This is the title of a recent report in the University of Pennsylvania newsletter Knowledge @ Wharton. Part of the article reports on “a recent study conducted by Marshall Fisher, a professor of operations and information management at Wharton, and other colleagues.” He goes on to show how one of the keys to improving customer [...]
Author Archives: Jim Clemmer
We Need to Apply Quality Improvement Lessons to Safety
May 15, 2012 – 1:02 am
As I fine tune next week’s Leadership and Culture Development for Higher Health and Safety webcast presentation, I’ve been reflecting on the lessons learned from the quality movement and the widespread failure to apply those to workplace safety. Starting in the late eighties and eventually morphing into Lean/Six Sigma, the quality movement completely revolutionized management [...]
Vision, Values, and Mission: Well Lived Trumps Well Written
May 10, 2012 – 1:00 am
In preparation for an offsite executive team retreat, the executive organizing the session sent me a draft of the mission and vision statements “we’ve been struggling with.” She included earlier versions and iterations of each statement. She was especially frustrated and confused by the overlap of the two. She was looking for my help to [...]
When Smart and Fast Leaders Leave Their Teams Behind
May 8, 2012 – 1:00 am
I recently ran a Moose-on-the-Table workshop for a major division of a large company going through the wrenching change of a wholesale restructuring and totally refocusing their business. Our session centered on fostering Courageous Conversations because their history of not addressing tough issues with each other was a major reason this division ran itself into [...]
We Need Less Generational Nonsense and More Leadership
May 3, 2012 – 1:00 am
There’s a lot of mumbo jumbo being sold by “generational experts” that today’s young workers are very different from previous generations and need to be managed differently. Clearly there are differences between groups of people who grew up in different times, circumstances, and cultures. But people are people. And what we’re looking for from our [...]
May You Plant the Seeds of Growth This Month
May 1, 2012 – 1:00 am
The month of May is thought to have been named for the Greek goddess Maia. In ancient Roman lore she was identified with fertility, considered an earth goddess, and embodied the concept of growth. On the farm where I grew up, May was an extremely busy month in the fields. There was a short window [...]
Use This Checklist for a Ten Point Management Team Check Up
April 26, 2012 – 1:00 am
Last month I posted a blog on Use This 10 Point Checklist for a Leadership Check Up. This was developed as I prepared for this year’s only open/public Leading @ the Speed of Change workshop here in the center of the universe – my hometown of Kitchener, Ontario (just 45 minutes west of Toronto airport). [...]
New Study Shows Women Do It Better Than Men
April 24, 2012 – 1:00 am
Jack Zenger and Joe Folkman ignited a firestorm of interest and debate with their March Harvard Business Review blog post Are Women Better Leaders than Men? Based on a recent survey of 7,280 leaders the study reinforced some long held beliefs and uncovered a few surprises in the gender debate. They did confirm that 2/3 [...]
Book Reviews and My Recommended Reading List
April 19, 2012 – 1:00 am
In the past few months I’ve been asked by workshop participants and readers for my recommendations on organization improvement, leadership, or personal development books. One example was an e-mail from a manager at the American Society of Training and Development: “We are building our reference list for the ASTD Forum Lab in India in October. [...]
Career GPS is an Excellent Benchmarking Tool for HR Issues
April 17, 2012 – 1:00 am
Toronto-based Human Resources Professionals Association (HRPA) has just released an excellent new “Career GPS” tool. This online assessment is designed to help HR professionals pinpoint and track their professional development goals. But the first six of eight Domains provides a very useful summary and checklist of the critical “soft skills” everyone in a management position [...]
