A Cry of Hope, Serenity, and Sadness
In 2000, American Elegy was performed for the first time in commemoration of the victims and survivors of the massacre at Columbine High School. In the thirteen years since composer Frank Ticheli was first commissioned to write the piece, it has been performed in commemoration of too many other disasters. It has also become a popular piece for high school …
Read MoreNo “One Size Fits All” When it Comes to Values: Lessons from Ron Johnson and J.C. Penney
Once a week or so, LinkedIn sends a list of job openings that might be a good fit. The little black box algorithm combines geography, past job history, current role, network, and the skills/expertise listed. Clicking on one of the opportunities yields a tremendous amount of information about the organization, the role, and the responsibilities. Leaping over to the employer’s …
Read MoreMy Accident Aftermath… and what you can learn from it
Some of you have noticed that I’ve been off blogging for months. This post is about the grueling details of why. If you make it through, I promise this read can change the way you approach leadership. It certainly did for me. My Accident and AftermathI had a horrific car accident in November. I wrote a blog about it, and …
Read MoreHow does Your Tribe Respond to Terror?
This week’s blog was going to be about how to avoid getting into a values mismatch and what to do when you discover you are in one. Good stuff that we can revisit at another time. The explosions at the Boston Marathon changed that plan. Like most of the world, we at CultureSync are heartbroken at the losses and angered …
Read MoreMistakes, scandals, and atrocity
In a recent episode of Scandal, Olivia Pope and her media relations team rush in to manage a crisis involving a CEO, her family, and the professor with whom the CEO had had an affair. The CEO’s Board of Directors demands her resignation for violating the company’s morality clause. In a brilliant scene, Pope’s team meets with the Board armed …
Read MoreDoes Pope Francis Need to Manage or Lead?
Are you a leader or a manager? Do you think that one is better than the other? Is Pope Francis a manager or a leader? In last Tuesday’s Tribal Leadership Intensive, Dave Logan led a conversation on the differences between leadership and management, and explained why you need both. In a nutshell, if what you’re working on has anything to …
Read MoreKill Will: Part II
The responses to Kill Will: Part I suggest it hit a chord in the tribe. The words we use matter. Last week I focused on one little word: “will.” This past week I worked to eliminate “will” in my own communications, and there were some interesting experiences. The first experience, unexpectedly so, came from a member of the CultureSync tribe …
Read MoreKill Will: Part I
Want to be more effective personally, professionally, and economically? Apparently, one solution is kill will. One of the CultureSync Approved Tribal Leaders Leslie Bennett reminds me to take “will” out of the proposals we develop together. Statements like “participants will learn about the connections between organizational culture and organizational performance” become “participants learn about the connections between organizational culture and organizational …
Read MoreThe No Candy Challenge
We’ve all been there, hours wasted with a consultant or trainer who brings a cookie-cutter approach to the company or team. Perhaps they bring in colorful handouts, toys, and even miniature candy bars to keep the team engaged. The team might learn something neat about themselves and one another. They might come out of the day well entertained. The more …
Read MoreNo Mission, No Margin
Most hospitals today are still “not-for-profit,” that is they are charitable organizations exempt from federal income taxes under IRS Sec 501(c)(3). As we like to remind everyone from time to time, the term “not-for-profit,” or “nonprofit,” is not a mission statement; it pertains to the IRS tax code description for tax exemption. Most employees know, with varying degrees of acknowledgement …
Read More
