It's time to look for a coach when success is more elusive than you hoped, when stress and frustration are sapping your energy and making you more prickly than you know you should be, or when the supporters you need to mobilize are getting stuck in risk-averse traps and aren't stepping up with the urgency, initiative and inventive thinking you [...]
In teams with initiative, creativity, and inventive thinking, things look a little chaotic. And a bit heated, as key issues get wrestled down and people challenge each other's best thinking. Sharp direct questions jab - as teammates with diverse perspectives offer their best critical thinking to sharpen up team decisions and critique actions while there's still room to pivot. The [...]
The Financial Times reports that workers are resigning from McDonald's - because new menus, new choices and frequent changes require too much thinking and learning, and creates too much stress for employees. In the "good old days," menu choices were limited. Buttons told McDonald's workers exactly what to do. It was the ultimate non-VUCA work environment, tailored for entry workers [...]
Too bad for gravid.ca - whose troubles were featured in the Financial Post. Even with a hot product and an huge unmet market need, they’re not a great investment. By the time they get their supply chain problems sorted out, competitors will meet the need they’ve discovered and will cash in on all they’ve done to educate customers. They'll lose their [...]
We're a risk-averse culture. We may want want to change that, to promote innovation, but we need to do it in a risk-averse safe way. How can you help us with that?" That's what we heard from a Talent Management Director a few weeks ago - in a large American company that's been under fire, that replaced its CEO and [...]
The NY Times reported on “Jerks and the Startups they ruin.” Jerks often are oblivious to the seeds of damage they are sowing, creating a fraternity of "bro-culture" adherents, who see things the same way and egg each other on - rubbing each other the right way. Charging-buffalo innovation leaders seem invincible. They don't suffer fools gladly. They set a [...]
Case study #1 for LDP participants: You be the coach-orig Dear LDP colleague: This private post is for VWR LDP participants, sponsors, HRBPs, faculty and alumni. We will use it for online discussions - and as a forum for you to share leadership ideas. This blog will give you the first opportunity to share your leadership thinking and your ideas with the LDP community. In this post, [...]
Lean thinking to streamline work that does not add value - and find opportunities for revenue generation One of Merom's first consulting assignments, years before he ventured out and founded his own firm, was with a famous potato chip manufacturer in Central Pennsylvania. Ask any Baby Boomer who grew up within a 4-hour radius of their factory and they’ll remember [...]
