Many thanks to Alan Mulally, retired CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes and The Ford Motor Company, for his kind endorsement of our book “Connection Culture.”
“Connection Culture really captures the why and how to mobilize an organization to work together toward a compelling vision. The insights about the unique contributions of the leader and the leadership team are especially useful.” – Alan Mulally
I’m thrilled to be giving the keynote speech at Costco’s Annual International Managers Meeting. Approximately 1,300 Costco leaders will learn what makes a Connection Culture so powerful and how they can be intentional about preserving their organization’s unique culture.
| Date: | August 2, 2017 |
|---|---|
| Event: | Keynote Speech at Costco's Annual International Managers Meeting |
| Public: | Private |
To consider me for your speaking event, click here.
It’s encouraging to see more leaders identify connection as a primary factor contributing to their organization’s sustained success. Fortune magazine recently recognized Theo Epstein, President, Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball and the Cubs organization, as #1 on its world’s greatest leaders list. Last year the Cubs won the World Series and broke the franchise’s 108-year World Series title drought, the longest in professional sports.
I had the privilege of contributing a guest column to a recent issue of Business Standard, a leading business publication in India. The article tells the story of how Admiral Vern Clark used the principles of Connection Culture to lead a turnaround of the U.S. Navy. Read the article.
| Date: | March 16, 2017 |
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| Appearance: | Guest Column in Business Standard |
| Outlet: | Business Standard |
| Location: | Mumbai, India |
| Format: | Newspaper |
An old fad is making a comeback: the “brutally honest workplace.” From my vantage point, interacting with your colleagues using “radical candor” or “radical transparency” is a subtle—and sometimes not so subtle—form of verbal assault that seems to be spreading, given the success of firms like Bridgewater Associates, and contributing to the rise of incivility and insensitivity today. Proponents of this approach sometimes say that offering constructive criticism should come from a caring mindset but, from what I’ve seen, it merely gives the arrogant and the bullies permission to verbally attack others in the name of honesty. Fortunately, research shows the foolishness of this approach (in fact, even mild expressions of rudeness have been shown to impair team performance).
In his excellent TED Talk titled “Doctors make mistakes. Can we talk about that?,” physician Brian Goldman describes the first medical mistake he made, how he made mistakes “over and over again,” and how the culture he worked in made him feel “alone, ashamed and unsupported.” The culture Dr. Goldman describes contributes to widespread burnout in medicine today and it makes future medical mistakes more likely.
The New England Patriots just won their fifth National Football League Championship since 2002, but their success isn’t a surprise to those who study connection. Here’s what we wrote about the team in the 2007 book Fired Up or Burned Out:
“Connection Culture Discussion on TotalPicture Radio”
by Peter Clayton and Michael Stallard
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Last year when I was teaching a Connection Culture workshop in Amsterdam, Carmina Glazenborg from Bentley Systems in Amstelveen, The Netherlands, shared with the group her experience working as an intern at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Listen to Ms. Glazenborg’s story by clicking on the video above. (more…)
Could something as simple as regularly having a meal with colleagues to discuss work experience-related issues help reduce burnout? It seems too simple doesn’t it? Although several factors contribute to burnout, there is good reason to believe connection practices such as taking time to talk with others over lunch or dinner provides a measure of protection. It is certainly having that desired effect at Mayo Clinic.
Employee engagement has been a glaring and expensive problem for years, costing companies billions of dollars in lost productivity and employee turnover. I discuss this and other workplace issues with Peter Clayton, host of the Leadership Channel podcast on TotalPicture Radio.