…only what? Stop saying, “They’re only…” Start saying, “They could be…” Don’t expect less of people. Expect more. Stop keeping Mike pigeonholed as the guy who peed his pants in first grade or Suzie labeled as the perpetual teacher’s pet. Quit dwelling on that time Danny missed his deadline or all those times last year […]
Should you follow the advice at this blog–at any blog–or in any Harvard Business Review article or from any management coach? How can you tell which advice to act on and which to toss aside? When you’re giving advice, are you giving people something they can use or are you seemingly just talking to hear
Tests of Good Advice Read More »
It doesn’t matter if you’re right. It doesn’t matter if the change you’re proposing is the exact thing your organization needs to do to thrive or even survive. If you can’t get anyone to listen to you or anyone to implement the change, no one will ever know you were right. Driving change is about
So what if you’re right? Read More »
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. Why? Because people think in pictures. If you can draw a picture in their minds that they can put themselves in, look around and
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” – Albert Einstein As an implementer, an engineer, someone who turns ideas into practical applications, I enjoy this quote. I enjoy the quote because within it I hear a challenge to do more than absorb information. I hear a challenge to apply my knowledge,
Quote of the Week: Learning Read More »
…not that it should matter to anyone that I agree with him, but I do. So why should you care that Deming was right? Because just as other authors have discovered the mechanisms at work in creating empowered cultures (Gallup’s strengths work) and transformational change (Kotter’s Leading Change), so W. Edwards Deming cataloged beautifully the
I’d written a blog post and filed it away, only to have the topic treated better in a newsletter article I read this weekend. First, I offer you my blog post, then a re-post of the newsletter article. Regardless which version gets the thought across to you, you’ll appreciate the idea if you’re driving change.
Let that be a lesson to you Read More »
A while back I posted the link to a free audio copy of Dave Logan, John King and Halee Fischer-Wright’s book, Tribal Leadership. They describe the book as: Every company, indeed, every organization, is a tribe, or if it’s large enough, a network of tribes—groups of twenty to 150 people in which everyone knows everyone
Reviewing “Tribal Leadership” Read More »
Seth Godin says, It’s easier to teach compliance than initiative. Compliance is simple to measure, simple to test for and simple to teach. Punish non-compliance, reward obedience and repeat. Initiative is very difficult to teach to 28 students in a quiet classroom. It’s difficult to brag about in a school board meeting. And it’s a
Just because it’s easy, doesn’t mean you should do it. Read More »
Whether you read the Air Force Academy or Naval Academy versions of the speech, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is asking cadets and midshipmen to drive change. In his remarks, Secretary Gates encouraged our future military leaders to: Learn from the experiences and the setbacks of the past; Be open to ideas and inspiration from
Sec Def speaks out for driving change Read More »
