So this month’s column was to be about gratitude, in the spirit of Thanksgiving. And it still is. But an article on gratitude seemed somewhat cliché, overly simplified, and quite honestly, a bit insensitive given the circumstances. The pandemic continues to rage — maybe accelerate to our fifth wave, to be more accurate. I know […]
Continue ReadingThe Future of Work – Oct 2021
Work is changing. I mean really changing – a shift as big as the Industrial Revolution. In fact, many have called this current shift the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a label first used by Klaus Schwab in 2016 to describe the rapid advancement of technology into human knowledge work. But technology is only one factor that’s […]
Continue ReadingPerformance Excellence Network Recognizes Four Organizations
2020 Performance Excellence Awards Presented at PENworks 2021 Online Conference ST. PAUL, Minn., September 24, 2021 – The Performance Excellence Network (PEN) honors four recipients of the 2020 Performance Excellence Award. The Award is based on the Baldrige Framework and is the culmination of a rigorous evaluation of an organization’s management and performance system. The […]
Continue ReadingInnovating Today, Imaging Tomorrow: Insights from PENworks 2021 – Sept 2021
What is excellence? Seriously, what does it mean to be excellent at anything – at a sport; at an artistic endeavor; in business? Excellence is a tough thing to define – kind of “I’ll know it when I see it” type thing. Merriam Webster says excellence “is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good,” […]
Continue ReadingLessons from a 16-Year-Old Intern: What NOT to do in Business – Aug 2021
[Our Back to the Future trivia results are at the end of my column, including announcing the winner of a free ticket to PENworks 2021! Read on!] So my daughter finished her summer internship last week – an office job in an accounting/finance department of a midsize business, and her first “real job” outside of […]
Continue ReadingGetting Back to the Future: Lessons from the Classic Movie (& the Theme of PENworks 2021) – July 2021
It’s summer. So this month’s column will be a little more whimsical than normal, focusing on the themes and hidden meanings of the 80s classic trilogy Back to the Future. Why in the world a 36-year-old movie?! Well, after 16 months of constant challenges, we all greatly desire to move forward to a better, brighter […]
Continue ReadingOvercoming Today’s Staffing Challenges: Recruiting, Retention, Redesign – June 2021
Last weekend was Father’s Day, so in honor of, my wife and two kids were going to treat me to a brunch – nothing noteworthy (although emerging from pandemic, any visit to a restaurant these days is noteworthy). We tried one of our favorite places in south Minneapolis, but found a sign on the door […]
Continue ReadingLearning from the Future: How to Plan for Tomorrow When Everything Has Changed Today – May 2021
This is the first year in PEN’s 34-year history without a budget. Probably like many of you reading this, our normal process is a board planning retreat every October, followed by the creation and approval of a plan and budget in November-December. But last November-December was literally the height of the pandemic in the US, […]
Continue ReadingNever Waste a Good Crisis: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Last Year – April 2021
Never waste a good crisis. Winston Churchill was credited in first using that phrase toward the end of World War II, and there’s some real wisdom in the statement: if you’re experiencing challenging times, you might as well learn and benefit from them to emerge stronger “on the other side.” After all, life’s biggest lessons […]
Continue ReadingThe ROI of DEI: Still Much Work To Do – March 2021
It’s not often that I re-run an article (and it’s certainly not often that I rerun it within the same year). But the events of this month – the beginning of Derek Chauvin’s trial and the mass killing in Atlanta that targeted Asian Americans – along with a continued and growing recognition from business leaders […]
Continue Reading