Just before the opening ceremonies in Beijing, Tavia Grant from The Globe & Mail sent me an e-mail and interviewed me for her story on how managers should deal with people watching the Olympics at the office (“World’s Watching: Who’s Working”, August 8, 2008). As the Globe & Mail so often is, her story was […]
Read post »Build a repertoire of teachable stories. Collect and catalogue the best examples of your organization’s key principles in action. Circulate those stories inside and outside your organization through the media (where appropriate). Write up collections of case studies illustrating tough decisions, trade-offs, outstanding performance, dealing effectively with changes, etc. Embed the stories in training and […]
Read post »Most managers are doing far too little to mitigate the destructive and wasteful effects of e-mail misuse. Like a B-movie, the e-mail monster keeps growing larger and consuming more time and resources (“E-zilla: The Insatiable Beast”). Some of the more common abuses I hear about in my workshops are: CC-ing the World” – far too […]
Read post »A workshop participant from Denmark who’d attended an international management development forum I facilitated contacted me because he was taking on a new assignment in South America. He wrote: “Based on all the new managers that you have met and provided with guidance though the years, what are then the 5-10 most significant challenges these […]
Read post »We’ve all heard it’s the journey and not the destination that is most important in life. But whether flying or driving, we’re too often so intent on getting to our next destination that we miss the joy of the trip. Then it’s a whirlwind of activity until we get back in the plane or car […]
Read post »Below is a description and link to one of my favorite fables on resisting peer pressure and following what I feel is right. I once had a gymnasium of high school kids applaud this story after I told it (holding the attention of 300 grade nine kids was stretching the bounds of my professional speaking […]
Read post »“I was intrigued by the Moose on the Table (my most recent Globe Mail article “When Silence Isn’t Golden”) and how much it applies to where I have been working for fifteen years this June. We are now dealing with the fall-out of a disgruntled employee who left because I would no longer listen to […]
Read post »A print journalist asked me if there was any one incident that led me to write Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work. It was a great question that caused me to step back and reflect on how my experiences came together to weave the book’s storyline and core themes. Moose […]
Read post »Greetings Jim, I am responding to your call to share my experience in putting up with the moose (see “When Personal Candor Doesn’t Fit the Culture” from May 2008). Recently, my CEO found the time of his convenience to summon us all for a management retreat. Heads of business units from different parts of the […]
Read post »Right after my article “When Silence Isn’t Golden” appeared in The Globe &Mail, I received this e-mail from a reader: “Hello Jim, I just wanted to send you a note to let you know how much your article today resonated with me … you hit it bang-on and helped me resolve something in my professional […]
Read post »A few months ago, professional speaking colleague (we met and stay in touch through the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers), Tyler Hayden approached me with this intriguing offer: “I am co-editing a book called ‘A Father’s Message In a Bottle’ (which will be part of a series – A Mother’s, A Sister’s, etc.) The first […]
Read post »Here’s a quickie quiz I put together for my new Breaking Through the Bull workshop. It draws on our Consulting and Training division’s growing experience with assessing and helping our Client’s shift their culture. It also frames many of the issues Pete Leonard (the fictional manager in my new book, Moose on the Table: A […]
Read post »Recently I was working with a Client struggling to bring about cultural change in her organization. Senior managers were paying “passionate lip service” to the organization’s core value, but their actions clearly conveyed that “hitting the numbers” ultimately trumped all other behaviors. Unfortunately, this is an all too common situation. This HR professional was reinforcing […]
Read post »Building on the highly customized Courageous Leadership for Health & Safety training program we designed for Barrick Gold (see July 2006, December 2006, and December 2007 issues – The CLEMMER Group’s training and consulting division has been rapidly expanding our offerings and expertise in this area. As word of the dramatic results of Barrick’s program […]
Read post »“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” – Gandhi “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off. Good leadership involves responsibility to the welfare of the group, which means that some people will get angry at your actions and decisions. It’s inevitable, if you’re honorable. Trying to get everyone to like you is a […]
Read post »Peter Dunfield, Senior Advisor, Safety Health and Environment at Syncrude in Fort McMurray, Alberta sent this photo of a thank you memento he was given after his presentation a few years ago to The Construction Owners Association of Alberta (COAA). Peter had asked for my permission to use one of my moose-on-the-table slides to raise […]
Read post »“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.” – Muriel Rukeyser, American novelist, poet, biographer, and screenwriter “Wherever a story comes from, whether it is a familiar myth or a private memory, the retelling exemplifies the making of a connection from one pattern to another: a potential translation in which narrative becomes parable and […]
Read post »An early Moose on the Table reader e-mailed me that she quite liked the book. But she bitterly complained about not being in a position of power and authority as Pete Leonard (the central character) and the other characters in the book. She was very right about this book being directly applicable to those in […]
Read post »A day after long time Improvement Points subscriber, Larry Beckon, received the following Improvement Point he sent me the e-mail below: "A thirty-eight year old man was at his parent’s home for Sunday dinner. He mournfully turned the discussion to his many problems, ‘I’ve just left my third failed marriage, I can’t hold onto a […]
Read post »In The Leader’s Digest, I wrote the following about the kind of culture or environment created by management teams: If you buy a little goldfish and keep it in a small bowl, it will remain no bigger than a few inches long. Move that same fish to a large aquarium and it will double or […]
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