Want business success? Do the opposite of this cult.

I had several friends in the same city a few years ago. They were each approached–some at work, some while shopping–by members of a certain church. The conversations always went the same: “Hey, how are you doing today?” My friend would answer, and the answer literally wouldn’t matter, because regardless, the next thing said, in a tone meant to convey …

Dealership demands customer return car

You may have seen this on the news: A dealership sold a car that was supposed to be a factory-authorized sales model. The sales manager demanded the customer return it by Christmas Eve. There are some obvious process and communication “opportunities” for this organization. … But beyond that, how would you ensure that your employees slowed down to see how …

Too many choices

Have you wasted an evening trying to choose which of the 2.3 million options you will watch on your streaming video service? Have you seen your customers go through the same paralysis? This article explains why it is happening. How could you lower customer “distress and confusion?”

Chick-fil-A manager fixes vaccination traffic jam

The PR team at Chick-fil-A must just walk around giving each other high-fives. A South Carolina mayor asked a Chick-fil-A manager to help out at a Covid vaccination site where a software glitch had contributed to a 1-hour backup. The manager got it down to 15 minutes. If you think this is just about process improvement, you aren’t paying attention.

Does your team need a scoreboard or a book club?

Here are two radically different approaches to employee engagement: If your culture revolves around “clocking hours, tight schedules and achieving deadlines,” maybe you need to “gamify your workplace.”  Gamification turns work tasks into games where the employee gets real-time feedback (“scores”) that give them something to accomplish or improve against. If you play video games, think “achievement unlocked!” You’ve probably …

Stop delegating and start developing

As a manager, one of the few things you cannot delegate is developing your people. In fact, even when you do delegate, it must involve developing. Don’t take my word for it: Here’s the Harvard Business Review’s approach. Think of it as a bullseye (free download here). What training, coaching and feedback do you need to give in order to …

Horn Sections Make Rock Better: Popscene

I love Britpop, this album and this song. Blur–portrayed as a boy band in the British press, including a manufactured rivalry with Oasis–were really an art school band. Many of their songs are commentaries on modern life. This one fits right in, almost three decades later.

The Greek’s intentional culture: no financial and moral negligence

Costly culture failures That’s not meant to be an over-the-top headline. But I hope it sobers your thinking on your “intentional culture.” I shared this article with clients in 2018. It reviews several of the scandals that took down business leaders and organizations at the time. (Those scandals have since been replaced with yet more scandals and takedowns.) A money …

Trust: Old Lessons for a New World

Are you trying to set sales appointments with online leads? Talk to vendors or partners over the phone? Videoconference with employees? This article is packed with practical insights for any of us who are trying to build trust remotely. The author–a trust specialist–makes a point that we’ve been doing this already in a number of ways.