In the late nineties, The Times Mirror Corporation acquired Achieve, a

Achieve was a motivated, values-directed team.  Employees were  aligned to maximize the customers’ total experience.  Times Mirror acquired several other companies at the same time. They made no effort to harmonize the diverse cultures.   Although they were now part of the same corporation, the acquired companies continued to compete with each...

We deny ourselves and fellow workers one of life’s most pleasurable

experiences when we side step opportunities to laugh heartily.  I’ve noticed myself responding with a polite chuckle or silent grin, to situations that left unchecked would double me over.  Political correctness has sent a misguided “ life is not to be laughed at” message...

training withour ROI is wasteTraining should be the organizations ultimate

signal.  It tells employees what is and is not strategically relevant.  If proposed training is not strategically relevant, DON’T DO IT.  Any training that does not  impact the bottom line is a costly distraction.  Replace “just in case” with “just in time” training...

managing both sidesBarry Johnson, author of Polarity Management  identified

11 polarities that great leaders manage well. If you are a leader at any level—or just want to take the lead in your own your life—the following will prove invaluable.  A polarity is a set of poles or positions that appear to be opposites, creating an either/or situation...

Market analysis, branding, strategy formation, planning, managing cash

From the moment of birth, humans have an insatiable appetite for recognition.  As herding creatures, we are programmed to support and be supported by one another.  The primal instinct to belong and be valued is so powerful that fear of rejection can cause mental and physical trauma.  Our evolution into a productive group member began with mother...

Before the age of five, we learn most of what we need to survive.  We

learned the essentials not by listening, but by watching what the adults in our life (the people who had  power over us) were doing.  Prior to developing our verbal skills, we didn’t understand what Mom and Dad were saying, but we discerned much from their tone, body language...

35 years of experience as a change agent for companies like Black &

; Decker, American Express, and UPS taught me the relevance of performing a rite of passage  initiative during my Securing Corporate Viability workshop.  Primitive societies appreciate the necessity of ritual when individuals or groups are  transforming from one state to another...

unsung but amoung the very bestExecutives who are not extroverts by nature

can learn much from Omar Bradley’s leadership style.  Unlike Generals Eisenhower and Patton, this leader has been relegated to  sidebar status in the annals of WWII. Jim DeFelice in his new book,  Omar Bradley: General at War  labels Bradley “the man who won WWII”.  ...

Success stories (large or small) provide positive examples of ‘living

the culture’.   Everyone learns and integrates new behavior more easily when real situations are used to illustrate. Employees identify more easily with the possibility of their own success when they have a chance to resonate with what others have done.  Identifying with...

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...