This week I’ve been across the entire country. I started my week in Washington, DC and I’ll finish up in Portland, Oregon. And it’s the new year every where I go. There are endless lose-weight and get-organized and quit-smoking commercials on every television and radio station in the country. The gyms and the yoga studios and the […]
Christmas Eve, at the White House, 1941 As the holiday season nears its apex, like you, my thoughts have been drawn to deeper things–to my family and friends, to reflections on the past year and the new one just around the corner, to my faith and my blessings. I have also spent some time thinking […]
Last week I went to St. George, Utah to teach a seminar sponsored by Dixie Applied Technical College. I traveled with my wife, Susan, to the beautiful red rock country of southern Utah and had a marvelous time teaching and learning from the leaders of this small but dogged technical college. The morning session was […]
I spent the end of last week near the beautiful Oregon coast. It is an amazing part of the country. Being there again reminded me of an experience I had just a couple of weeks ago. I was there teaching a Destination Thinking for Leaders seminar to the strong and engaged leaders of TriQuint Semiconductor. […]
Recently, a pertinent question surfaced during an Ownership Spirit® seminar I was teaching to a group of leaders. One leader asked, “How do you help people elevate their presets about themselves.” Anyone who is parent, youth advisor, or team leader at work knows the scenario behind the question. We all know people who are […]
As we work toward designing results-conducive cultures, consider two laws of the mind: (1) The mind does not solve general problems; (2) The mind does not achieve vague or general goals. When it comes to behavior, specificity rules. Teams who define their standards and mutual expectations in specific terms set themselves apart, enabling themselves […]
Last week I had a conversation with a CEO concerned about what he called an “atmosphere of resentment” festering in the ranks of his organization. That led to a discussion on the “origin of cultures” that I think would make for a profitable topic here in the Qummunity. My observation to him was that most […]
Yesterday, I had the opportunity of delivering the keynote address at the Arizona Management Society, which meets for a luncheon meeting on a monthly basis. I viewed this invitation as somewhat of an honor because September is the “kick-off” month for the new year (AMS takes the three summer months off), and the organization puts […]
For good reason we extol the value of sound processes. Indeed it could be argued that most highly successful enterprises are the end product of well designed and well executed processes. While we celebrate their merit, let us not lose sight of the fact that processes do not run themselves. When, in fact, processes are […]
