a group of health management executives. Later that same day I asked my class…
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We laugh and at times relate to cartoons of sadistic office management (think “Dilbert”). Developing office relationships in TV shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation hold a nugget of truth. Thousands of workers do not find their work reality amusing. Data on employee engagement shows that the numbers of dissatisfied and disengaged employees is…
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Question: We are an accounting business with seven full-time employees, two of whom work from home. All our people have been with us over 5 years, and we are in the process of hiring several new employees to accommodate the growth in our local market. The current workload has us working 60-70 hours and it’s…
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Here is a list of leadership books that we frequently turn to in preparing our work. Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin A captivating story of leadership from the perspectives of three men Lincoln selected for his cabinet, all of whom were his opponents for the 1860 Republican nomination: Edward Bates, Salmon Chase, &…
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Are your employees asking themselves this question? If so, you hope they can identify why they work at your organization. You hope your people value their role beyond receiving a paycheck. The hard truth is hope is not a strategy. Hope is not a strategy. According to NASA lore, while touring the space center in…
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Remember how it felt when that kid on the playground kept changing the rules in a game of tag, and you had to be IT over and over again? Now jump forward several decades. Is everyone playing by the same rules at work? If organizational culture is defined as ‘how we do things here,’ are…
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