<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" This way, follow me n Those who know my writing know that I frequently boil down leadership to actions in an abnormal environment like war, or emergencies or change. In such an environment a leader has two accountabilities, provide direction and attract followers. I use this conceptual reduction to differentiate leaders from […]

<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" The Firm Off-Site n I think it was at the end of our first year, a new start-up consultancy with one u201dfamousu201d founder and his two founding partners, and by this point twenty people total. Weu2019d had a good year; some very large clients had hired us and weu2019d hired many impressive […]

<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" Celt-crazy after all these years n Iu2019m not sure when I became fascinated by the Celts, the Bronze and Iron Age people, who fought Julius Caesar as the Gauls. I know I was young, teen or preteen. I grew up in a Boston suburb and suddenly Celtic didnu2019t just describe the hometown […]

<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" Seventy percent of mergersu00a0fail* to create value that is greater than the sum of the parts. n So how do you know if your merger is failing while there is still time to do something about it? n Watch for these signs: n The Goat Rodeo: A lack of executive alignment n […]

<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" The Company, CEO, Division Head, Shareholders, Workers, Humanity? n u201cWho is the client? Are you kidding me? Itu2019s the person who hired us, the person who will pay us or not pay if you donu2019t do your job!u201d n The newbie who asked this wasnu2019t being a smart-aleck. The project manager met […]

Ancient History “Oh Wow!” Human beings have gotten cricks in our necks staring at the night sky for a long time. The Lascaux caves in France, dating from 30,000 years ago have a graphical representation of the Pleiades; a carved mammoth ivory tusk carbon dated to 32,500 years ago has what may be the oldest […]

<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" Leaders require followers n u201cIf you think youu2019re a leader look over your shoulder. If there is no one there, you might just be delusional.u201d n u201cI get what youu2019re saying, but. . .u201d n I was delivering leadership development; it wasnu2019t really training per se. Oh we did apply some new […]

<div class="et_pb_text_inner" data-et-multi-view="{"schema":{"content":{"desktop":" The Ancient Late Adopter speaks n Let us be clear, I am old. I started as a consultant in 1980; I retired as a consultant five years ago. Most of what I write about consulting comes from those thirty-seven years. I look back over my career and try to extract lessons from […]

Acme Grand Opening It was a sunny spring Saturday and I was on a roll. When I worked, Saturdays were all about errands and it was only ten-fifteen and, man, I was checking things off the old index card to-do list to beat the band. I’d dropped and picked up shirts and taken shoes off […]

 Improvement and Innovation Over my thirty-seven years as a change consultant, I worked on a lot of improvement and innovation projects. These are similar but different methodologies. The people who work on these methodologies tend to focus on the differences. Improvement often makes an existing product or process better, whereas innovation tends to invent new […]