You would think that creating a championship culture is easy with athletes making multi-millions of dollars each season.
But, in my experience, it is just as hard creating a championship culture in that environment as it is creating it in your company.
Baseball managers have to deal with players that show up with attitudes, behaviors … Read the Rest →
In 2012 Google began studying teamwork in the company. Called “Project Aristotle,” results were released in 2016.
Google in-house researchers studied 180 teams at the company and analyzed over 250 team attributes through more than 200 interviews.
The final results reported five key characteristics that allowed teams to achieve high-levels of success. In order of … Read the Rest →
Five years ago facilitating a client’s leadership retreat I asked a simple question…
“What is teamwork?”
Of the 12 leaders in the organization, a small regional credit union, we heard the traditional answers and one that stood out.
The one that stood out was:
“Teamwork is a series of individual interdependent successful efforts.”
That definition… 
Until recently I wasn’t much of a fan of The World Cup (or soccer/futbol, in general for that matter).
My sports affinity has been more with the North American based sports of baseball, hockey, and American football.
Over the last decade that has started to change.
Due to the influence of a very close business … Read the Rest →
Peter Drucker, the guru of organizational development consulting, was quoted as saying that “culture eats strategy for lunch.”
Company “culture” is defined as “how people within an organizational environment communicate and behave based on real or perceived values, beliefs, and rules (both written and unwritten).”
There are two types of company cultures:
A “compliance” culture,…The term “silos” in relation to company culture is typically associated with larger organizations.
For that reason I was flabbergasted by a conversation with the CEO of a small, but very well respected not-for-profit in my community.
She told me she wanted to improve teamwork in her organization.
That sounded typical and not unusual to … Read the Rest →
Conservative and progressive economists continue to debate the impact on small businesses of increasing the minimum wage.
Conservative and progressive politicians continue to argue the issue to chart their political futures.
While they all drone on, a significant number of low wage employees struggle to make ends meet while being asked to bring a positive … Read the Rest →
Someone on LinkedIn last week commented on an article I published in 2014 about “open-door” policies saying, “I used to work for a boss that told us that HE had an ‘open-door policy’ with ‘My door is always open… So please walk by quietly!’ ”
“This manager did often joke about things and this may … Read the Rest →
A few days ago, July 31 to be exact, was Major League Baseball’s annual “trading deadline.”
It’s the point in the season when team rosters have to be finalized to be eligible for post season play.
It’s on, and around, this deadline that often a lot of players get moved from team to team as … Read the Rest →
Last Tuesday’s All-Star Game marked the unofficial mid-way point in the very long Major League Baseball season.
This time in the baseball season always reminds me that in the marathon that is the baseball season athletes are conditioned not to get too high while on a winning streak or too low during a slump, because … Read the Rest →
