Michael Lee Stallard

 Wow!  The more I look at IBM, the more I like what I see.  They* have smart people.  They have scale.  They have a global presence.  They’re doing cool things that help organizations perform better and cranking out patents at an unbelievable pace.  If that’s not enough, the IBM culture seems to get better all the time and they’re leveraging the strength of culture with cutting edge social networking capabilities that connect IBMers so that they are “better together.”

In recent interactions with IBMers, I’ve noticed a sense of pride about being at IBM that I haven’t seen in 20 years.  There are clear signs to me that IBM is developing the Connection Culture I write about.  Take a look at CEO Sam Palmisano’s inspiring email about the importance of IBM values and how they were developed through collaboration via IBM’s “Values Jam.”  Check out IBM’s “Beehive” social networking capability.  

I suspect these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Stay tuned for more.   In the coming months I’ll be learning and sharing much more about IBM and other organizations that are helping their employees feel connected to their corporate identity (mission, values and reputation), to the people they work with and to their daily tasks at work.

* I intentionally use the term “they” rather than “it.” Although organizations are a legal person they are, in reality, a community of people. It’s healthier, in my view, to refer to and think of organizations in this way.

Recently I presented to a group of 60 leaders at Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest defense company. The leaders I met were part of the aerospace group. It was an inspiration for me to hear their stories including one about a dramatic savings of time and money when a front line worker’s idea led to a software breakthrough. I was pleased to see some business units were using the Start-Stop-Continue exercise. Both of these reflect the Connection Culture element of Voice. I was also inspired hearing how one leader felt extremely proud of his company and its important work when his young son saw up close the remarkable military aircraft his dad worked on (which reflects the element of Vision).  I get goosebumps just thinking about these stories and how the bright, dedicated and motivated employees at Lockheed Martin are creating a Connection Culture!  

An article I wrote on the band U2 was just published by the American Management Association as the lead article in its popular Moving Ahead: Management Insights for Business Success publication. The article is entitled “Great Teams: The Extraordinary Unity of U2.” Thanks goes to Shari Lifland, the editor of Moving Ahead, who made some very clever changes from the original article that was published last month in The Economic Times in India.  

Live Mint, a new Wall Street Journal publication in India, today published my thoughts on what makes Apple so successful.   Here is a link to the Live Mint article entitled “‘Think Different’ is What Makes Apple Stand Out.“

Join me in a webcast with my guest Al Comeaux, SVP of Corporate Communications for Sabre Holdings.   Al will present an overview of SabreTown, the remarkable social networking platform Sabre built in-house.  I saw Al’s presentation at a conference and was struck by the profound and positive impact SabreTown has had on Sabre Holdings.  In Al’s presentation you will learn: 

• how the SabreTown community is increasing connections among employees over geographic distances, while saving the company money and creating efficiency,
• how SabreTown has become a powerful knowledge management tool, 
• what Sabre did that has resulted in an extraordinary rate of adoption by Sabre employees,
• how Sabre designed SabreTown so that it requires little oversight, and
• how SabreTown helps employees get up to speed faster. 

If you work in information technology, corporate communications, employee engagement, training and development, or corporate learning functions, this is a presentation you don’t want to miss! I hope you’ll join me in this lively and enlightening webcast that shows how web 2.0 and corporate culture are combining to take organizations to the next step in their evolution.  Click on “SabreTown Helps Sabre Holdings and Its Employees Thrive!” to sign up for the webcast. 

Earlier this year I posted about the unity among the members of the band U2 and how it contributed to the band’s success.  Comments from several individuals made me dig much deeper into the band’s story (thank you Astid, David Zinger, Lee Smith and Rachel for enlightening me). What I discovered was an extraordinary journey the band made to evolve into the force it is today. 

The article I wrote about it was published today in The Economic Times (in India) and it will be published later this year in two of the American Management Association’s publications (Moving Ahead and the AMA’s Catalog).  Here’s the link to The Economic Times’ article. 

Let me know what you think. 

“For those of us who write about business, every once in a while, a book or an article comes along that seems so simple on some levels and yet communicates great wisdom. The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage is one such work.”- William J. Holstein of The New York Times (on his BNet blog)

Fired Up or Burned Out will soon go to its second printing which will include new endorsements from thought leaders such as Marshall Goldsmith and leaders from such prestigious organizations as Goldman Sachs.  If you’ve not read it, you can do a test drive, so to speak, by reading my free e-book entitled The Connection Culture: A New Source of Competitive Advantage. The e-book was published by changethis.com, a website that includes contributions from best-selling authors such as Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Peters, Tim Ferriss, Guy Kawasaki, and Bob Sutton.

Get the free download in pdf format at changethis.com.    

Last week I gave a presentation on Connection Cultures at Communitelligence’s Employee Engagement Conference in Chicago. While attended the conference I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the speakers who were for the most part responsible for internal communications at some of America’s leading companies. 

Thank you John Gerstner, Communitelligence’s president, Rick Sauter, vice president for partnerships and community development, and Shelia Williams-Gerstner, vice president, for inviting me to speak and for orchestrating such a productive conference. I found your conference was especially valuable because the agenda included breakout sessions for participants to meet and learn from each other.  This format was more stimulating than the traditional speakers-all-day format. I learned more about what other organizations were doing and met more people.  It was a format that encouraging connection.

In the coming days, I’ll be posting fascinating insights shared by conference presenters. Here are a few tidbits of what I learned: Read more »

In the current edition of Chief Learning Officer Magazine Online, Associate Editor Lindsay Edwards Wickman interviews me about how employee engagement and Connection Cultures remove knowledge traps in organizations.  The interview is entitled “Connection Cultures Keep Workers Engaged.”

I’ll be speaking about how Connection Cultures help employees and organizations thrive at Communitelligence’s Innovating Employee Engagement Conference held at the Catalyst Ranch. The companies who have representatives speaking at the conference include Google, IBM, McDonalds, Allstate, Lowe’s, H&R Block, Servicemaster, Navistar, Aon, CVS Caremark and Sabre Holdings. It’s going to be a terrific group to learn from so I hope you’ll consider attending. Communitelligence is offering two-for-one admission if you register by Friday July 18.