So this month’s column was to be about gratitude, in the spirit of Thanksgiving.  And it still is.  But an article on gratitude seemed somewhat cliché, overly simplified, and quite honestly, a bit insensitive given the circumstances.  The pandemic continues to rage – accelerate, to be more accurate.  I know many of you reading this [...]

Winning is relative.  The Dodgers just won the World Series: they didn’t need to be better than then 1906 Cubs (which had a .763 winning percentage, the best of all time), but just better than the Tampa Bay Rays in a seven-game series. What defines success is based on circumstances: what’s considered achieving excellence in [...]

I recently came across an old Dilbert cartoon that goes like this: The big boss says “How many employees did you say took paid medical leave,” to which Catbert (the evil director of human resources) responds “All of them.”  Catbert goes on to say: “a typo on our wellness website listed stress as an illness [...]

There are many articles and books written on the parallels between success in sports and success in business (including an article I wrote back in February on my Kansas City Chiefs winning the Super Bowl!).  And I imagine there will be many more articles and books written about how both sports and business had to [...]

There have been many articles, blogs, and whitepapers written the last four months on navigating the current crisis (my March, April and May articles among them).  By no means are we finished with the current crisis; in fact, unfortunately, we may have to survive many more months of health-related, economic-related, and social-related challenges. But I’ve [...]

In the wake of the George Floyd killing and on the heels of a reflective Juneteenth, leaders across the country are increasingly asking themselves what they can do to inspire and indeed ensure more diversity, inclusion, and true racial equity within their organizations and their communities.  The imperative is clear: racial inequity sub-optimizes organizational performance [...]

PGC, a Minneapolis-based 25-year old OEM that produces gaskets, sealings, protection, and stabilizing solutions found itself in a challenging situation.  As COVID-19 started to impact the market for its products, its CEO made decision to begin manufacturing parts for face shields. “[We needed] to keep an eye on our legacy business, while listening [and responding] [...]

Our world changed in what seems like just a blink of an eye: when COVID-19 arrived in the United States, it instantaneously changed our social habits, our lifestyles, our economy, and our organizations.  Indeed, the impact is being felt by our businesses, our hospitals and senior care facilities, our schools, our nonprofit and governmental agencies.  [...]

Minneapolis, Minnesota  – The Performance Excellence Network (PEN) is pleased to announce a partnership with The Netherlands-based The Lean Six Sigma Company (TLSSC), which will bring TLSSC’s world class online portfolio of Lean Six Sigma training to PEN members in the Upper Midwest. “The need to improve organizational efficiency and productivity has never been greater,” [...]