R-O-A

Responsibility and ownership are essential to a productive and effective team. They are the cornerstones of meaningful work, team morale, and pride in accomplishment. However, there is a third piece to this architecture and without it ownership and responsibility can turn poisonous and destroy a team from the inside out rather than build it. The third corner stone is authority. …

Hello

Hello–on the surface it’s a simple word that we use everyday. Underneath, it’s a complex word that ties in deeply to our culture, childhood perspective, and daily interactions that occur within our individual microcosm. Consciously or unconsciously each of us have assumptions when it comes to saying hello. Here are a few things you should know and probably already do …

Mmmmm Politics

I’m not talking about the politics where we vote for one candidate over the other. I’m talking about the politics in the office. The games that we tend to play as people when we have to navigate murky and muddy waters of the workplace. First let’s just get this out there. Office politics are no fun to play, there are …

Trust The Team

Trust is a small word but it comes with heavy weight. Trust is natural, though. I trust the barista to make my coffee just the way I ordered it. I trust that my waiter will bring out the food I ordered. Trust is so natural to us that we are surprised when it’s broken. It goes against our nature to …

Happenstance or Intentional

Humans are naturally intentional. When unintentionality is present, it’s simply because one chose to be.  Unintentionally is simply deferring the present to avoid being uncomfortable. We ignore the present to hold on to what we have rather than growing and improving to continue moving forward. Unintentionality is convenient when we need it to be. It’s justified in moments of fear …

Clean the toilet to win the war

The U.S. military wins wars because they clean toilets, shine their boots, and make their beds. Historically, disease is the number one cause of death for militaries. Wars have been lost because little things like hygiene were taken for granted. In basic training, soldiers are taught to clean toilets before they shoot a weapon. The principle of assigning value to …

Being Right or Resolving Issues

Is it better to be right or move forward towards an aligned purpose?  As people we are defensive and have a desire to be right. In bad situations, people aren’t looking to resolve issues, we’re looking to be right. Examples are: the small customer who believes the big brand is out to get them and chews out customer service, or …

Resolving Workspace Conflict

How do we resolve workspace conflict so that people are excited to work and bitterness, negativity, strife, etc. is curbed?  First off, I don’t believe there’s a way to stop conflict, in fact conflict is part of a healthy organization. The question for us is what is the plan for resolution. Here are some thoughts from our journey. In resolving …

Faster, Smaller, Cheaper

Our world is changing. Technology and the ability it gives us to complete tasks is increasing at an exponential rate. The amount of technology that is being produced and fed to consumers and businesses has increased exponentially over the last decade and it is only going to keep increasing. Because of this, the world is being driven by a “faster, smaller, …