My view of organization effectiveness starts with two important assumptions: We are interdependent, and as a result We need to collaborate. Interdependence implies that people need to cooperate in order to accomplish what they want. In the workplace, managers need employees to accomplish results that lead to department or organization success. Likewise, employees need managers … More The Assumption of Interdependence
For the last few months I set aside writing to do some listening, research and thinking. I wanted to better understand a trend that over the past few years, influenced in part by 9/11 and most recently by the pressures of a struggling economy, seemed to be reaching a crescendo that was overpowering more important … More The Dangers of Corporate Fundamentalism
Play is the highest form of research. Albert Einstein When was the last time you played at work? When was the last time you spent your workday having fun? More importantly, if you are a leader, when was the last time you encouraged your employees to play? If you are having trouble remembering, then you … More The Powerful Link Between Play and Creativity
Change is a lot like going from Oz to Kansas. On one hand, it’s as uncomplicated as closing your eyes, clicking the heels of your ruby slippers and willing yourself from one place to another. Individuals and organizations have the ability to make change that simple—an uncomplicated choice, a straightforward decision, a path taken with … More The Importance of Yellow Brick Roads
asdf Randy Nelson knows something about how to build collaborative, innovative cultures. Although currently the Head of Artistic Development and Training at DreamWorks Animation, two years ago when he did this piece, he was the Dean of Pixar University. For twelve years, Randy was responsible designing curriculum and delivering classes and programs to continuously increase … More Pixar’s Foundations for Collaboration
Sometimes it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a change leader to take on the full responsibility of change . . . A couple weeks ago I completed an Accelerated Change Readiness workshop with a project team for a Fortune 500 company. They were preparing for a technology … More Through the Eye of a Needle
Derek Sivers, the founder and former president of CD Baby, shows in this funny and revealing video that while a leader gets things started, it’s the courageous follower that transforms the “lone nut” into a leader. It’s the follower’s choice to follow and encourage others to follow that makes the difference between an isolated incident … More The Courage of Followers
As Ed Roland and Collective Soul express so well, great results happen when you begin to listen. In the late 1980’s, the economy in Japan was strong, and everyone was making money, trading stocks, investing in real estate, and busy buying assets throughout the world. Behind all the luxury and pleasures, however, lay the realities … More Listening, Health and Employee Engagement
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and … More A Revolutionary Case for Change
Context is everything. It affects how we see. As demonstrated by Beau Lotto, founder of the hybrid art studio and science lab, Lottolab, color lets us see the similarities and differences between surfaces. But when you vary the parameters, when you change the context around which you see, you change the color that falls to … More The Optical Illusions of Change
Erik Van Slyke 