17
Dec

You’re wrong about what engages employees

Last week, I was struck once again by how wrong leaders often are about what engages employees. As I was outlining a plan for culture workshops with the senior leadership team at a client organization, I described a brainstorming activity for the employees in the room to come up with ideas for making each other’s day and creating a positive work …
07
Dec

Policy or Passion – what rules your organization?

Wouldn’t it be great working in an organization where people were happy to come to work, got their work done efficiently and had fun doing it? Unfortunately, I’ve seen leaders stifle the passion and fun that can be had at work in the name of policy or tradition or just because they don’t understand the positive effects on business …
31
Dec

Transforming HR – My 2013 Wishlist – #1: Policy Police to Culture Creator

In 2005, Fast Company magazine’s article “Why We Hate HR“, described HR: The human-resources trade long ago proved itself, at best, a necessary evil — and at worst, a dark bureaucratic force that blindly enforces nonsensical rules, resists creativity, and impedes constructive change. Since that article was written, we have seen …
26
Apr

Building a Culture of Innovation – 12 Innovative Touch Points

Innovation is a huge buzzword nowadays – from the HRPA 2012 conference where many of the keynote speeches focused on innovation, to twitter chats like #peoplechat and #tchat about innovation, it’s having a huge impact on the HR profession. Of course, with my focus on Innovative HR, it’s also a slight obsession of mine. I believe that …
31
Oct

12 key steps to shaping organizational culture

Organizational culture is defined by BusinessDictionary.com as: “The values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.” Every organization has a culture. Whether it is a positive one, or the one that is desired by C-level leaders, is a different question. If an organization wants …
22
Aug

Customer Service War: Myth vs Fact

During last week’s #leadershipchat, Becky Carroll (Customers Rock!), author of “The Hidden Power of Your Customers” shared great insights on why companies should focus more efforts on extraordinary customer service for existing customers.  For me, she was speaking to the converted.  I’m a huge proponent of a paradigm shift …
28
Apr

Storytelling to engage your team

I recently had an opportunity to participate in a webinar, led by Anecdote, a consultant firm out of Australia.  Anecdote specializes in storytelling to bring company’s strategies to life, and the webinar was about leveraging storytelling to build engagement.  I have never worked with Anecdote, so can’t tell you much about them but I can …
11
Aug

Building Positive Company Culture

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a few mistakes I’ve seen when organizations are attempting to build company culture.  Now here are a few tips. Senior leadership must be aligned with the culture you’re building. A culture statement, launch, or communication shouldn’t be an HR project.  While HR plays a key role in asking the right …