Unlocking Talent

Job crafting is a powerful tool and can help employees find long-term enjoyment at work. Is job crafting a priority at your organization?

The lessons learned through others can be extremely impactful on your journey. Here are some quotes to inspire you at work and beyond.

Onboarding is critical to retaining talent & empowering employees to contribute to strategic goals. Is your organization onboarding the right way?

Employees want to be a part of something bigger, to belong, to go on meaningful journeys & make an impact. Here's how to make this a reality within your organization.

Assuming positive intent is the single behavior that high-performance teams choose time and again. How’s your intent meter reading?

The way we train our employees needs to change. Are you using mobile devices? Are you embracing microlearning? If not, the time is now.

What if people need to stop waiting to receive what they want and instead start changing their own experience, with or without permission?

To help their organizations realize success, leaders need to create high-quality experiences that unlock their peoples' discretionary efforts. Are you ready?

Today leaders must do more to create a place that reenergizes people & enables them to contribute their best. Here are two key questions to ask.

According to a Harvard study, 85 percent of professional success comes from people skills. Here are five tips to help you find more success!

Being a manager is tougher than ever. Here are six tips to help this indispensable role perform to the best of their abilities.

Great leaders know how to actively listen and empower rather than direct and tell. It's the best way to unlock the power of human capital.

Hiring managers are focused on the wrong things. Look for the characteristics of high performers and forget everything else.

We can't return to the “old” ways of working or leading. Here are three do's and dont's for a post-Covid workplace.

The future of work is here. However, before you can develop new skillsets, you must first build change mindsets.

Yes, it is possible for your organization to rise above the current talent-shortage trend and cultivate its next generation of leaders.

For organizations to create the connections that mitigate unconscious bias, focus on empathy. Here are three actions to take.

Creating highly connected and bonded teams is different now. Three habits leaders can adopt to create connections and help people feel valued.

Unconscious bias training doesn't work. Here are three reasons bias trainings often fail and what we propose doing differently.

To build resiliency and lift the fog of change fatigue that is our reality in 2021, we must think differently about how we lead change. Consider these three tips.

How can leaders create engagment despite the tidal wave of chaos casued by the pandemic? Celebrate your teams any chance you get.

If your people aren’t connected with your vision and equipped with the skills and knowledge to make an impact, you won’t get desired results.

In many cases, the flurry of DEI-related activity in 2020 has been healthy, productive, and long overdue. If you're struggling with creating a diverse, more equitable, and more inclusive organization, read on for tips and strategic advice to help you on this journey.

The goal of a virtual event is to create a directed experience that you can control, people can unify around, and everyone will remember.

Did you know that people don’t resist change? It's true. They resist being told to change or being changed by someone else. This is an important distinction and one that leaders must take to heart.

A servant leader's goal is to bring the best out of others and help them work at a higher level. Here are six reasons why servant leadership really works.

Strategy without execution is meaningless, and execution without engagement is impossible. Is your company actually executing your strategy through people.

Traditional gender roles still hold firm in most financial institutions and large purchasing processes and experiences. However, in today’s highly competitive market, financial services organizations need to take practical steps to serve female investors more effectively. The institutions that win with (millennial) female investors will be unstoppable.

Believe it or not, along with discomfort comes opportunity – because we are forced to think in a new way and push ourselves to find a solution we didn’t see initially. And that’s the path to a breakthrough.

Collaboration is powerful. You just have to be wiling to loosen your grip on being right. You need to enter a conversation ready to receive others’ ideas and then layer your thoughts on top of them. By approaching a conversation this way, you’ll wind up with solutions you never thought of before.

With a 1,000+ locations and 50,000+ employees, this global organization reinforced its values, purpose and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

If you want to achieve the change your organizational is after, you've got to help your people through it.That starts with change leaders.

Our talent management strategies help companies promote employee engagement and develop their workforce to support business strategies.

During change people want and need three things: clarity, connection, and conversation and messaging needs to address each of these elements.

When smart and agile leaders lead with vulnerability and heart, they change our relationship with work forever. If the current crisis leads us to a more engaged workforce, that would constitute one positive outcome.

If your people don’t trust your leadership, then navigating a crisis and delivering future success become nearly impossible.

Jim Haudan speaks with Dr. Rick Lofgren, president and CEO of UC Health, and Charlie Piscitello, chief people officer at Acutus Medical, Inc. to get their thoughts as how leaders can best lead during challenging times.

During large-scale change, being nimble is key. You must be know your Why, but be prepared to adjust your what and how as new challenges arise. Let your purpose, your why, guide you and your people to achieve long-term success in the end.

Recently, Root Inc. co-founder Jim Haudan met via video conference with Jim Boomgard, president and chief executive officer of DAI: International Development, and Joe Morgan, seasoned CEO, advisor and strategist, to get their insights on leadership during the Covid-19 crisis.

Training your people can be difficult because it is often seen as boring and not helpful. Here are 9 ways to train and motivate your people successfully.

Download Now!

Prior to COVID-19, the broader talent community was already migrating toward blended programs of in-person, virtual, and digital modalities. The current situation has put a spotlight on the need to rethink how organizations come together to develop their capabilities and skills.

The big differentiator is how leaders empathize, engage, motivate, and capitalize on their talents and knowledge in the face of adversity.

Today I'm discussing change & consistent CX. Today you need to either keep pace with change or risk failure. And when it coems to CX, organizations need to be consistent because the experiences created for customers are the pathway to success or failure.

The best chief strategy officers I engage with today are not only analytically brilliant, but they are also world-class storytellers and architects of change plans to evolve culture or build new organizational capabilities.

Make sure your talent strategy supports your strategic initiatives. 5 ways to helps your talent accelerate change.

Yes, bots are taking over the tactical, but they won’t replace the humans – they’re here to help humans focus on the bigger and more strategic issues of CX.

We asked members of the workforce to name their organization’s top priority for 2020. Are you helping your people connect the dots of your strategy ?

My role, leading our CX team, gave me insight into how easy it is to initiate organizational change and how hard it is to sustain real change.

Creating change mindsets during financial downturns requires doubling down on engaging your people in your strategic priorities to maintain focus.

How are you being intentional about learning? What routines or practices can you share to help others succeed at the skill of learning?

What kind of a decision-maker are you? Whether individual contributors, managers, or executive leaders, the decision-making process is very important.

Decision-making within an organization can be a sticky subject. Emotion and opinion are at play, which can cloud facts and impede forward motion to the end result. Here are some tips to help you achieve collaborative decision-making.

There is a decision-making process that blends the need to make fact-based decisions with the urgency to act, while tapping the immense knowledge

Tips to help talent leaders to find a talent development solution (buy or build) that best fits the needs of their people and business.

People have longed for connection at all times. If you do this for the people you work with and for clients, they will be become your greatest cheerleaders

PowerPoint effectively showcases data, but it might not be an effective engagement tool or the best way to get people to care about what you're sharing.

While there are many buzzwords clouding the business world, one that is making a lot of noise at the current time is Purpose.

The times when we need to be the most conscious of others are when things get chaotic, stress levels run high, and deadlines loom. But, this rarely happens.

There are many different ideas about the characteristics a person must possess or develop to become successful. At the top of many people's lists are

Meetings are not in and of themselves problematic. Meetings are essential to teams and organizations. What we need to rid ourselves of are bad meetings.

When Root’s leaders, Jim Haudan and Rich Berens, wrote their book What Are Your Blind Spots? Conquering the 5 Misconceptions that Hold Leaders Back I was

Kevin M. Hoffman wrote the book Meeting Design for Managers, Makers, and Everyone with a simple goal in mind: helping people have meetings that empower

When you look at the behaviors that connect to a toxic culture, truth-telling is right at the top of the list, if not at the very top.

One of the great things about working here is that sometimes work doesn’t feel like work. A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to help test a game

Think about the last time you were at dinner with a group of friends and you witnessed two people trying to talk through a tough issue. How did it go?

I have been an artist at Root Inc. for 20 years, and for 20 years people have been telling me how I’m doing my job wrong.

Avoiding the Tyranny of the OR is difficult. It requires a mindset that rejects the pervasive polarization of society and instead sees new possibilities

Growing up, coaches everywhere would say, “practice makes perfect.” But here’s the truth – it doesn’t! Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.

My days often consist of a visit to a client’s office. A strategy meeting is underway and the room is filled with fervor and possibility.

We absolutely MUST embrace this single truth: the experience our employees have shapes their attitudes, which drives their behaviors at the office.

Learn how to create workshops that make make sure everyone walks away a little bit smarter and it can be as easy as cake.

This book excerpt, from Smarter Than You Think, explores how everything is rewiring your brain and why technology might not be as scary as we think.

Leadership development can seem like a mystery but here are three tips on becoming an effective leader and making leadership development more impactful.

Leaders owe it to their people to eradiate the blind spots that are most certainly holding back their people, their business, and their cumulative success.

The topic of Talent Management is a broad, but extremely critical one that can mean a lot of different things to different people

Learn about six actions that can make a real difference when you are trying to mitigate implicit bias in your personal life or in your organization.

Here are the five ways Gareth Southgate revitalized a stale and listless England team to be only two games away from winning the World Cup!

Three ways to take the tough step of acknowledging bias that organizations can take to move from awareness to acknowledgment.

Awareness is the first step in decreasing the effects of implicit bias. Here are three recommendations to help create the conditions that foster dialogue.

Here are three ways to use visualization to drive the a-ha moment and excitement around an idea in your organization today.

What kind of impact does the recent news of Starbucks have on our understanding of the implicit bias is pervasive in our country and how can we change it.

A story comprised of bite sized snippets enthralled Twitter one day. Learn how we can apply these lessons to learning design and make training successful.

Find out if your managers are building a strong front line, which is important for the change you are striving for to happen with this quick assessment.

Little changes can have a big impact on the bottom line. When a company focuses on simple adjustments they can see huge results.

People begin binge-learning when the content they consume is created with storytelling elements instead of a checklist.

When leaders assume their people have positive intent, the impact on the company culture can be dramatic and greatly improved.

Instead of focusing on what isn't working, find out what is and replicate it across the organization to maximize successes at work.

If you want everyone to act like an owner and understand how the impact the bottom line it's time to create a bridge that leads to better communication.

Learn the hiring, training, employee engagement, and customer experience secrets that organizations use to create high performing managers.

Any curriculum you expose your company to should be highly engaging and motivating. Here are 9 steps to achieve this goal.

If leaders start avoiding the constraining manager mindset and let people grow, the more our work environments will thrive and our profit will grow.

Managers can learn a lot by having drive-by conversations with their team members. Here are 4 questions to help super charge drive-by conversations.

New managers are full of passion to hit the ground running, but sometimes their teams are not. Here are three ways for managers to inspire their teams.

When managers understand their role in the business, they help the individual contributor understand theirs which creates breakthrough results.

Do you coach your managers? This may seem like an odd question, but people are promoted all the time and never given proper skills to become great managers.

Unleash the potential of your individual employees and your team by asking these 12 powerful questions that will make you a better manager.

Sensemaking uses human intelligence to develop a sensitivity toward meaningful differences— what matters to other people as well as to ourselves.

Brad Stone talks with the founders of AirBnB and Uber about what it was like starting their companies - the most radical in Silicon Valley

It's time to make your meetings matter. Learn why most meetings end up being a waste of time, and 4 ways to make them engaging and meaningful.

Q1 has closed and senior leaders around the world are pulling numbers to find out how they’re doing. Some are high-fiving and excited to keep things rolling, but others are forced to ask themselves, “What the heck is going on? Why don’t our people get it? Where is our talent? Why is our strategy failing?” … Continue reading “Three Mistakes That Cause Leaders to Ask “Why Is Our Strategy Failing?””

Coaches are some of the first leaders we have (after our parents). Learn 3 leadership lessons from Lute Olson that he discovered while coaching at Arizona.

Lack of either helpful praise or criticism had absolutely disastrous effects. You can draw a straight line from lack of guidance to a dysfunctional team.

You know that co-worker whose inbox is always empty? How about the one who never fails to do the pre-work before training sessions? Or, the one who gets their expenses done before the plane even touches down on the tarmac? You know… those stunning overachieving masters of productivity that you love to hate? Add the … Continue reading “6 Secrets of Mega-Productive Managers”

In this new world, everything from interpersonal relationships to marketing to corporate and political structures is being upended.

To understand what’s really happening with your employees, you must rely on the power of observation.

We tell lies. Big ones. But don’t worry … we tell them to ourselves, not our bosses, teams or customers! Yet, nonetheless, the damage is real.

When done well, combining storytelling and training is an impactful way to capture attention and engage your employees in your message.

Empower your managers to engage your employees means ensuring your managers have the proper training. They now need to know how to lead people.

Be a better manager by allowing your employees to do their work. Sometimes being a perfectionist manager leads to not letting employees do their own work.

Memos, company meetings, video messages, and webinars are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ways you can communicate with your people.

I often hear executives remark, “that person has innate leadership skills.” And they could be right – inspirational leaders are all around us…

Not long ago, my CEO, Jim Haudan, shared some thoughts on the downfalls of competency training with me. Don’t worry, he wasn’t panning

A customer’s experience never exceeds the employee’s experience. Yet most organizations don’t spend time on building employees for life

Simple, real-world examples illustrate how successful communications can help improve your performance management capabilities – read & learn!

High performing teams are not natural occurrences. You have to rigorously work at it. Here are five ways you can elevate your team’s performance.

That manager knew what I wanted and was able to make a real-time decision to win me as a customer and begin to create a loyal relationship.

Organizations are ripe with silos. They can provide structure, but they can also disrupt collaboration, limit communication or hinder creativity

Silos are common place in just about every workplace I have ever engaged with. They are a natural result of organizations trying to structure themselves

Rich Berens, our company President and Chief Client Fanatic, announced he and I are writing a book on our belief that work is broken.

“There aren’t enough hours in the day.” If I had a dollar for how many times I hear this – especially at work. Many of us stress out about completing every last item on our to-do this, as if the world will implode if we do not. We skip lunch. We work late. Sometimes, we … Continue reading “It’s About Time to Get Realistic… About Time”

A new year conjures images of a fresh start in almost every aspect of our lives. While it’s no secret that I’m not into the whole idea of New Year’s resolutions, I do believe that the beginning of a new year offers huge opportunity. It’s a chance to look at things with a fresh set of … Continue reading “New Year = New Perspective For Managers”

While customer service is an area we need to be on top of year round, there is no denying that the holiday season adds an extra dose of urgency to provide a stellar customer experience.  As a manager, customer service operations should be on your brain all the time. But as people are gearing up … Continue reading “How Managers Impact The Holiday Service Their Employees Deliver”

Employee engagement is often a term thrown around organizations (sometimes much too loosely) with very little behind it. True engagement isn’t just a box you check on some random human resources form. It’s something that has to become part of your corporate culture and MUST be based on strategy. You can’t just pull an I Dream … Continue reading “Don’t Just Engage Employees, Strategically Engage Them!”

Howard Shultz, CEO of Starbucks, once said, “The hardest thing about being a leader is demonstrating or showing vulnerability

To state the obvious: Great leadership is of paramount importance to any organization. Great leaders set the direction for the organization

The pattern is everything. In the movie The Imitation Game, a young woman makes a joke about a pattern in the code she intercepts from a particular German

Your managers are assets you can’t afford to take for granted. Learn four ways you can prevent leadership skills development efforts from falling short.

A frontline with the proper management skills provides the best customer experience possible which creates a very loyal customer base.

It’s been said before and it will surely be said again: managers are invaluable. They have their fingers on the pulse of the organization

Just the title alone makes you cringe, doesn’t it? Are you already scared for the poor associates that have to endure a customer who refers to himself as a customer experience connoisseur? I, too, feel for some of the customer experience associates that have to deal with me but I promise that my intentions are … Continue reading “A Customer Service Connoisseur Goes Shopping”

I’ve just finished reading yet another article on how to hold good meetings. If you are anything like me you don’t find the topic all that exciting but are searching for that elusive holy grail of how to “give good meeting.” Are you spending most of your days in back-to-back meetings, leaving post-work after hours … Continue reading “Another Meeting?!?”

I recently read Fast Company’s publication of Tony Hsieh’s email to all Zappos employees entitled “Adopt Holacracy or Leave.” I love how progressive Tony is with his business model and management thinking. Even more, I appreciate Tony’s gentle demeanor blended with his blunt honesty. Tony has a vision for creating self-organizing and self-managing business-centric groups at Zappos. His … Continue reading “Are Managers Dead?”

Being a leader for the first time or at a new organization can be daunting. Follow these 3 To-dos to ease into the role a little easier.

In case you’re not familiar (is that possible?), Monster.com is a global online employment site for people seeking jobs and the employers who need great people. It also happens to be how I found my job at Root. Anyway, on their worldwide network, Monster sees 7,900 job searches conducted per minute. Yes, MINUTE. As in about 132 job … Continue reading “The Deal with Hostile Bosses”

Training managers needs to be business as usual, not a nice to have. When we don't train managers things can go wrong fast.

High performing teams use these four steps to hold the ultimate meeting. See the results of analyzing high performing teams meeting management styles.

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

Welcome to 2015! If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably set a resolution or two in honor of the new year. After all, it’s a time-honored tradition.

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

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

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.

Let’s be honest, managing people is no simple job. In fact it’s one of the most difficult roles to excel in, and there is no single recipe for success – no book, no program, no “silver bullet” that can prepare someone to master the skill-set quickly. Why? Because we are talking about leading human beings … Continue reading “You want great managers? Focus on the fundamentals.”

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

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.

Is your technology working for your team as much as your team is working for you? If you have any doubt that the lines between your team’s personal and professional lives are being seriously blurred – if not erased altogether – consider these recent statistics: The average worker checks email on his/her mobile device just … Continue reading “Is Your Technology Working for Your Team?”

Imagine for a moment that you are in a room and the lights go out. You are in total darkness. But you know the direction to the door.

In my previous blog, I talked about the seven fears that keep people from telling the truth in organizations and the impact on business performance. Today, I want to tackle how organizations can create safe havens for change. The key ingredients to creating a safe haven for truth telling are relevance, humor, vulnerability, and co-accountability … Continue reading “The Bold Side of Vulnerability in Creating Fearless Engagement – Part 2”

I’ve just returned from a once-in-a-lifetime experience – the Olympic Games in my home country of Great Britain, and I’m still buzzing with pride, emotion, and an unforgettable feeling of goodwill and bonhomie towards, well, everyone! It sounds corny, but it was truly exhilarating to be part of the Olympic movement as a spectator and … Continue reading “The Olympic Opportunity for Managers”

There are few things in business more important than having the right people in your company and ensuring that those people are set up for success – not just for individual success, but to help your company achieve its strategic goals. All too often, we hire new people with great excitement and anticipation only to … Continue reading “I really like him! Let’s hire him!”

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

Woody Allen was right. It’s unfortunate how often I’m disappointed when I try a new service provider (restaurant, other retailer, hotel, etc.). In some cases, I continue to be disappointed with the vendor, but I stay because it’s too much effort to switch (phone or cable company). My disappointment is the result of the vendors’ … Continue reading “90% of Life Is Just Showing Up”

For an organization to be successful, it needs a high-performance operations team. Learn how to build one today.

Most people in their professional careers aspire to be managers. But when that day finally comes, most people are woefully unprepared for the myriad activities that we must be responsible for – including the well-being and development of the team members we are managing. Learning to be a good coach is one of the biggest … Continue reading “Lots to Do When You’re a Manager – Make Your Life Easier”

Learning is a journey. When you start a new strategy it's important that everyone is on the same page and using metaphors can help.

In April 2011, I completed a 90-day sabbatical with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Chilean Patagonia. Root – just like HBR’s April 2012 article titled “Wilderness Leadership – On the Job” – recognized the value for me becoming a more effective people manager by navigating waterways and mountains with a small team. NOLS’ guiding principles and … Continue reading “Managing People and Results? Self-Care Should be Top Priority”

Research shows that managers are the most important drivers of employee engagement, and that engaged employees create loyal customers. But front-line managers are “the ‘least ready’ workgroup in the company, even less capable than their entry-level employees” (Bersin & Associates).  Without a strong development program, people learn to lead by chance.  And these are the … Continue reading “Front-line Managers – Your Weak Link?”

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

Despite different organizations and different industries, despite different backgrounds and different tenure, I can always find one common thread in any group of managers. Of the hundreds of managers I’ve had the opportunity to coach this past year, all of them would give anything to have more time. It’s easy to agree that certain skills … Continue reading “A Manager’s Greatest Plight – The Relentless Pursuit of More Time”

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

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

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

There is a lot of advice out there for leaders – books, presentations, and blogs (ironic, I realize). In many cases that advice is meted out based on specific circumstances, such as going through a merger, entering a new market, or facing unprecedented economic challenges. That doesn’t even guarantee the advice will work for your … Continue reading “What Does It Mean to Be a Leader? Cutting to the Chase”

No matter how great your strategy, it can come to a grinding halt if your managers can’t interpret and translate that strategy

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

I was invited to speak with a networking group of HR managers on the topic of improving employee engagement in their organizations.  I expected to have a conversation about best practices, so I prepared accordingly.  I quickly realized that this group already understood the best practices, but they weren’t effective in launching their initiatives. These … Continue reading “Influencing Up”

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

Last time, I was on the verge of berating and possibly insulting every training professional reading this blog. Now that I’ve calmed down a bit, let me explain what caused my tirade last week… I was having a conversation with a client about a training program. The objective was to design materials that would train … Continue reading “Hey Trainers! Stop Shooting All of Us in the Foot! Part 2”

After years of being a training professional, advocating for training professionals, and working with them as a consultant, there were two recent situations that caused me to finally snap (for those who know me, this is no easy feat). Let me give you some background first… I often peruse the message boards on training-related websites, … Continue reading “Hey Trainers! Stop Contradicting Yourselves! Part 1”

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

Working together as a team means engaging individuals in how their efforts impact their team’s success and how that success contributes to the company's success

Throughout the business world, managers rely on their employees to deliver results. Managers know that there is a never-ending war for top talent

I’ve always been fascinated with the things that distinguish a good boss from a bad boss. Just what is it that makes a good boss good and a bad boss bad?

There's a fundamental flaw in the traditional mindset of corporate training - “getting people to training” and a “learning process”

Can anyone train” has been circulating in conversations for decades. And the varying responses are as far east is from west.

Any investment in helping managers be better employee coaches can have a lasting and significant impact on the success of your business.

A couple of weeks ago I was hosting a session for managers here at Root’s Corporate Headquarters in Sylvania, Ohio. We got to a part of the program where we talk about the importance of managers being able to connect their teams to the big picture of the business. And we’re not talking connectivity by … Continue reading “Managers: A lesson from Facebook”

I’m fresh out of a client meeting, where the head of learning and training across the table from me stated, “We need to re-organize our curriculum. It’s all over the place.” I nodded my head in agreement. This is not the first time I’ve heard this plea. eLearning has been around for nearly two decades … Continue reading “The Learning Buffet”

Engagement hinges on creating a clear line of sight from the marketplace to every employee so they can execute strategy. In working with clients

For many, compliance courses (sexual harassment, diversity training, loss prevention, etc.) are the equivalent of mandatory updates to the home.  Sure, you have to ensure the attic is properly insulated, but isn’t it a lot more fun to renovate the kitchen or install that new surround-sound system in the family room?  Often, these training courses … Continue reading “Ditch the “Duhs” in Compliance Training”

For traditional managers, the future looks bleak. However, for those who want to coach and develop people, your time has arrived!

We recently asked futurist Dr.  James Canton about trends for 2011 in our last issue of The Watercooler, and he suggested some new ways for leaders to lead.  In my opinion, the mentality that leaders and managers need for the near future and beyond is one of “don’t tell – ask.” The manager of the … Continue reading “The “Manager of the Future” – the Future is Now”

While this adage may have worked in Field of Dreams, a recent project helped me learn that it ain’t necessarily so. It also highlighted the role, and importance, of insights in problem-solving. What is an “insight”? An insight is an observation that matters. It’s something that can inform the way you think about a problem … Continue reading “If You Build It, They Will Come”

Our clients often come to us with questions like, “How do we engage our people in our strategy?” or “How do we get people to understand the Big Picture, and where they fit?” or “How do we get our different business groups working together to produce greater results?” Do these questions sound familiar? Creating a … Continue reading “Learning With Game Theory”

When I work with senior teams to help them make decisions on the clarity, alignment, and execution for their strategies, I ask, “How much of your time is spent working in versus on the business?” Working in the business means playing the game with day-to-day tactical activities. Working on the business includes coaching, anticipating, and … Continue reading “4 Ways to Shift a Leader’s Focus from In the Business to On the Business”

Over the past year or so I have heard many clients talk about their increased focus on the service profit chain. While I have heard it described a variety of ways most companies are paying close attention to 3 key links: Engaged Employees Produce Satisfied Customers Resulting in Increased Profits Based on my experience these … Continue reading “Great Managers: Are They The Missing Link?”

When designing virtual tools for L&D, be smart about it. The objective of any L&D initiative is to improve an organization’s viability, either through

Working for a company that’s going through a merger or acquisition can seem like adjusting to a new blended family. For a while, it’s unclear whose house

Have you felt the shift at your workplace? Things are changing. Some people blame the discomfort on mixing four generations with four worldviews.

I’m a big fan of TED. If you know what TED is, skip down to the next paragraph.  If you aren’t aware, TED is a small non-profit dedicated to allowing individuals to share ideas worth spreading. It’s like a central repository for really great innovations. Individuals get a platform to share their stories and ideas … Continue reading “Learning happens. Anywhere. Anyhow. And with anyone.”

These are challenging times for organizations as they try to navigate the turbulent seas of the current economy. With pressure from every side and

My family purchased our first computer when I was around 10 years old. The black and white screen was probably about 6” wide and the computer hard drive held only a few megabytes of data. I remember using the computer for only two things: drawing in a paint program and playing a silly balloon game. … Continue reading “How will the learning style of today’s youth differ from our own?”

As learning designers, it is our duty to present the material in a way that will allow learners to learn effectively. The presentation of information must be tailored to fit various learning styles, because every learner is different. But what is the best way to do this? Our approach to learning is based heavily on … Continue reading “Designing for Different Learning Styles: Follow-up”

How ABC’s Hit Show, Extreme Home Makeover Gave Me Insights to Efficiencies and Strategic Engagement Extreme Home Makeover recently came to our city to film an episode. For those unfamiliar with the program, basically a deserving family is surprised one morning to find the show’s charismatically, hyper host telling them to vacate the house because … Continue reading “Good Morning, Management Family!”

In a previous life I taught beginner martial arts classes for adults, and also-on days when my karma was in particularly bad shape-for preschoolers. Which basically constitutes the two most uncoordinated demographics of people whom a martial arts instructor could ever be asked to train. And instead of keeping you in suspense for the entire … Continue reading “Metaphors: Like a Kick to the Head”

Have you ever been invited to help co-create a solution? It can feel daunting whether you have a whole day to discuss the issue and come up with an appropriate and effective solution or just an hour. The big question is always – where do you begin? Most people want to automatically go to “solution … Continue reading “Don’t Put the Cart Before the Horse”

This little nugget of wisdom baffles me: “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” Why? Is there anyone who ever had cake who wasn’t able to eat it too? It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and I would counter that you can in fact get everything you want. As I write this … Continue reading “I Want Cake, and Yes, I’ll be Eating It Too”

For years, I’ve been fascinated by managers. The more I learn, the more I realize their vital role in the execution of strategy. I’m convinced that the development of managers should be a top priority for organizations wanting to deploy and sustain business strategy. But experience tells me that managers are the single most underinvested-in … Continue reading “Great Managers and Fresh Produce”

At Anchor Blue Retail Group, we target young people whose wardrobes are based on denim and jeans. At peak season, we employ about 5,000 people in Anchor Blue stores and Levi/Docker outlets. After a few years of market share and revenue decline, we knew we faced a challenge. For years, we had been locked in … Continue reading “Compass at Anchor Blue–a Perfect Fit!”

In a world of morebetterfaster, simplicity has always been crucial. Throughout the next decade, however, your ability to build simplicity into working with people could determine the winners and losers in the war for talent. Consider that over the next decade in the U.S., 70+ million Boomers will retire or re-focus their careers. 70+ million … Continue reading “Simplicity Just Got Urgent”

Management can be like playing whack-a-mole – the old kids’ game where you try to pound down whichever mole pops up through the hole

For years, I’ve been fascinated by managers. The more I learn, the more I realize their vital role in the execution of strategy.

The Context I was watching my nephew as he struggled to complete his reading assignment for the night. The assignment was to read one chapter and write a short paragraph summarizing what he read. I sat down next to him and asked if he needed any help. “I hate reading! I always have to read … Continue reading “Different Learners, Different Learning Styles”

Does it seem that all the e-learning you see is “cookie-cutter” – based on classical instructional design that is rigid, with minimal interactivity? We look at drag and drops, matching, quizzes, and other methodologies as a way to effectively engage users in content. If only learning were so simple! Often, we forget about the subtleties … Continue reading “The Seductive Detail!”

It is tempting to focus on the look and feel of a game, but the power of gaming is in the gaming concepts and their applicability to adult learning

Bolting on new learning solution after new learning solution, year after year without a reality check is far from effective and isn't a true curriculum.