I always cringe a bit inside when someone says, “We need a culture change and that’s why we can’t _____.” I usually hear this from individuals who want to embed some practice in the organization but who have encountered resistance. It’s easier to say that the company has a culture problem than it is to […]
Where Company Culture Change
Three Ways You Can Build
Partner Engagement:
How the Rapid Learning Cycles Framework
strengthens partner relationships.
On our last trip to Italy, Gene and I spent a day walking around the city walls in Lucca, a Tuscan town with a well-preserved medieval center. The townspeople of Lucca have been known for their prudence and conservation for many centuries. For example, the town continued to build walls around itself after those walls […]
Why Advanced R&D Teams Need to be Connected to Their Customers
On one trip I took prior to the pandemic, I visited an Advanced R&D lab and saw a lot of cool new technology. It was all stuff that I could see myself using some day. The team was working hard to overcome technical obstacles that were in the way of commercialization. These obstacles were real […]
Why Logic Builds Agreement,
But Not Commitment
When I first started my consulting firm, I received mentoring from Alan Weiss, who began his career as a trainer for Kepner-Tragoe. He taught KT’s analysis methods for problem solving and decision making, then built a consulting practice to help executives make better strategic decisions. He often says something that I’ll never forget: “Logic makes […]
The Meaning of Pull and How to Create It
If you want to create change in an organization, you need to understand “pull” and how to create it. I admit that the concept is a bit abstract, especially to people who don’t have a strong background in science. When I think of “pull” I imagine a force like gravity or magnetism that pulls objects […]