What gets measured gets done. Even though we’ve heard that a gazillion times, many organizations are still managing the wrong measures. Consequently, they’re getting the wrong results. Too many leaders today don’t give enough thought to what they’re measuring. The leader of a large U.S operation once suggested that training should be measured by how… Read more
Sustainable Outcomes
How to Develop Leaders That Boost Results
Welcome to our car wash, otherwise known as leadership development training. We’re going to hose you down and dry you off over the course of the day. Topics we’re covering during this training include critical thinking, achieving success through people, coaching from a distance, collaboration skills, team creativity, coaching as a virtual team, non-verbal communication,… Read more
Give Value or Give Notice
It’s been a decade since human resources guru David Ulrich told HR professionals they needed to give value or give notice. That same message needs to be directed at communication professionals, who today produce activity often at the expense of results. Ulrich, a University of Michigan business school professor and author on numerous HR-related books,… Read more
Doing These Five Things Will Add More Value To Your Job
Why are you continuing to push out information when shifting your focus to where communication process breaks down can add so much more value? Internal communication functions have enormous opportunities to change their role from activity producing cost centers to results generating value creators. How does your communication function make the shift—from sending out news… Read more
Build a Business of Turned-On Business People
If you want to build trust and take performance into the stratosphere, open the books. Share information that matters to improving operating and financial results. Celebrate people when they score big successes. Repeat. Open book management is the purest leadership communication philosophy I’ve seen and worked with. It’s grounded in the notion of creating businesses… Read more
Social Media is Missing the Point
When you don’t know what to measure, you should know you’re in trouble. Many in the social media world might be wise to consider themselves in trouble. Not long ago I interviewed the head of marketing for a $20 billion company. “Our communication people are worried about the wrong things,” he told me. “I explain… Read more
How to Talk Politics Without Friction
I’m despairing the loss of civility in politics. Nine weeks after the U.S. elections the nastiness continues to grow, fueled by politicians in Washington and posts on social media. Is it possible to make political discussions more civil? Can we use our political conversations and posts to help us learn and grow, or at least… Read more
Vision First!
Kristen and Jason sit at a table with a divider between them. Each has a box containing a 500-piece puzzle. Kristen has the box with its original top, which pictures the completed puzzle. Jason’s box has no top, with only the puzzle pieces in the bottom half. They are invited to begin assembling their puzzle,… Read more
Finding ROI in Communications Audits
Talk about teaching an old dog new tricks… The venerable communication audit has been repurposed and now is playing a critical role in how organizations are managing communication to improve results. The communication audit has been around for decades. It has been used to measure the effectiveness of formal communication channels such as newsletters, wall… Read more
Touch Screen TVs Don’t Fix Safety
I conducted a communication assessment of an under-performing operation inside a larger company. It has a poor safety record and is missing its quality, service-delivery, productivity and cost goals. Employee retention rates are poor. The assessment revealed no core communication process managed by the leadership. People throughout the operation complained about disconnected, often-conflicting information that… Read more