Last week, we all learned the extent of cheating by the Houston Astros on their way to the 2017 World Series title. If you haven’t heard, the team apparently used a video camera in center field to steal opposing teams’ signs and then would relay the information to a staff member in the locker room […]
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14 New Year’s Resolutions for Professional & Personal Productivity, Health, Happiness – Dec 2019
As 2019 winds down and we turn our sights to 2020 – a new decade already?! – many of us will begin setting personal, professional, and organizational goals. However, research shows that up to 80% of New Year’s resolutions are broken, and that the average date of breaking resolutions is about January 20 (that’s why […]
Continue ReadingChillax: 15 Ways to Reduce (Workplace) Stress – Nov 2019
Quick trivia: from what movie does the line “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” come? No Internet – no cheating! Anyone?? It comes from the 1976 movie, The Network. Winner of four Academy Awards and with an all-star cast, The Network is a satirical film about a struggling […]
Continue Reading2020 Vision: How Strategic Planning Helps Better See the Future – Oct 2019
Strategy requires making choices about the future. But here’s the problem: most humans (and therefore most organizations) are actually fairly bad at predicting the future! (Remember the now infamous prediction by IBM that the worldwide market for PCs was about four?!) Why? Because, well, the future is uncertain! There are numerous variables, each acting on […]
Continue ReadingThe Secret Sauce of Leadership: 9 Traits that All Good Leaders Have — Sept 2019
Leadership matters. It’s what separates the good organizations from the bad and the great organizations from the good. Good leadership is critical for optimizing resources, maximizing employee engagement, aligning organizational activities, and achieving and sustaining high performance. In fact, research shows that leadership is the number one driver of superior organizational outcomes. Or, said another way: without good leadership, […]
Continue ReadingPEN Announces New & Modified Baldrige-Based Organizational Assessment Options
St. Paul, September 9, 2019 — The need to improve your organization’s performance has perhaps never been greater: there are early signs that the economy is tightening; customers expect more; competent workers are scarce; and competition is intensifying in many industries. But — with the complexity of organizations — where does one start? How do […]
Continue ReadingThe Service Imperative: Why Customer Experience is More Important than Ever — Aug 2019
So my wife and I refinanced our house earlier this summer (as I’m now fond of saying: “I liked our house so much, I purchased it three times!”) – the low rates were just too appealing and the last time we refinanced was 15 years ago, so we dropped the rate by about 2%. At […]
Continue ReadingThinking Inside the Box: How Organizational Innovation Really Works – July 2019
A Wall Street Journal article from a couple of years ago captured the challenges most organizations face in trying to be innovative. Authors Drew Boyd (a former J&J executive and current professor at University of Cincinnati) and Jacob Goldenberg (a professor at Hebrew and Columbia University and author of “Inside the Box: A Proven of […]
Continue ReadingWhy Good Organizations Sometimes Fail – PEN June 2019
I get asked occasionally what is the single biggest reason organizations fail. Of course, there isn’t one right answer: organizations – even from the same sector or industry – have different cultures, different core competencies, different strategic challenges and advantages, different circumstances that contribute to success or failure. As a result, some organizations struggle with […]
Continue ReadingExcellence Begins with the First Step – PEN May 2019
Excellence is a choice. It’s the result of intentional, humble and visionary leadership; systematic evaluation and improvement that leads to meaningful change; and capable, motivated, and fully engaged employees. It doesn’t happen by accident – at least not for long. It requires data-based decisions; true organizational alignment that optimizes resources and harmonizes on mission, strategy, […]
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