Tag: Organizational Effectiveness

Organizational challenges often have symptoms that don’t readily illuminate the underlying issue. Here is a model to think about.

I was the CEO for several private equity (PE) owned firms and have coached numerous CEOs who worked in PE-owned firms. I’ve encountered wonderful people from PE, but also too many that behave like boorish know-it-alls — the so called “smartest guys in the room” (yup, mostly guys). I’m writing about the latter group. … […]

Direct Communication Requires Practice At the time I wrote this, my kitchen counter was full of ingredients for Thanksgiving dinner. I like to cook, so it was a pleasure to pull it all together. If only potatoes and dressing were good for you. … My mind—perhaps from too much anticipated tryptophan—went from trussing turkey to […]

Turning Good Intentions Into Process If you’re interested in a fascinating and successful culture, click the link below to The Wall Street Journal article in regards to Amazon’s leadership principles. After reading it, c’mon back now, ya hear?! Amazon Has Become America’s CEO Factory Cool — you made it back! Let’s explore a few things… […]

Meetings aren’t the problem — leadership is Ah, meetings. Most of you have a full day of them if you’re in a senior leadership role. Be honest, wouldn’t you rather have a Rottweiler chew on your shin than go to most of them? The fact that you “own” many of them is even more disheartening! […]

Little’s Law says that the amount of work completed is a function of the number of projects and the average time it takes to complete a project. In other words, the line at McDonald’s has 11 people in it and each person takes, on average, 30 seconds to be served, therefore, if you are gal […]

I’m not much of a gardener. The only green thumb I’ve ever been accused of having is when I’ve stuck it in pesto. I’ve noticed, however, that my efforts to have my lawn match my wife’s well cared for flowers are only rewarded when I combine the right amounts of enabling and prohibiting—the right conditions […]

 A commonly overlooked element of a highly functional team is shared fate. If you lose while I win, I can’t expect you to support my position. The objective may be clear (“Take that hill!”), but if I have a pile of money at the peak and you have a bag of rocks that you must […]

Do you have school age children? If not now, perhaps in the past? Do you remember those nights when your daughter or son—or perhaps both—had a boatload of homework, not just in one subject but in several on the same night? How did that work for you? If your household is anything like ours was […]

It’s better to correct or prevent problems Organizational effectiveness doesn’t just show up in businesses. Driving across Wyoming on a recent vacation we saw a house that was held together with more bailing wire and braces than joists and concrete. You could almost see how it got that way. The porch started to sag so […]