During this holiday season, the usual holiday TV shows, movies, and conversations abound. An interesting one surfaced yesterday. “What do I tell my young daughter about Santa Claus? I’d like her to experience the joy that comes from believing, but I know she’ll hear from at least one of her friends that Santa isn’t real. …
Author Archives: Larry
Culture Is as Culture Does
There is an old Native-American saying that goes something like, “If you want to know where your enemy is going, don’t look at their eyes – look at their moccasins.” The same can be said for culture. Many organizations talk/brag about their friendly, people-centered, transparent, honest … (fill in your adjectives here) cultures. The question …
Some Changes are Bigger Than Others
A colleague recently shared that his aerospace engineering and manufacturing facility had just announced a major layoff at. We had worked there together in the past, so I was familiar with the facility and organizational ecosystems. After the initial shock and disappointment (former colleagues had suffered major disruptions to their livelihoods) wore off, I realized …
I Didn’t Realize There Was So Much Going On
We received a phone call from one of the principals in the financial services company we profiled in the case study of our book, “Complexity Works!” He had just finished reading the case and was shocked that our brief time together had resulted in 46 pages of evaluation and commentary. “I had no idea that …
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How Does Your Organization Engage with Risk?
We have been researching how and why an organization integrates behaviors and actions that introduce “Risk” to an organization. We feel this is critical because it has significant impact on growth and profitability. Two LinkedIn posts offer very different perspectives. The first post is by Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and CEO of WPP and is …
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Changing Patterns in 2017
How can anyone not be struck by the unique challenges and opportunities that have been ushered in with the new year? Those challenges include aligning the needs of employees, the environment, shareholders and customers; establishing a new level of security across our physical and digital spaces; addressing challenges from inside as well as outside of …
Are you Affected or Infected by Change?
You have probably heard of the riddle, “What is the difference between a pig and a chicken at breakfast?” The answer is, “The chicken is engaged, but the pig is committed.” I would like to advance the proposition that the same is true when it comes to change initiatives. There is one category of people for …
“A Better Way to Fish”
Many people have heard the old adage, “If I give you a fish, you eat for a day. If I teach you to fish, you’ll eat for a lifetime.” In this article, we’d like to propose that traditional learning and development paradigms focus far too often on “giving participants the fish,” with poor results in …
“It’s Always All Here”
In a recent conversation with a client, she spoke about the ONE thing they were going to focus their attention on in order to fix a significant problem. “It’s a matter of focus,” she said. “We have smart, motivated, dedicated people. If they bring those skills to this issue, we can’t help but be successful.” …
“Sometimes More Gets You Less …”
I was just watching a series of DVD lectures titled, “Understanding Complexity” by Professor Scott Page of the University of Michigan. In one of those lectures, he discussed the differences between positive feedback (doing more of a thing gets you more of the same thing) and negative feedback (doing more of a thing gets you …