We have evolved into what futurist David Houle calls the “Shift Age”.  

I recently talked with Bob Riddell who heads up the business consulting division of Tribridge: a successful IT services firm (2012 Microsoft Dynamics Worldwide Partner of the Year) headquartered in Tampa, FL.  No doubt, they will continue their winning ways, but the Tribridge leadership team has charged Bob with expanding their heritage of selling...

Innovation is all around us, and if you see it, observe and learn from

A classic example of serendipity or success after failure is the story of 3M Post-it notes. In 1974, Stephen Silver at 3M research laboratories was trying to develop a strong adhesive and instead created a new adhesive that was not too strong, could stick on all surfaces and be removed easily without causing damage or leaving residue. Not knowing what...

Entrepreneurs typically run into trouble after they get their new venture

launched.  The character traits and behavioral patterns required to focus an idea and bring it to market have nothing in common with what it takes to transform embryonic enterprise into sustainable business. As a coach to the CEOs of fortune companies, my first objective was...

An experiment conducted by behavioral scientists, discovered that problem

solving procedures were inhibiting creative thought. The traditional method begins with a detailed assessment of the current situation and clarification of specific problems. Researchers assessed the enthusiasm and effectiveness of problem solving groups by measuring room sound...

We would not be here as a species if learning and change had not taken

Imagine a group of Neanderthals, sitting around their fire in the cave, when ‘Karg’, the most free-thinking of the hunters, using whatever grunts and motions he had available, speaks to his fellows. ‘You know, guys, we got the mastodon today, but I wonder how we could kill them without losing so many of us in the process?!’...

Long range planning is at best a waste of time and at worst dangerous. 

 Visioning engages the wonder, creativity, and flexibility of the child that still resides within everybody—albeit buried under layer upon layer of “shoulds and how tos” (let’s call this dimension the pirate).  Pirates influence morale (good or bad) creativity (unharnessed creativity may be focused on how to; get out of having to produce,...

Recently Yahoo fired its CEO, Carol Bartz. Although the company’s stock

Yahoo’s problem is that  web portals are yesterday’s news. People don’t need a single site to click through multiple menus and sub-menus to find what they’re looking for. Search engines like Google deliver more precise results. Yahoo no longer gives web users a compelling reason to visit their site.Yahoo is still a popular site in terms...

Your grandparents did not work for organizations like the one you work

Everyone and everything is moving all the time. As companies jockey for position, mergers and acquisitions become the fastest way to secure temporary security and grow market share. ‘Job security’ has come to mean moving rapidly from one company to another. My oldest son, who plays lead guitar in his rock band, told me, ‘Dad, no one...

The  British-based fast food chain,  Pret a Manger (French for “ready

Pret a Manger is a small presence in the U.S. fast food market, with 34 stores in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., but it’s growing fast, with profitability and employee retention numbers that are the envy of the industry. U.S. sales are up 40% from a year ago, the company’s overall profits grew by 37% in 2010, and annual workforce turnover...

corporate survivalNature understands the relationship between efficiency

and survival.  Bees have survived as a species for centuries.  Their life support system obviously works.  When a worker bee returns to the hive after a production trip, it struts out a triangular pattern.  The apex of this triangular waltz points directly to the source of...