“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” – Peter Drucker As someone who gets paid to help organizations develop & implement strategy (among other things), I get lots of questions about the best way to go about developing strategic initiatives, how to make sure they get done, etc. Usually people expect to hear terms like “SWOT analysis” or … Read more
“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Theodore M. Hesburgh I’ve had four nearly identical conversations in the past two weeks with people at four different businesses. All four conversations went something like this. An organization had recently undergone some significant change. The … Read more
“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” – J.R.R. Tolkien We spend a lot of time as organizations (hopefully) talking about the future. And, to most people’s credit, it’s usually a positive conversation. Most leaders are excited about the future for their business. Most … Read more
“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.” – Doug Larson I Googled “leadership” this morning and got 451 million hits. If you read any business publications or blogs or watch any TED talks you know people everywhere are talking about leadership. We spend endless hours … Read more
“There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear.” – David Mahoney I had a really engaging day recently with the management team of a small but rapidly-growing business. This business has added a number of people, and the chaos of all the newness is starting … Read more
“There are two kinds of companies – those that change and those that disappear.” – Anonymous Most of the businesses and leaders I have the opportunity to work with agree on the importance of change. When I talk about chaos and volatility and the rapidly changing environment in which we live and work they all … Read more
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” – Gen. Eric Shinseki If you can get past the disaster that his career became over the past few years, Shinseki’s quote is one of my all-time favorites. So many of us don’t like change – and that in itself isn’t some kind … Read more
“Creativity comes from looking for the unexpected and stepping outside your own experience.” – Masaru Ibuka I was fortunate enough last week to attend a conference where one of the speakers was Erik Wahl. Three things struck me as I listened to Erik speak. First, he’s a phenomenal speaker/artist. Second, I was reminded how critical … Read more
“People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.” – Stephen Hawking It feels like lately in this space there’s been a lot of talk about belief and positive self-talk and that kind of touchier, feelier stuff. I have people tell me that they’re not big fans of that kind of … Read more
“Everybody believes in innovation until they see it. Then they think, ‘Oh no; that’ll never work. It’s too different.’“ – Nolan Bushnell If there is one word I hear more than any other as I visit with business leaders it’s “innovation”. Everybody wants to talk about how great innovation is, how innovation is the key … Read more
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