Over the years, I’ve been asked by several people to give them tips on book writing. As I thought about their requests, I realized that I don’t have the right generalized knowledge to write on that topic, but I do have very specific knowledge about how I write books. So, for all those curious, here […]
How April Writes a Book Read More »
In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m writing about missing kisses. Trust me. This will get to a typical Engine for Change point soon enough. The classic picture book Strega Nona–written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola and published in 1975–tells the story of a beloved local witch, Strega Nona (translated as Grandma Witch) and her inattentive
Missing the kisses Read More »
Those who work to solve problems are more highly valued that those who merely label them.” – Robert Mager and Peter Pipe in Analyzing Performance Problems This week, so long as I get my voice back, I’ll have the privilege to provide three days of training to a highly motivated group of problem solvers. I
More Highly Valued Read More »
Last week I encouraged you to break all the rules by following three new rules (yes, I see the humor in that hypocrisy. I hope you do too.) Today, we’ll continue our journey of replacement rules with some more. Rule 4: Let your words reflect the honor in every role performed to excellence. This rule
A Guide to Breaking All the Rules (Part 2) Read More »
You’re going to have to wait a few more days for the second portion of A Guide to Breaking All The Rules (which happened to be just a bunch of different rules to follow) . Though I had the best of intentions, I have failed to deliver. I let others things creep into my blogging
At the end of the month, I’ll deliver a one-hour discussion on the book First Break All the Rules (1999, Marcus Buckingham). I was going to wait to try out the material on the audience before I shared it with you, but then I thought: Why not experiment on the blog? Isn’t that why you
A Guide to Breaking All the Rules Read More »
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted … but to weigh and consider.” – Sir Francis Bacon Perhaps this is a silly quote of the week, for how few of us read these days (beyond blogs of course)? In many organizations, if you express a penchant (noun: a strong
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Last May I posted a long discussion about the importance of drawing pictures: If you want to succeed a driving change, practice drawing pictures. Specifically, practice drawing pictures of either what the future looks like or what the journey to the future looks like.” Today I was back at it, drawing more pictures in an
If you hope to understand what makes driving change work so well, there are some authors that you should know. You could start with John Kotter. His Leading Change gives us the 8-step process, the antidote to the failed change behaviors too many companies continue to employ. My favorite Kotter books are Sense of Urgency
The Authors You Need to Know Read More »
This week I found two fabulous, free booklets titled Innovation in Government and Leading Innovation in Government. The booklets were published by the Partnership for Public Service. If you’ve got ten minutes to flip through them, you should check them both out. Let me know what you think. [Thanks to Rosalie for sending me Innovation
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