Successful Workplace

Do we have a way to recognize talent or are we so caught up in what we want that we overlook the genius in our own organizations? One of our favorite stories: A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: […]

The following is a guest post by Sean Conrad. Sean is a Certified Human Capital Strategist and Senior Product Analyst at Halogen Software. For more of Sean’s insights on talent management best practices and creating a coaching culture, read his posts on the Halogen Software blog. Watch out!  One of the most dreaded times of the year […]

Following on from the recent blog Why the CIO hates Christmas.  So in the cheery spirit of Christmas, I thought I’d turn my attention to the COO or Operations Director: The one who keeps the wheels turning, no matter how much grit is thrown into the innermost workings. So why do COOs hate Christmas?  It […]

We’re about to enter the holiday stretch for many parts of the world. This is a great time to look at vacation and how it is evolving as a part of our work. After all, do we work to live or live to work? Cogs in a machine Vacation is a legacy of the Industrial […]

You might think that the corporate human resources function doesn’t have much of a role in improving business processes, such as product development, operations, customer service, or distribution. But I’ve found that it does. HR can propel or inhibit process improvement because it has an outsized influence on people: how they are recruited, rewarded, and […]

A recent blog post by Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) created one of the “POW!” moments for me. The writeup was about organizations that always deal with “problems,” and what happens when there are no more problems to solve. Problem solvers don’t function well when they don’t have any problems to solve. They often seem lost. We’re […]

Profound changes in an organization must be led from the top, but human resource professionals can play a big part in making them happen. Consider HR’s role in accelerating Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates’ operational improvement initiative. This 4,500-employee Massachusetts healthcare group embarked on “Care Improvement” three years ago. Chief Human Resources Officer Dan Michaud told me how HR has […]

Psychopaths lack empathy, are pathological liars, have an enormous sense of self-worth, are impulsive, irresponsible and won’t accept responsibility for their own actions. They make up 1% of the total population, 25% of the criminal population. But do you recognize the traits.  Perhaps in the upper reaches of your corporation or our Governments? The Psy-Fi […]

Over the last few years, being a leader has gotten tougher and tougher. Being a CEO was probably never so stressful as it has now become. But leadership does not necessarily suggest a CXO. It also is about everyone part of an organization. And things aren’t really easy for them either. An editorial that appeared […]

I’m a devout follower of Seth Godin (@SethsBlog). I encourage you to follow him. A recent post focused on how the best strategy in the Universe is useless without a focus on executing the details of that strategy. That really hit home for me as process person. There has been a lot of recent attention […]