A key element of my work last month with Qantas Airways in Australia involved linking customer focus, employee engagement, and process management. This month I was engaged by a national insurance company to help their executive team understand their role in implementing Lean/Six Sigma. My experience with Lean/Six Sigma began in the late eighties with […]
Read post »Has your executive or management team fallen into a few of the traps identified in my last blog post? If so, you’re in good company. Those common team traps are highly interconnected. Getting out of them takes a fair bit of work and approaches unique to each team. Following is a menu of resources and […]
Read post »With the Chilean miners successful rescue last month, the questions around how they became trapped in the first place will lead to numerous investigative media reports and inquiries. Those stories, reports, and inquires are now emerging around the giant BP oil disaster this spring and summer in the Gulf of Mexico. Early stories and reports […]
Read post »This fall we’ve been working extensively with executive teams striving to transform their cultures to boost safety, customer service, quality, and leadership at all levels. I wrote about some of this work around our Commitment Continuum in an earlier blog post which was also published in our October issue of The Leader Letter (“Lasting Culture […]
Read post »My last blog post highlighted the big problem of a culture of fear within many teams and organizations. In the middle of preparing today’s post, I’m doing some fall clean up in my garden while listening to a radio panel discussion on the huge problem of medical errors. Fear of speaking up or admitting mistakes […]
Read post »A recent survey of more than 400,000 employees across various industries by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) showed that “nearly half of executive teams lack the information they need to manage effectively because employees withhold vital input out of fear that doing otherwise will reflect poorly on them. This restricted information flow can cripple a […]
Read post »SkillSoft is a leading provider of e-learning and performance support programs and services. The company provides comprehensive e-learning content, online information resources, and learning technologies for global enterprises, government, education and small to medium-sized businesses. I am delighted to be partnering with SkillSoft and providing the keynote presentation at their October 14 conference at the […]
Read post »Last month Return on Performance magazine asked me to respond to a series of questions on motivating employees to attract new customers in a recovering economy for their “Winning Tips” section. My responses below reflect many of the internal service and servant leadership themes found throughout my work – and this month’s issue. Ask yourself… […]
Read post »We’ve recently run into another wave of problems with implementing new organizational computer systems. In one case, the term “change management” became a derogatory euphemism for having inflexible and ineffective systems forced on divisions and departments. When frontline staff pointed out deficiencies with the system and how it caused problems for customers – and most […]
Read post »Last week a reader asked for advice on the best way to craft a vision and mission statement for their organization. Beware! This could be a big trap. I often poll my speaking or workshop audiences and ask for a show of hands on how many participants’ organizations have a vision, values, or mission statement. […]
Read post »The Danish philosopher, theologian, and psychologist, Søren Kierkegaard once observed, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t so. The other is to refuse to believe what is so.” For centuries, April 1 has been celebrated in many countries with pranks, hoaxes, and practical jokes. Wikipedia has a fascinating collection […]
Read post »I often poll my audiences to see how many work in or lead an organization that has published a statement of values. Usually about ¾ of the group raises their hands. I then ask a rhetorical question (not asking for hands to be raised) about whether those values have a “high snicker factor” throughout the […]
Read post »During the next few weeks signs of Spring such as March/Spring Breaks are breaking out in school districts across many areas of North America. There are also promising signs of global economic recovery – “green shots” – breaking out and starting to grow. But indicators point toward a long and challenging recovery. A key issue […]
Read post »Given the popularity of my Thriving in Turbulent Times webcast on December 3rd (over 550 sites tuned in), I am partnering with the Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) to bring you another fast-paced hour of ideas, inspiration, and how-to applications on developing leadership skills on February 12th. In this unique and rare webcast, […]
Read post »A member of a group I belong to on LinkedIn sent me this request: “I have a presentation to an executive team for a company that provides medical garments to outpatient facilities throughout the US. I will be helping the Organization Development manager make a business case for leadership and culture development. I’m going to […]
Read post »I recently joined the LinkedIn group “HR – Organization Development & Training.” Eli Sopow, Special Advisor, Change Management at Royal Canadian Mounted Police, posted the question “can changing behavior change your organization culture?” It was a question at the heart of so much of The CLEMMER Group’s consulting and training work of the last years […]
Read post »Last week we sent out the Improvement Point below to subscribers. “Despite all the talk – passionate speeches, glossy brochures, clever ads, high tech videos, convincing sales pitches, snappy slogans, strategic plans, and solemn annual reports – the service and quality action delivered by most organizations is mediocre at best.” – from Jim Clemmer’s article, […]
Read post »On May 19 I was interviewed for a one hour teleconference by Shelley MacDougall and Kevin MacDonald. Shelley and Kevin have created a program (mainly for the private club industry) called the Extraordinary Leader. It is a tele-class and web-based community with the focus of developing Extraordinary Leaders. This year-long program is divided into twelve […]
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