A short and true story for today: I just heard from a firefighter friend that his station used to buy a lot of pizza from a nearby pizzeria. They have since stopped. One of the problems was that the understaffed restaurant couldn’t get their pizzas ready in time. For firefighters, that’s kind of important. But the straw that broke the …
Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Yeh, Yeh
Incredibly sad news: John F. of They Might Be Giants is now the bedridden victim of a t-bone car crash. It happened on the way home from their Bowery Ballroom show–the start of their first tour since the pandemic. Doubly sad news: That means we won’t get a tour “with unplayed new songs in the works and rearrangements of older …
If you measure happiness, what are you measuring?
Happiness and engagement go hand in hand for employees. An influential business book, “The Happiness Advantage,” has suggested that for over a decade now. Last week we talked about surveys to measure happiness and how dialogue gets to the heart of things more effectively. Talk with your people. But just what is happiness? What is engagement? Enter this article: “In …
Podcast 113 – Crucial Conversations: The S.T.A.T.E. method
Finally! After all the prep work, it’s time to have that high-stakes, emotional conversation. There are three “whats” and two “hows.” Introducing S.T.A.T.E. This episode is part of our series on “Crucial Conversations.” The first episode is at this link. We would love your questions and comments for future episodes: Email Mike and Mark. Listen here … subscribe on Spotify, …
The open letter to Ford’s CEO
Brian Pasch’s open letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley has gone viral. (If you’re not familiar, Pasch is a longtime consultant helping car dealerships go online.) Farley’s comments and Pasch’s letter and whatever happens next is not content for this blog. But the comments thread on Pasch’s post? They’re worth a read. Some appreciate his advocacy for dealers. Some think …
Horn Sections Make Rock Better: A Taste of Honey (and Zorba the Greek)
“It may be a bit on the nose, but what about Herb Alpert?” A suggestion from a client, Greg. On the nose and 100-percent right. This is 1960s pop music–the Beatles had their own cover of the song at about the same time. I was raised on both artists. Like many youngsters, Herb’s album featuring “A Taste of Honey,” Whipped …
Surveying your people vs. talking to them
I’m going to utter a heresy in this article. At least, it’s a heresy to many of my colleagues working on culture. A manager recently talked to me about helping his team collaborate more. I asked him what he would get out of that. As often happens in coaching, I was surprised by his answer. I thought he would say …
A litmus test for your employee retention
My outstanding design and marketing firm shared this article about employee-generated content. It is a pretty clear litmus test of how engaged and retained your employees are, isn’t it? They don’t have to create material they can use to promote your business. Researchers call it “discretionary effort.” We see it often with customers: They have to give you money for …
Podcast 112 – Crucial Conversations: Make it safe
There is one more thing to do before you actually have that high-stakes, emotional conversation: ensure you make it safe. Whatever “safety” means to you, there are multiple perspectives to consider, which are all addressed in this episode. This episode is part of our series on “Crucial Conversations.” The first episode is at this link. We would love your questions …
Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Party at Ground Zero
Courtesy of longtime reader Ali … how about some more ska? (My love of Madness is already documented here.) Fishbone hails from that heady time when punk and new wave and ska and everything else were percolating together in pop music.