There have been thousands of books published on leadership and tens of thousands of articles, whitepapers, and blogs (plus one, if you count this one!). Some of them focus on the process of good leadership; some of them focus on the characteristics and traits of good leaders. Some of them on the art of good [...]

Ever wish for a way to call attention to the GOOD behavior of a business you serve or that serves you? Today you have that chance! The Minnesota Business Ethics Award® (MBEA) invites all Minnesotans to recognize and celebrate businesses that get it right! Good performance plus good ethics. For the 2014 Awards, your nominee [...]

1. A Message from the President: Check That: A Simple Way to Ensure Accurate Results  I got a call recently from our next door neighbor – a call probably similar to calls that you all get during the holidays: they were going out of town for a four-day weekend, and they asked if we could watch the mail, [...]

I got a call recently from our next door neighbor – a call probably similar to calls that you all get during the holidays: they were going out of town for a four-day weekend, and they asked if we could watch the mail, get the paper, water the plants, and make sure the house doesn’t [...]

1. A Message from the President The Butterfly Effect: Managing Your Organization as a System  Because most things in life are part of larger systems, some seemingly trivial events can have significant impact.  For example, in 1961, mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz took a shortcut in entering data in a weather prediction model.  He innocently entered .506 instead [...]

Because most things in life are part of larger systems, some seemingly trivial events can have significant impact. […]

1. A Message from the President: If All You Have is a Hammer…The Importance of Having a Full Improvement Toolkit 2. Network Events Nov. 5 Knowledge Forum: Everything I Always Wanted to Know About Customer Make-or-Break Moments (SE MN) Rochester Community and Technical College (RCTC), Rochester MN Nov. 7 Knowledge Forum: Minneapolis Minneapolis Community and Technical College, [...]

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” so the saying goes.  In other words, each tool – be it for carpentry, cooking, or process improvement – has a distinct purpose, and tools are sub-optimized if they are used for anything other than that distinct purpose.  […]

A Message from the President: Chillax: 13 Ways to Reduce Workplace Stress Network News and Events Learn What Drives Organizational Excellence: 2013 MN Performance Excellence Award Evaluator Application Deadline 10/1  Strategic Planning: the Glue that Holds it All Together (Rochester) 10/1 Creating a Great Customer-Inspired Experience (St. Paul) 10/2 Managing Relationships in K-12 Schools (& [...]

Perfect Vision: The Power of Leading Indicators to Predict Future Outcomes Although our beloved Minnesota Twins are suffering a third straight year without playoff baseball, many pennant races are in the final stretch.  In channel surfing a couple of nights ago, I caught some of the Texas/Kansas City ball game, in which the Rangers pitcher, [...]