Julia Baird, in a recent Newsweek column, reported some astonishing statistics from the Council on Contemporary Families that show that men are cheating less, spending more time with their families, and doing more housework than ever before. What caught my eye in particular was this: “Millennial fathers…spend an average of 4.3 hours per workday with their kids, which is almost double that of their counterparts in 1977. A Families and Work Institute report found that these young dads are actually now spending more time each day with children under 13 than mothers between the ages of 29 and 42 are with their own.” In generational diversity classes across many different companies, industries and government agencies, I continue to hear this constant refrain of the Boomers: “Generation Y has no work ethic, no manners, no consideration for others.” No amount of reminding them that they are Gen Y’s parents seems to…
I’m reading The Dance of Change this week, an oldy but a goody from Peter Senge and others. Something that struck me as fascinating is what George Roth…
One of the high potential areas for unproductive conflict on your team can be found in the use of email. Let’s start with what everyone already knows. A large…
I facilitated a customer service workshop recently that reinforced something I’ve always believed: you can’t train for customer service orientation, you can only hire for it. That doesn’t…
A couple months ago I blogged about how important structured learning experiences are for new employees; you can read it here. Throwing them into the frying pan and expecting…
Recently I read that 68.6% of the companies responding to a training survey reported that they had a high need for creativity training but did not offer it…
This week I’ve had the pleasure of giving ski lessons to the children of some friends of mine; this is something I used to do professionally, but it’s been…
If you’re convinced that your team needs to have explicit, agreed-upon, written norms to operate by, the next question is, what kind of norms? Say you’ve decided to…
In a word: because of fundamental attribution error. Wikipedia describes FAE as: “the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality-based explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing…
I often open teambuilding sessions with this question: what’s the best team experience you’ve ever had? What made it great? The answers I get usually fall right in…
When I became a corporate dropout, my colleagues said I would miss being part of a team, part of a learning organization. How could I possibly have stimulating…
In a recent issue of Newsweek, Sharon Begley writes about how cultural experience can change the brain in a column called West Brain East Brain. Many of us have already…
When I was younger I used to think it was cool to be “macho”. Being macho meant being “one of the guys”, however that might look in the organization I…
One of the most frequent questions clients ask me with regard to teambuilding is, “How do we create some new — or better — team norms? And how do…
On the mountain rescue team I volunteer for, there is often a need for clear, unapologetic, command and control leadership. When we’re out in the wilderness, organizing 25…
Earlier this week I posted a blog entry on several Linkedin groups called “Respect Looks Different to Different Generations”and the ensuing discussion, especially on the Training and Development…
Respect looks different to different individuals, of course. But I’m particularly fascinated by how generational differences influence our concept of respectful behavior in the workplace. During a recent generational…
Roger Martin began an interesting series of blog posts on Harvard Business Publishing this week. In the first, he explains that all human beings seek happiness in a sense of…
Patrick Lencioni, in Silos, Politics and Turf Wars, says that great teams often form around crisis. There’s nothing like a financial disaster or other organizational threat to bring…
During a board meeting of a non-profit rescue group I volunteer for, one of our incident commanders requested money for leadership training. “We spend thousands on field skills training…
A key point in teaching conflict resolution skills is that you must separate the people issues from the problem. That doesn’t mean you can ignore the people issues or the emotional…
No, I’m not talking about home ownership or winning the lottery. I’m talking about our national presumption that you can be anything you want to be, as long…
I’ve seen a lot of discussion posts on Linkedin lately from people considering whether to make a move into the consulting world, and asking for advice on the…
I often do a simple but powerful exercise in teambuilding sessions that is designed to bring out teammates’ blind spots about their informal roles on the team, as…
I was once contracted to do some customer service training for the HR department of a financial services company that had just undergone a merger. When I talked to…
Yesterday during a diversity class, this interesting topic came up. One of the participants was a white male who held the title EEO Officer, and he shared his…
In an excerpt from the book Warren Buffett’s Management Secrets reprinted by TIMESONLINE, Mary Buffet and David Clark talk about Buffett’s obsession with obsession: “In Buffett’s world the…
Susan couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she felt as though things were not going well with her new boss. When she came into his office…
Here’s something everyone already knows, but no one does enough of. In August of 2009, the mountain rescue team I volunteer for was called to recover the body…
People often ask me why the focus of my training and consulting business is on teambuilding. “Isn’t that kind of a narrow specialty, given all the things you…
Bill Clinton was interviewed for Newsweek’s end-of-year issue, and he said some very interesting things. “…you have to believe that in an interdependent world, what we have in common…
Much has been written lately about the benefits of volunteering, and how it can help job seekers make valuable connections in their job search. I’d like to add a point…
As I get older and branch into different areas in my career, I notice a trend in how people handle internal and external communications; it became particularly obvious…
I’m a volunteer on a local mountain rescue team and for years, our process for prospective members has been, well, “loosey goosey” to say the least. People show…
We all talk about how diversity can engender creativity and innovation in a work group or team, but my observation is that in many organizations, we seek out diverse…
Every organization I’ve ever been involved in seems to have the same challenge: no one wants to give each other honest feedback. When someone’s behavior bothers us, we…
Whitney Johnson’s article Can Nice Girls Negotiate? on the Harvard Business Publishing website made me mad. Not because I disagree with her; it’s her topic that gets me…
A fascinating article in last week’s edition of Newsweek explores why Israel produces more successful tech companies and more cutting edge technology than anywhere else in the world. Read the…
I know some of you will roll your eyes at this, but I love workplace holiday parties. Or rather, I love holiday workplace parties in organizations where the…
Sometimes when teams are not functioning well, we search for deeper answers than we need to. Sometimes it’s just a matter of revisiting group norms and making sure…