Achieving Business Excellence

I saw this post and liked the ideas so much that I asked to run it here as a guest post. Kyle Lagunas makes some excellent points…

In recent years, the most successful companies have focused less on perks and more on offering their employees something better: a connection to the company. Three prominent start-ups – Groupon, Zynga and Dropbox – are each cultivating lasting company cultures, and I’ve taken a look to see what’s working and what’s not. Continue reading “A Guest Post on Building a Great Culture” »

My dear friend, Linda Coles, an absolutely superb speaker, author and social media expert from New Zealand, sent me a note the other day asking if I had read any really good books on how to be an expert at facilitation of meetings. I thought it was a great question, and one that I’ve gotten several times in the past, so I decided I would post my response to her – in hopes that it might be helpful to you. Here is exactly what I wrote to Linda:  Continue reading “How To Be An Expert Facilitator” »

I have just returned to my desk from an absolutely fantastic event hosted by my local Chamber of Commerce which featured four of our area’s most accomplished and respected business leaders talking about how to build a great company.  The companies that were featured were all relatively small businesses, yet three of the four competed on a national and even global scale.  Two of the owners were in their early 20s – the other two in their late 30s.  All four were incredibly bright, talented and successful business leaders. Continue reading “Lessons from Four VERY Successful Business Owners” »

This weekend my good friend David Whitney, who is the Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Florida’s College of Engineering, sent me the following question about a company that he and I serve on the advisory board for:

 ”How do we create an organizational culture that accommodates work systems/processes, yet reinforces (and advances) a highly innovative spirit?” Continue reading “How Do You Balance Process and Innovation?” »

Recently I had the pleasure of teaching a High-Performance Team (HPT) class for one of my favorite clients. When I deliver this workshop I use an HPT competency model that I developed after more than a dozen years of teaching teamwork to companies all over the world. Here it is: Continue reading “How to Build a High Performance Team (HPT)” »

I have just returned from presenting a workshop at the Apple Specialist Marketing Conference (what a great group of people, and I got to meet Steve Wozniak while I was there – a really fun and interesting guy!). The session I delivered was on “Building  Increased Accountability” and was extremely well received, so I thought I’d share a couple of the key takeaways with you here on my blog. Continue reading “Creating MORE Accountability” »

Over the past several years I have had calls from a number of companies that have requested me to come in and help them with “serious issues and problems.” When I arrive there is typically a group of senior leaders huddled in a meeting discussing what should be done. They will tell me that the problem is costing them tens of thousands… millions… or tens of millions of dollars – and it is a “top priority” to get it fixed as soon as possible!!!!! Continue reading “Meetings do NOT = Results!” »