Michael Lee Stallard

Consultant and blogger Michael DeWitt just posted an insightful video on his Spooky Action blog about how the human brain works and its implications for organizational change efforts.  He concludes that leaders should create Connection Cultures to help members of organizations accept and implement change.  Check out DeWitt’s blog.  It’s one of the blogs I frequently read for its wisdom on topics such as leadership, organizations and employee engagement.      

Vistage, the world’s largest organization for chief executive officers, has established a course to help its members create Connection Cultures and increase employee engagement, productivity, innovation and profitability.   E Pluribus Partners will conduct the course for Vistage.  

On September 17, I’ll be giving a presentation  to members of the Wharton Alumni Club in New York City.   The presentation will be about how Connection Cultures meet universal human needs to thrive at work and in life outside of work.  Details can be found at this link. 

When seven year-old Sierra Boggess first saw The Little Mermaid, she fell in love with Ariel. After Sierra learned that the woman who provided the voice of Ariel studied performing arts at Millikin University in Central Illinois, she announced to her parents that’s where she would be attending college.  Sierra graduated from Millikin in 2004. Recently, she made her Broadway debut as the first actress to play Ariel in the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid. Read more »

An interesting article appeared in yesterday’s New York Times about the explosion of tech-enabled communication in our lives. My friend Dr. Edward Hallowell, the well-respected psychiatrist and former instructor at Harvard Medical School,  says that people need human, face-to-face connection on average about every four hours. Tim Ferriss in his 4-Hour Work Week book has some good advice on this topic too.There’s no question in my mind that Hallowell’s guideline in spot on.

I advise leaders to encourage the people they are responsible for leading to connect with their colleagues over coffee breaks and lunch. It’s a must to maximize employee engagement.

I’m very interested in learning how individuals manage the torrent of electronic communications and face-to-face connection in their lives. Any thoughts?

Here is another post merger trap organizations would be wise to avoid following a merger or acquisition.

The Exclusivity Trap.  Too many leaders fail to keep all the employees they are responsible for leading in the loop.  Instead, they tend to keep a smaller, more exclusive group involved in the conversations about important business issues. The problem is that most individuals want to be informed about issues that are important to them, have a voice to share their opinions and ideas, and be certain that their input is considered before decisions are made. When people are in the loop, it helps meet their needs for respect, recognition and belonging.  When they are not in the loop, they are naturally anxious and tend to fear the worst.

Leaders are wise to regularly meet with all the employees they are responsible for leading to share information about issues that are important to them, ask for their ideas and opinions, and then consider them before making decisions.  Obviously leaders will not be able to do this with every issue.  The leader who keeps all employees in the conversation about issues important to them, however, will be rewarded when employees put more effort in their work because they feel a sense of ownership in achieving the results. 

In this series of posts I’m identifying the traps that I warn leaders to avoid when they are involved in mergers or acquisitions.  Each of the traps I identify affect employee engagement.  By avoiding the traps leaders will also help develop the Connection Culture that all organizations need to achieve sustainable superior performance.

The Superiority Trap.  In all mergers, one party usually feels superior in status and reputation to the other. The subordinate party’s employees are likely to be hypersensitive to this status gap. Managers from the dominant organization who act the slightest bit condescending will offend employees from the subordinate organization.  These employees will be less likely to cooperate with members of the dominant organization.   On the other hand, managers from the dominant organization who look for ways to affirm their new colleagues and show that they have confidence and high expectations for their future performance will be rewarded when their new colleagues live up to their aspirations.

Over the course of my career I’ve had the good fortune to have been involved in several mergers. At first, I was fascinated by the process of identifying a compelling rationale for combining companies, negotiating the deal, planning the integration of people and systems and then executing the plan. The dizzying array of tasks that must be accomplished to complete a merger is challenging to say the least. In time, however, I learned that even greater challenges arose after the investment bankers and lawyers had packed up their briefcases and moved on to the next deal. Read more »

Thus far it appears that the Disney acquisition of Pixar has worked well.  Brooks Barnes wrote an excellent article about it in today’s The New York Times entitled, “Disney and Pixar – The Power of the Prenup. “There is an insightful quote in the article made by Disney’s CEO Bob Iger. He says “There is an assumption in the corporate world that you need to integrate swiftly…my philosophy is exactly the opposite. You need to be respectful and patient.” Iger’s view reflects his recognition of one of the Post-Merger Traps that companies frequently fall into. We call it the “Urgency Trap.” Read more »