“The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps – we must step up the stairs.” – Vance Havner My experience with business leaders is that those who are successful and thinking about the future never suffer from a lack of ideas. Rarely do we sit down … Read more
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” – Flannery O’Connor I recently conducted a workshop for a group of business people whose industry is in the midst of very rapid, radical change. Without exception, this group has been very successful over the years, but the changes they’re currently experiencing cast … Read more
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” – Andy Warhol Not too long ago I was visiting with a manufacturer who was talking about the way they provide customer service. Eventually the group came to the conclusion that their customer service was not meeting an acceptable level in … Read more
“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.” – John Wooden An organization I spend a lot of time with recently took a few hours to work through a change success model, the idea being to identify potential barriers to change. We talked about things like change readiness, capability, beliefs, etc. Eventually we … Read more
“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.” – Ben Stein As I sit here doing something I’ve never done before (writing one of these posts on an airplane), I find myself thinking about a question I heard two people discussing earlier today. What … Read more
“The success combination in business is: Do what you do better… and do more of what you do…” – David Joseph Schwartz I watch a lot of football (the American kind). One of the things that annoys me more and more as each season goes by is the epidemic of teams who don’t seem to … Read more
“We cannot become what we need to be without changing who we are.” – Max DePree Oftentimes as leaders we fail to see the need for change in our organizations. Sometimes, though, we look at change as obvious. We’re not happy with the results we’re getting or the way we’re getting them and we see … Read more
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw I’ve spent a lot of time recently with an organization that is going through a lot of transition. One of the founding owners is retiring, some new owners are coming on board, there are growth opportunities, etc. … Read more
“Confidence is a lot of this game or any game. If you don’t think you can, you won’t.” – Jerry West We (and many other businesses out there) talk a lot about the factors that impact change. We talk about accountability and leadership and vision and all sorts of other things. One thing we don’t … Read more
“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” – Dwight Eisenhower I was fortunate enough to be having a conversation with two great clients last week and it was similar to a dozen conversations I’ve heard before. The main idea of it … Read more
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