From Victims to Heroes: Four Ways to Make Your Managers Your Best Assets

In spring 2014, Harvard Business Review published an article by several Gallup experts titled “Why Good Managers Are So Rare.” They reported that one

The Complexity of Creating Customers for Life

Seventy-seven percent of organizations do not engage employees in the customer experience design process. Seventy-six percent do not provide customer

Technology & Learning 2013: Three Rules to Live By

By now, the idea of mobile as a “trend” in learning should be nothing new. The story for 2013 and beyond is really “bigger, better, faster, simpler.”

3 Ways your Company Culture is Demotivating your People

Companies often have a hard time understanding why their junior or mid-level staff is frustrated with the direction of the company or with senior management

Accountability & Technology

Scott Thompson was Yahoo’s CEO for only four months last year before he was fired for listing a bachelor’s degree in computer science that he didn’t have

Learn Something New Every Day

All of us can learn from one another if we take the time to open up and listen. Even community leaders, politicians, and CEOs have room to learn a lesson.

The Fear Invasion

Realism and truth telling are the heart of authentic engagement. But many organizations lack realism and by not embracing honesty and truth they are at risk

Healthcare Reform Act – The State of Readiness

Are your people prepared for all of the changes? Do they understand what the end game will look like and the outcomes need to be as a result of the changes?

What Would Your Successor Do?

What do you do when you’re caught in the mire or having analysis paralysis? How to make better decisions in life and work

Cultivating Strategy Through Employees

DuPont Pioneer leaders wanted to increase employee engagement with better clarity, alignment and focus on the company strategy, its process and growth plans

The Secrets of Leading Workplaces

A study revealed seven areas where leaders can make changes in the workplace that would have a significant impact on the organization

Just Trust Me

Check out this short 10-minute webinar from Root CEO, Jim Haudan, who shares some details on these four areas where leaders can help build trust.

The Work of Leaders: Why Building Alignment is One of the Most Important Things You Can Do

“The most empowering condition of all is when the entire organization is aligned with its mission, and people’s passions and purpose are in synch

You want great managers? Focus on the fundamentals.

Hey HR Execs: Do You Know What Your Employees Are Thinking?

Research shows that HR managers may not know what their employees are thinking as much as they think.

It’s 2013… the Year of the Person!

Perspectives on how to anticipate, understand, and initiate conversations with your people to build engagement and improve performance.

Is That a Smartphone in Your Pocket…?

Whether its training, implementing a new process, or embracing a strategy – technology plays a critical role in how we absorb data and work on a daily basis

What Legos and a Canadian Power Trio Teach Us About Purpose – Part 2

40% of employees don’t understand their company’s purpose. If you don’t know what your company stands for how can you derive the pride of purpose.

What Legos and a Canadian Power Trio Teach Us About Purpose – Part 1

Connecting purpose and meaning at the various levels of the business is something that organizations don’t always do and it has detrimental effects.

Imagery, Cartoons, Visuals and the Story of Your Company

What’s the case for storytelling? The mind processes information faster and better when it's in the form of something memorable and cohesive, like a story.

What Is Employee Engagement Good For?

Thinking of engagement as a means to successful strategic change rather than an end in itself,than investing in engagement becomes vital to performance.

Making It Work at Work

Research on high performers and their daily practices sheds light on effective habits and routines that should be encouraged across the entire organization.

The Times, They Are a-Changing

Despite the strides women have made in the workplace, there is still significant work to do. How does your organization support the evolving role of women?

Turning Unconventional Thinking into Smart Strategy

The Accordion Chart is an innovative tool that provides a useful visual breakdown of everything you need to know to get your employees on the same page.

6 Ways to Build a High-Performing Organization

If you want a high-performing organization, the good news is, it's not that difficult to identify those things that really yield high performance.

Onboarding: Starting Off on the Right Foot

Making an employee’s first months and year as successful as possible begins before they even show up for Day 1 and goes far beyond paperwork.

Honesty is The Best Policy in Business – Here’s Why

Be sure to be create an organization where people feel safe to tell the truth because honesty is the best policy.

Purpose: The Magical Multiplier

7 Habits of Highly Creative Organizations

Anyone can be creative, but there must be an environment that spurs and facilitates that creativity.Time to forgo traditional mindsets and predictability.

Connecting with Teams to Drive Guest Loyalty

HGI realized that it needed to form a better connection with its employees, so they, in turn, could better connect with guests and build loyalty

The Art of Visualization

Work with your people to get something on paper – images, words, ideas. Encourage everyone to contribute through every iteration of the visual.

Visual Storytelling to Drive Engagement and Increase Understanding

Transforming from Ordinary to Extraordinary

We have unique ways to engage people, make it interactive, and appeal to both right-brain and left-brain thinkers to help them draw their own conclusions.

Connection is Everything

How vigorously and effectively are we connecting our biggest product (i.e., our company) to our most important buyers (i.e., our team members)?

Group Mojo: Creating Magic

A fear-free, open environment encourages people to share ideas. If people know it’s safe to share their thoughts in the workplace, the floodgates open.

The Olympic Opportunity for Managers

Conversational Leadership: Thinking Together for a Change

An effective conversational leader needs to build a framework and define a clear purpose for the conversation so people understand the intention behind it.

Accessing Genuine Dialogue

Without effective dialogue, achieving real results can be challenging. But how do you ensure the dialogue in your organization is genuine and meaningful?

90% of Life Is Just Showing Up

Everyone Owns Employee Engagement – Not Just HR

Our experience bridging the divide between the “smart” and the “healthy” stuff shows that most companies still outsource the engagement of people to HR.

Bringing Mobility to Everyone in the Business

Don’t just look at the technology enablement, but also the shift in IT culture and the norms required for mobility to thrive in your organization

Visualization as a Powerful Business Tool? You Bet!

Visualization is probably one of the strongest assets any organization has in its arsenal and is a major competitive differentiator

What Drives Employee Engagement?

I would argue employee engagement is owned by the executive team, the same way they are responsible for managing all of the other critical assets.

Strategy without purpose is meaningless

The bottom line is Border's lost its focus on the customer, its purpose for being, and most importantly its people - the 'burning platform' wasn't enough.

Does Employee Engagement Really Matter?

Think about companies where employees are engaged. Southwest Airlines or Zappos? It’s a totally different customer experience.

Lots to Do When You’re a Manager – Make Your Life Easier

Managing People and Results? Self-Care Should be Top Priority

Front-line Managers – Your Weak Link?

Want a Tree House? Think Again!

An organization is only as strong as its root system or foundation - mainly it's employees and how engaged they are in the big picture strategy.

Culture vs. Strategy

It isn't culture vs strategy. It's culture, strategy and vision. Combining all three will ensure your company will have success.

Managers Can Make or Break Your Organization’s Strategy

If you want to make sure your front-line employees are getting what they need, make sure you are focusing on training your managers.

The Odyssey to Innovation

As strategy execution consultants, we constantly see mandates to innovate and strategies built around innovation. More than ever, it seems that organic

A Manager’s Greatest Plight – The Relentless Pursuit of More Time

Plan a People Strategy like a Product Strategy

A people strategy is going to have a greater impact than a mere product launch. Learn why investing in your people is as important as a product launch.

Managers: Your Key To Bridging the Gap

One of the widest and most damaging gaps in an organization exists between managers and their teams. A sure sign of this problem occurs when

Leveraging Learning Cycles to Nurture Leadership

Organizations that nurture leadership tirelessly take advantage of learning cycles for people to grow and internalize key contributions.

Managers Move Metrics

Managers move metrics, are yours moving them in the right direction? Ensure managers are creating better business performance

Adjusting the Focus for New Challenges

The dawning of a new year is a time when many organizations look to push the execution of their strategies beyond its current level to the mythical “11”

What Does It Mean to Be a Leader? Cutting to the Chase

Giving Is Personal

The Art of Engagement – Inspiring People, Creating Change, and Making a Difference

Watch Jim Haudan explain ways organizations are capable of boosting employee morale in new ways.

Good Medicine Starts with a Good Diagnosis

Have you ever misdiagnosed a medical issue for yourself? Perhaps you thought a cold would just run its course, but after several weeks you give in and go

The Power of Visuals to Solve Story Problems

“Our employees are too smart for visuals,” that they’re “analytical and data-driven.", but those same people are using images or visuals to solve problems!

The Value of Play – A Creative Employee Engagement Method

We often build principles of play into our creative methods to solve business problems and build employee engagement along the way.

When Rapid eLearning Isn’t Enough

Rapidly developing eLearning without taking into account business strategy, goals, user audience, and instructional design can negatively impact learning

Learning How to Focus Business Investments

When you try to do too much, nothing gets done. Seeing the big picture helps companies understand which business investments are important.

The Fine Line Between Direction and Engagement – Part 2

There is no silver bullet for simultaneously establishing a compelling vision and engendering employee engagement for execution

The Fine Line Between Direction and Engagement – Part 1

The question became, “How can we balance the need for leaders to establish their vision while gaining commitment from more employees?”

Innovation is like Getting Punched in the Face Sixty Times.

M&A Make or Break – Part 2 – Creating a Culture of Competence

Create a culture targeted at aligning organizational focus, capability, systems, and processes to enable the unique and differentiated value of each company

M&A Make or Break – Do Your Employees Understand the Value it Creates?

The culture of competence is undermined when leaders aren’t clear or aligned on the unique competence created and employees don't understand its value.