Tag Archives: connection cultures

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HR: Order Takers or Game Changers?

The best HR leaders are game changers.  They develop conviction about what constitutes a high-performance work culture. They are a force that helps develop the values and processes necessary to make a high-performance work culture come to life.  The departments they run are NOT staffed with the type of order-takers Keith Hammonds described in his wildly popular Fast Company article entitled “Why We Hate HR.”

I recently wrote an article that describes a game changing strategy HR leaders should consider in light of today’s widespread employee disengagement.  The article was just published as the lead article in the UK’s Developing HR Strategy journal.  It’s entitled, “The Force of Connection: Boost Employee Engagement, Productivity and Innovation.”  You can download it at this link.

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Obama Leads Learning Organization

In this morning’s New York Times, David Brooks in his column entitled “The Analytic Mode,” argues that President Obama leads a learning organization.  I completely agree.  In the past I’ve argued that President Obama is an intentional connector in part because he is a bridge builder who accords respect to his political opponents and because he solicits the ideas and opinions of his advisors then considers them before making decisions.  This leadership approach creates Connection Cultures that keep members of his administration feeling connected so that they give their best efforts, align their behavior with organizational goals and take the risk to communicate information, especially information the president may not want to hear but needs to hears. President Obama might also be described as an “integrative thinker” who employs a “design thinking” approach.  What do you think?

Here are links to resources that will help you consider the wisdom of President Obama’s approach in general and specifically with respect to the decision to commit additional troops to Afghanistan.

David Brook’s NY Times column entitled  “The Analtytic Mode”

Speech I recently gave at Google on Connection Cultures and the “The Force of Connection”

Dean Roger Martin of The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management on the Integrative Thinker and Design Thinking

For some perspective on a president’s decision to increase troops, listen to this Bill Moyer’s program that includes taped conversations President Johnson had with his advisors prior to committing troops to Vietnam.

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Presentation to Wharton and Harvard Business School Clubs of D.C.

Last week I spoke at a breakfast meeting of Wharton and Harvard Business School Clubs of D.C.  It was such an engaging group of individuals that included entrepreneurs, leaders of government agencies, and leaders from the social sector.  I would like to thank them for their enthusiastic response to my presentation.  

During the presentation I spoke about the leadership style of or Retired Admiral Vern Clark, the former Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) who served as CNO from 2000-2005.  Retired Rear Admiral Rose Levitre, who presently works for LMI (an intelligence consulting organization) and Rear Admiral Frank Thorp, the current Chief of Information for the Navy, stood up before the group and shared their experiences working for Admiral Clark.  Thank you Rose and Frank for inspiring us with your stories.  

Finally, I would like to thank the Wharton Alumni Club of D.C.’s president, Alan Schlaifer, for doing a first class job of organizing this event and Anthony Priest, chairman of the Harvard Business School Club of D.C., for promoting it.

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My AMA Podcast on Employee Engagement (now on iTunes)

Today the American Management Association posted a podcast I did with the AMA’s Dave Summers. The topic of the podcast is how to create Connection Cultures that increase employee engagement. You can hear the podcast and even download it on an iPod or iPhone by clicking on employee engagement.

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AMA Webcast on Connection Cultures and Employee Engagement

On November 5th from 12:00 P.M. until 1:00 P.M. Eastern, I’m presenting on a webcast for the American Management Association. The webcast is about Connection Cultures, leadership, teams and employee engagement. It will include Q&A with AMA program manager Susan Zeidman as well as from listeners. There is no charge for the webcast. You can register to attend by clicking on employee engagement.

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Webcast Tomorrow: H&R Block Connects to Improve Employee Engagement

Tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM EST I will host a webcast with my guest Kristina Patrick, Senior Project Manager for Outreach and Business Development at H&R Block.  When H&R Block’s new leaders wanted to engage employees by involving them in a conversation about the firm’s activities, they turned to Kristina. With a meager budget Kristina and her colleagues produced a remarkable internal news and social media platform that had H&R Blockers buzzing. Tune into this webcast to hear how you and your company can increase employee engagement and get the biggest bang out of your internal communications and social media budgets.  You can sign up to attend by clicking on employee engagement.

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Great News Today From Katie’s Oncologist

katie-on-swing.jpg Forgive me for this self indulgent post but I feel like shouting to the world what my wife Katie’s oncologist just told us today:  Katie is not likely to have a recurrence of ovarian cancer after being in remission for nearly five years now.  We celebrated the good news with Dr. Hensley, our oncologist, and Nick the doorman (and now receptionist) at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who I’ve written about.  

In honor of the occasion, I’m posting an essay I wrote about our experience, how our family members and friends helped us through a difficult season, and how the experience changed my life.  Feeling that people really cared for Katie and our family helped me see how important relationships are in life and to employee engagement in the workplace. Here’s the essay:

Many inspiring articles have been written about cancer survivors and how the experience of facing cancer and overcoming it changed their lives.  Fewer are the stories of those who walk beside them. Just as a stone tossed into still waters sends ripples to every shore, the impact of a cancer diagnosis stirs up the lives of more than just the patient. This is my story of walking beside my wife Katie during her battle against first one cancer and then a second a year later, a journey that has changed my life in expected and unexpected ways.