How would you create a culture that attracts 1000 applicants for every position like Zappos or grows its customer base fivefold in just four years as HCL Technologies did?    Few would expect to learn the secrets of success from a small town credit union in Boulder City, Nevada, or a rural hospital in Southern Arizona, but wouldn’t you like to know how to create a team that can increase assets by 270% while only adding one employee, or how to be so honest with your board that they plead with you...

Imagine you are experiencing the worst economic times in recent history. You have just invested in a complete online employee survey program. The results have been painstakingly analyzed and reviewed, and you have a plan for action. Your entire team is scheduled for a nearly unprecedented early morning meeting to give the consulting team ample opportunity to address the issues identified through the survey process and your entire staff shows up ………………in pajamas. Would you be?

We always think we will have more time.  Time to do what we have always wanted, say what we always intended and be what we always imagined.  Then we don’t. 

Last week while working on this article I found a message I had received from our dear friend Bill Ferrence while he was battling bladder cancer.  In typical Ferrence fashion Bill could find something to laugh about even in cancer.   Some would say that Bill lost his fight but I prefer to believe that he was needed elsewhere...

We are torn between two masters.  On one hand we like to learn.  We are born inquisitive, adventurous and unafraid.  Then we are taught that mistakes are bad.  Not only are the mistakes bad but there is obviously something wrong with the person who makes them.  The solution then is to confine ourselves to activities at which we are already proficient and blame other people or situations for everything else.  Problem solved.  Except of course that it isn’t.

Mistakes in fact are physiologically th...

Every day, well-intentioned managers work exceedingly hard to ensure efficiency of time and task.  They allocate resources, define expectations and alleviate obstacles.   The system is both predictable and “productive”...