Playing with some comments on Dan Rockwell’s blog with talk of courage and change and I thought to pop up a Haiku on the theme. Change is about choice. Without change, little happens.… Continue reading
Wax on. Wax off. Wax on. Wax off. Mr. Miyagi was helping Daniel Caruso in a famous scene in The Karate Kid — repeating the same motions over and over again to develop… Continue reading
Everybody has ideas and everybody has perspective. But perspective is relative to where you are and what you do. Often, the wagon-pulling boss simply cannot see the actions and activities of the wagon… Continue reading
It has always been my belief that the best ideas for improvement always come from the people who are doing the job and have a hands-on reality of how things work and what… Continue reading
Dan Rockwell started his post today with, “Got a minute” and how that could turn into a significant time investment for managers, since it could help them focus on what is wrong and… Continue reading
I packaged up a slideshare program telling the story of Susan, a wagon pusher, and her courage in suggesting that her wagon-pulling boss take a different look at how things are working, with… Continue reading
There are often issues of isolation in how things work in most organizations. Wagon pullers are naturally isolated from the hands-on reality of the wagon pushers, but some are also simply too distant… Continue reading
Disconnects are just so common when it comes to people and performance. And when it comes to implementing strategy, the research says that few initiatives meet the goals and expectations of the senior… Continue reading
My associates in Japan changed their company name to “Work Happiness” and have been going gangbusters with their overall growth in services. My initial thoughts were it was too fluffy a company name… Continue reading
We talk alignment a good bit, but it is certainly possible to take teamwork and collaboration and add SO much structure that we squeeze deviation and creativity out of the equation. Here is… Continue reading
Behavior changes in accordance with the individual’s tolerance and perceptions about risk as well as the level of support and trust they feel is around them. Celebrating success is a key factor in… Continue reading
Here is another simple concept about alignment an over-control, illustrated with my little people: We need people breaking outside the boundaries to discover and implement different ideas, some of which will lead to… Continue reading
What do you think the reaction will be to this request? Consideration? Engagement? Or are we just too busy doing things the same way we have always done things… Who has the time… Continue reading
Here is a simple thought about People and Performance. I do NOT see the workplace as all that difficult to change I do NOT see the workplace needing all that leadership complexity that… Continue reading
People and Performance have been the focus of my efforts since 1978, working on behavioral engineering kinds of consulting and then moving toward customer service quality improvement and then teamwork, innovation and leadership.… Continue reading
I continue to be amazed at how we continue to make cuts while expecting improvement. Personally, I feel that the supervisors in most organizations are so overloaded with tasks and responsibilities that they… Continue reading
I’ve been playing with line-art illustrations using Square Wheels since 1993 and have about 300 different cartoons that depict various aspects of how things really work. You can find out about those tools… Continue reading
Just back from ASTD and meeting with colleagues who use my team building games and other products, my thoughts on involvement and engagement being done by supervisors received lots of support. But the… Continue reading
Here is a BIG IDEA that is really pretty simple, really. To involve and engage people in workplace improvement, involve and engage people in workplace improvement. Seriously. Assume that people have actually do… Continue reading
I think it is pretty simple, really. To involve and engage people in workplace improvement, one needs to involve and engage people in workplace improvement. That is pretty simple, right? And a bit… Continue reading
I was writing to a colleague about engagement and the workplace and had that sparkle of inspiration about how things really work. So, here are two versions of the same idea, one using… Continue reading
Not always do leaders embrace change and improvement. Consider the case where the team finally begins to get things rolling downhill. This one is the basic theme of my series on, Nobody Ever… Continue reading
I thought that this was a good quote to support the theme of continuous continuous improvement that is embedded in the whole idea of Square Wheels One. The illustration below reflects our alternate… Continue reading
Hope you like this little ditty. Hats off to the Cat in the Hat guy… The Square Wheels theme is one of possibilities, but if nothing changes, nothing improves. So, the situation rhymes… Continue reading
Here is another thought on Spectator Sheep and an addendum: Understand that Spectator Sheep may not appear as they really are: Yeah, they can choose to be involved if they choose. But often… Continue reading
Spectator Sheep? Yep. In any organization, you can find them hanging around on the hillside: And thus, the limerick: Ya like that? See some writings on Spectator Sheep and engagement by clicking on… Continue reading
Ah, we’ve reached the end of my first series of six business haiku around Daylight Savings and Springing Forward on Monday with ideas for involvement and engagement. Bring even more changes this spring.… Continue reading
Here is another business haiku about Daylight Savings Time from the brown side of things: Similar to post One, this one supports that we continue to work through the haze of work. Can… Continue reading
Here is access to a pdf file that contains some of my ideas on involving and engaging people for improving workplace performance. I wrote it up as a guest blog for a friend… Continue reading
That first little cute poem led me to making a bigger longer and maybe better poem around people, performance, innovation and improvement. So, we have something that looks like this: Innovation comes from… Continue reading
This is not a poem or a quip but it is the best closing storyline out there for a workshop. I say this after attending a whole big bunch of sessions for training… Continue reading
In a collaboration, I generated this, which I like as a quote to stimulate thinking: The round wheels are already in the wagon! Click on the image above to go to the other… Continue reading
We roll forward. Thumping and bumping. But then, things stop and we all gather to share issues and ideas and thoughts about what we might do differently. The result is that we choose… Continue reading
With the thought in mind that a few people see my poems as somewhat negative, as they frame this in their own thinking and project onto the cartoons, let me offer up a… Continue reading
Uploaded into Slideshare is a compendium of some thinking on Teaching the Caterpillar to Fly and managing and leading change, something that I have been working on for 20 years. The slideshare contains… Continue reading
The Square Wheels wagon rolls forward. Not smoothly, but it rolls… There are all sorts of issues and frameworks and anchors to how things really work, but this one should help explain a… Continue reading
Finally, enough was enough and the performers found that the pin had actually HIT the balloon and all things went “POP!” That happens, you know. But I guess the good news is that… Continue reading
I continue to play with the puppies. They are just such cute things. But the linking of puppies back to the performance improvement of the pushers and puller continues to be a difficult… Continue reading
Yes, the Square Wheels do roll both forward and backward and just may be more useful than round wheels when descending very steep hills or for helicopters or cooking hot dogs. But for… Continue reading
One of my most favorite quotes about change, visions, potential and style: Managers can fly more better faster if they just look at their styles and see the opportunities for better involvement and… Continue reading
This is about people and performance, about dreaming of possibilities and it is about the reality of improvement. Dream to Fly! For the FUN of It! Dr. Scott Simmerman is a designer of… Continue reading
On the theme of: “Don’t Just DO Something, Stand There!” we have this kind of thought about choice and choices: So much depends on simply seeing what are called “considered alternatives” instead of… Continue reading
I got to looking at some stuff on “empowerment” within the past hour. One was about an “empower camp” where they claim that by attending the camp, kids will leave with, well, empowerment… Continue reading
I read a Zig Ziglar quote “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” and it got me thinking that I can do something similar with the cartoons. So, I… Continue reading
As I continue playing with the main design aspects of my new teambuilding game framed up on the theme of trust, three illustrations just seemed to appear, so I took the time to… Continue reading
It was suggested to me to expand my illustration and poem collection to add some followup poems on performance and teamwork around the notion of Turkey Day and Thanksgiving, so I have been… Continue reading
The Jeep causes teams to creep. But discovery of a Turbocharger allows that jeep to go twice as fast / twice as far. Turbos are best practices that enable people to dramatically improve… Continue reading
Don’t Just DO Something. That just gives you the same old thing, day after day. Stop. Step Back. And Stand There! Take a real look at what is happening and what COULD be… Continue reading
Activity is not the same as action, and focused actions are a key way to build teamwork and collaboration, improve communications, and increase intrinsic motivation. Ya think? We need to do more things… Continue reading
Trust is a big factor in how people and organizations perform. Trust is the residue of promises fulfilled, as Frank Navran said. My “Overpass Image” was done up for me to show how… Continue reading
