tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-352900 2009-12-09T06:41:00-06:00 (c) Copyright 2004-2009 Arceil Leadership Ltd. All rights reserved.If it's workplace engagement you need, you are in the right place. Minding Gaps, a little blog for leaders and led alike, is here to close the gaps between the potential and the reality of your leadership for engagement in the workplace. We'll show you how to build real and enduring strategic engagement by enhancing the way you think and talk about your organization's purpose, vision, direction, goals, and priorities. Minding Gaps is written by Thomas J. Lee, an authority on leadership communication and workplace engagement. TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2012876170ef9970c 2009-12-09T06:41:00-06:00 2009-12-04T19:06:27-06:00

Einstein once remarked: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.”

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/quote-unquote-albert-einstein-on-curiosity.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20128762eab94970c 2009-12-08T06:45:00-06:00 2009-12-07T21:59:42-06:00

Just as history is filled with the skeletal remains of dinosaurs that failed to adapt, so is the present. We just don’t know which dinosaurs will adapt, and which ones won’t. Anyone of a certain age can remember a grocery aisle of brands that are with us no longer: Ipana and Stripe toothpastes, Hamm’s “the beer refreshing,” 20 Mule Team Borax, Ivory soap, Dad’s Old Fashioned root beer, L&M cigarettes.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/which-companies-wont-survive-2010.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2011571f0cae7970b 2009-12-07T16:25:06-06:00 2009-12-07T16:25:06-06:00

A little blog with big ideas, Minding Gaps strives to build strategic engagement by enhancing the way that corporations and other organizations think and talk about their purpose, vision, direction, goals, and priorities. The more clarity, credibility, and community you can bring to these matters, the more engagement you will see. We will unpack and work through this challenge with you. You'll like the result: change and breakthrough performance that are simple, natural, foolproof, and almost inevitable.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/welcome-1.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a7122388970b 2009-12-07T10:58:40-06:00 2009-12-07T16:32:27-06:00

According to a new study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, effective employee communication is such a powerful driver of employee engagement that it is a leading indicator of economic performance. Companies that are highly effective communicators had 47 percent higher total returns to shareholders over the last five years compared with firms that are the least effective communicators.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/by-the-numbers.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2012876119487970c 2009-12-04T13:06:36-06:00 2009-12-04T16:50:34-06:00

There are those who say that leadership is nothing more and nothing less than leadership. I disagree. I believe that leadership is a great deal more than influence. It is nothing less than inspiration. After all, a fast-talking salesman can persuade you to buy a used car. That’s influence, but is it leadership?

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/leadership-is-more-than-influence.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2011570e2d599970c 2009-12-02T14:15:41-06:00 2009-12-04T14:54:18-06:00

Our clients have found this exercise to be quite powerful. It provides a framework and linear process for the execution of initiatives and strategies. While it may oversimplify things a little, it also sheds light on some real difficulties, and it’s a powerful inducement to a large, overdue conversation.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/introducing-the-gearbox-20.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6f1b6e4970b 2009-12-01T11:33:00-06:00 2009-12-01T10:57:17-06:00

We’ll get answers to your specific questions about social media in a battery of studies in early 2010. We’ll conduct four studies on social media. Each will target a particular sector: services, retail, manufacturing, and non-profit. For more information, companies and organizations should contact us at info@arceil.com.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/12/answers-to-your-questions-on-social-media.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2012875f13f88970c 2009-11-30T09:11:05-06:00 2009-11-30T15:41:04-06:00

Across all generations and income levels, 58 percent of Americans said companies in none of the financial industries were “generally honest and trustworthy.” Distrust was greatest among Generation X respondents (64 percent) and households with income of less than $35,000 (64 percent).

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/by-the-numbers-us-financial-companies-inspire-little-trust.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2012875b121db970c 2009-11-20T06:24:00-06:00 2009-11-23T16:23:37-06:00

Who is asking you the questions you won’t ask of yourself? How are you treating the people who muster the courage to ask them?

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/query-the-questions-you-dont-ask-of-yourself.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6a8b6e6970b 2009-11-17T05:49:00-06:00 2009-11-16T20:03:05-06:00

After eons of depending on leaders, we survivors of 100,000 generations of humanoids and humans have a culturally instinctive need for leadership, embodying at the very least an innate sense of direction, a tireless energy, the steady sunburst of hope and perseverance, and frequent articulation of what followers need to know and remember and feel and do.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/edmund-burke-and-benjamin-disraeli-on-leadership.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2012875a4f7fe970c 2009-11-16T01:13:00-06:00 2009-11-16T05:59:01-06:00

In spite of the recent recession, or perhaps because of it, researchers have detected a sharp increase in the percentage of workers who intend to remain at their current place of employment. According to Minneapolis-based Modern Survey, in August 2008 the figure stood at just 52 percent. It climbed to 57 percent in February 2009 and to 63 percent in September 2009.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/by-the-numbers.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20128758ef3a2970c 2009-11-14T08:01:00-06:00 2009-11-12T16:36:36-06:00

The Pillars of the Earth offers an incredible tapestry of fully realized characters, all of whom are vulnerable to weaknesses of one sort or another, and most of whom ultimately have redeeming features that render them intensely human

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/side-roads-the-pillars-of-the-earth.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a68bad59970b 2009-11-13T06:54:00-06:00 2009-11-12T14:00:45-06:00

I just wonder kind of employee engagement Verizon expects to get as a result of policies like these. When your own employees are writing vitriolic notes to a New York Times columnist, you have a lot of reason to look at your leadership in the mirror.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/verizon-sends-its-employees-a-message-of-chicanery.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e201287588f9de970c 2009-11-12T09:49:20-06:00 2009-11-12T09:49:20-06:00

Many years ago I came across a disarmingly simple definition of creativity as a three-stage process: first, seeing reality as it actually is; second, imagining it differently; and third, making it so. That’s it. Simple, isn’t it? And yet it is such a very difficult thing.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/leadership-as-an-act-of-creativity.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e2012875646ccc970c 2009-11-11T06:07:00-06:00 2009-11-12T09:07:43-06:00

Eric Hoffer was a longshoreman first and philosopher second. He never attended college, but his intellectual curiosity was towering. He had a gift for packing a lightning bolt of meaning into a candle of prose. Thus, we are blessed with many quotations from his pen, like this . . .

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/quote-unquote-eric-hoffer-on-change-and-continuous-learning.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20128756f0bbc970c 2009-11-10T06:05:57-06:00 2009-11-10T06:05:57-06:00

How are you, as a leader, managing your day-to-day behaviors to send a message of change? How has the message itself changed, and what exactly are you doing to walk the talk? As people watch you and your actions, what is the message they receive? Does it reinforce or contravene the words you speak? What gaps remain? What are you doing to close them?

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/you-must-be-the-change-you-seek.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20128756c8ec6970c 2009-11-09T17:45:52-06:00 2009-11-10T05:56:03-06:00

We’re taking a little bow, to you—our readers. As of today, ten thousand of you have perused these pages. We’re honored and humbled. Thank you for reading. If there’s anything we can do for you, please speak up.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/minding-gaps-minds-a-little-milestone.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6630779970b 2009-11-09T06:02:00-06:00 2009-11-09T07:42:59-06:00

Even nominally work-related activity can be unproductive. More than half of all workers said they took their own time to fix a colleague’s substandard work, and almost as many pointed to dealing with internal politics and waiting for a colleague to finish his part on a joint project

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/by-the-numbers-the-time-suck.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a65b3a67970b 2009-11-06T05:35:16-06:00 2009-11-06T13:04:57-06:00

To successfully introduce a new strategy or roll out a new initiative, management must go from the big picture to the little picture. This is employee communication writ small. It is a necessary step for any management team introducing change. It requires serious thought and the involvement of front-line managers, because an employee’s boss is in a position to determine what gets done and how.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/translate-strategy-to-specific-day-to-day-behaviors.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6aa797d970c 2009-11-05T02:16:00-06:00 2009-11-06T11:37:50-06:00

Some companies will assume that what they already know is sufficient for them to prevail in the future. Other companies will assume that what they know isn’t sufficient, that they need to learn something they do not already know, to succeed. Which company would you invest your own money in? The self-satisfied company? Or the curious company?

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/the-need-for-endless-curiosity.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6acd50e970c 2009-11-04T05:46:00-06:00 2009-11-07T17:47:54-06:00

Lou Gerstner, who was so successful in turning around IBM in the 1990s, often remarked that nothing in business is more important than focus. A company's focus must be sharp. It must be true. It must be sustained. It must be robust and relevant. Above all, it must be shared and widely embraced.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/strategic-focus-is-the-foundational-work-of-leadership.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6acab7c970c 2009-11-04T00:33:00-06:00 2009-11-05T12:53:33-06:00

Typically overlooked or undervalued, front-line supervisors are a critical link in the execution of any business strategy, change initiative, operating priority, or rebranding campaign. Fully 25 percent of all employee engagement is driven by front-line supervisors. Yet far more often than you may assume, front-line supervisors are not onboard with a strategy or initiative, and they don’t believe it will last more than a few months. They feel safe dismissing it and ignoring it. Consequently, business strategies and initiatives are often DOA long before senior management realizes.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/life-support-for-your-vital-front-line-managers.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a689de8f970c 2009-11-03T04:06:00-06:00 2009-10-29T18:30:00-05:00

The single most powerful means of communication you have—far and away more commanding than any words you speak or write—is the decision. Yes, that decision. This decision, now.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/the-single-most-powerful-means-of-communication-you-have.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a697da39970c 2009-11-02T02:23:46-06:00 2009-11-08T11:13:15-06:00

Quality in business operations is not yet part of an enduring cultural ethic. According to research by McKinsey & Co., the global consulting firm, 67 percent of companies report that their quality efforts have “stalled or fallen short” of yielding real improvement. That figure comports with my own conversations with business leaders, few of whom are satisfied with their own company’s progress on quality.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/by-the-numbers-the-stalemate-on-quality.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a689d0be970c 2009-10-30T05:27:00-05:00 2009-10-29T06:35:23-05:00

Transformations fail in large part because of the absence, for all intents and purposes, of clear, compelling, credible, constructive communication. You cannot expect employees who lack awareness, understanding, and acceptance of a strategy to become enthusiastically committed to carrying out the strategy.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/why-change-fails.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a687f06e970c 2009-10-29T05:32:00-05:00 2009-11-06T17:40:58-06:00

Throughout any organization, both management and leadership—the work they represent, not positions in a hierarchy—are essential to the success and growth of an organization. They complement each other in ways little and large. But often the differences between them are lost amid the hustle and bustle of running an organization.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/management-versus-leadership-a-matter-of-purpose-and-style.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a67edb94970c 2009-10-28T00:23:00-05:00 2009-10-28T10:45:31-05:00

What is the role of curiosity in a business? How much does it matter? What is the value of it, and how much of success is dependent on it? In what ways do senior managers unintentionally quash the spirit of curiosity in their best people? How does that happen, and why might senior managers be blind or tone deaf to it?

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/query-thinking-about-curiosity.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6761835970c 2009-10-27T06:40:00-05:00 2009-10-25T19:45:42-05:00

To communicate a shared focus, you must first have a clear, well-honed strategic focus. You can't communicate what you don't have. Establishing and occasionally refining the strategic focus is the foundational work of leadership. It is absolutely imperative. Without focus, a company lacks a core, and it tends to jump from fad to fad. Its leaders often carry a long laundry list of initiatives and priorities—programs of the month—few or none of which have their earnest commitment.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/to-communicate-a-focus-you-must-first-have-a-focus.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a666f00f970c 2009-10-26T04:46:00-05:00 2009-10-21T16:53:52-05:00

According to research by Frank I. Luntz that appears in his new book, What Americans Really Want . . . Really: The Truth About Our Hopes, Dreams, and Fears, Americans overwhelmingly prefer job satisfaction to economic prosperity. Some 84 percent of Americans say they would prefer making “a lot less money” in a job they love to the converse. Only 16 percent of Americans say they would prefer making “a lot more money” in a job they hate.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/by-the-numbers-the-tradeoff-between-satisfaction-and-income.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a66a030a970c 2009-10-23T05:49:00-05:00 2009-11-05T18:44:01-06:00

Here is a quotation attributed to John Quincy Adams that emphasizes the inspirational component of leadership. Too often, it seems to me, leaders settle for merely influencing others. That is a good start, but it is a small kind of leadership—necessary in exigencies, to be sure, but significantly less than the legacy of historic leaders: Churchill or Mandela or Lincoln, for example.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/quote-unquote-john-quincy-adams-on-inspirational-leadership.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a610798c970b 2009-10-22T05:27:00-05:00 2009-10-21T17:31:41-05:00

We don’t coin many words around Minding Gaps, but there’s a real need for this one: the metamessage. Messages are plainly important, but focusing on them exclusively as they’re stated plays a nasty trick on management. It is too easy, altogether too easy, for management to believe that a message as stated is a message if and as received, if and as understood, if and as believed, and if and as applied—when, in fact, it may not be any of those other things. The metamessage is the message as heard or not, as understood or not, as believed or not, as applied or not.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/beware-the-metamessage.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a600c5ea970b 2009-10-21T05:25:00-05:00 2009-10-20T06:31:15-05:00

In my years of consulting on organizational communication in mid-size and larger companies, I have seen all too many problems boil down to three broad categories of miscommunication: mixed messages, muddled messages, and mute messages.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/three-causes-of-poor-communication-in-companies.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5f58255970b 2009-10-20T00:19:00-05:00 2009-10-19T10:43:03-05:00

Riccardo Muti, the newly designated music director of the acclaimed Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was drawing one analogy in an interview yesterday morning, and it was a good one. I would like to borrow his analogy and apply it differently, to make a parallel point.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/what-do-you-have-in-common-with-riccardo-muti.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a64980ff970c 2009-10-19T01:15:00-05:00 2009-10-21T18:27:12-05:00

According to Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut by David Shenk, more than 3,000 discrete messages descend on each of us every day. A single message may be anything from an item in the news to a television or radio commercial to an email to a newspaper editorial to a whispered intimacy by that special someone. These messages account for more than 1,000,000 words—the equivalent of twelve to fifteen book-length novels—per week. Most alarming all, Data Smog was published in 1997, before the explosion of email and spam!

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/by-the-numbers-the-information-glut.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5eed95a970b 2009-10-17T06:14:26-05:00 2009-10-21T18:03:27-05:00

Each year, I am assigned a University of Chicago graduate student who has requested a mentor. We meet several times a year for lunch or coffee, and we exchange emails and take time for telephone conversations whenever the need arises. Our conversations cover the landscape. Sometimes I find myself offering advice on job interviews and resumes. Other times I just listen as a student vents about a professor whose grading curve is harsh. Still other times I push the student to think more broadly about his or her future or values or commitment.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/in-praise-of-mentoring.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a640cded970c 2009-10-16T05:38:00-05:00 2009-10-16T09:20:41-05:00

Too often in business, we hide behind the wrong personal pronouns. We lock ourselves into the singular, and we focus on our separateness. We get caught up in my this and I that. We hold you accountable, but not me. We blame him or them. It's long past time we change this. Our linguistic habits reflect an orientation of division, argument, and apportionment. It's not good for anyone. Organizations of any kind—profit or nonprofit, small or large, old or new—need cohesion and camaraderie. So let’s make a concerted effort to go beyond this little talk.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/first-person-plural.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5e8d7ff970b 2009-10-15T09:38:23-05:00 2009-10-28T07:13:09-05:00

In a typical meeting, when someone else has the floor, how much of your time is devoted to intense listening and how much to thinking what you will say next? If you had to choose between one extreme and the other, is your purpose in a meeting closer to learning and reaching a robust consensus or to directing and controlling the outcome?

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/query-where-is-your-head-in-a-typical-meeting.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5e57b20970b 2009-10-14T12:13:33-05:00 2009-10-15T21:14:13-05:00

Quote / Unquote is a feature that appears irregularly but frequently. It offers a simple, noteworthy quotation on some aspect of leadership, communication, or business. In most cases we also provide context, comment, or questions to stir discussion. Occasionally, however, the quotation stands alone, as it does today.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/quote-unquote-charles-osgood-on-responsibility.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a6371aca970c 2009-10-13T09:14:39-05:00 2009-10-14T09:47:41-05:00

How can you tell if your organization is teetering toward disengagement? Here are four common warning signs. None of them will surprise you. If you notice even one, you should take action. If you don't act, you will soon notice another one, and then another one, and then eventually all four.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/four-warning-signs-of-disengagement.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a630735b970c 2009-10-12T07:12:00-05:00 2009-10-21T18:28:01-05:00

According to research by the British firm Melcrum, front-line supervisors drive fully 25 percent of all engagement. That makes supervisors the No. 1 driver of engagement. Nothing else accounts for more than supervisors.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/by-the-numbers-supervisors-are-the-no-1-drivers-of-engagement.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5d501c5970b 2009-10-11T13:52:39-05:00 2009-10-11T17:06:03-05:00

I happen to belong to a men’s group that meets for dinner every few weeks and discusses—well, life. We try to take things deep. Apart from a little chit-chat at the beginning, we avoid talking about sports, investments, business, the weather, women, vacations, music, food, wine, books, politics, movies, religion, cars, or hobbies. You may ask what else there is. Actually, lots.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/living-a-life-of-intentionality-or-not.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5c3dc44970b 2009-10-10T00:15:00-05:00 2009-10-15T20:42:52-05:00

That’s me. In the blue shirt. Waving to you. From the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. It was ten years ago today. The view from the summit is spectacular, as you can see for yourself. That little bluff a couple of miles behind my arm is the legendary El Capitan—its own face so very intimidating. From where I am sitting to the valley floor below is just about one mile, straight up and down. I climbed it in a single day, and I took the long way. It was pitch dark when I started around six o’clock in the morning, and it was pitch dark when I finished around eight in the evening.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/side-roads-an-incredible-hike-in-an-incredible-park.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5d4e935970b 2009-10-09T23:20:01-05:00 2009-10-18T12:53:44-05:00

At the risk of alienating some of you, I have to express astonishment at the selection of President Barack Obama to receive the Nobel Peace Prize this year. In my estimation, the president does not deserve this honor. He himself came close to saying as much this morning. He may deserve it some day—all of us can pray that every president does—but he doesn’t deserve it yet.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/a-truly-teachable-moment-in-humility.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5d00412970b 2009-10-09T00:15:00-05:00 2009-10-09T20:01:24-05:00

We are preparing to launch three research projects that may interest some of you. All will produce real-world solutions for real-world problems, but only the co-sponsors will benefit from them immediately. Each project will have a consortium of co-sponsors. Please consider co-sponsoring one, two, or all three.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/join-a-consortium-and-co-sponsor-high-roi-research-projects.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5cc1c11970b 2009-10-08T06:30:00-05:00 2009-10-16T08:53:41-05:00

This word engagement sticks in the craw of some people. What exactly does employee engagement mean? How do we recognize it? In a casual sense, engagement is all about an orientation to, and a preoccupation with, the success of an enterprise. However, there is no precise, standardized meaning for the term, and dictionaries don’t provide much help.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/what-exactly-do-we-mean-by-engagement-anyway.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5c9138e970b 2009-10-07T06:31:30-05:00 2009-10-16T16:01:04-05:00

Another kind of subculture, equally important, gets too little attention. It reflects particular processes, such as quality or planning. Of special importance to me is the culture around communication of business issues and information: the tendency of people throughout a company to share information, ideas and their intuition on business matters in a particular way. It is less about the flow of official information and more about the countless decentralized eddies of information converging and diverging throughout a company.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/what-is-your-companys-culture-of-communication.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a61aa4b5970c 2009-10-06T11:45:28-05:00 2009-10-16T08:57:06-05:00

No one, absolutely no one, has had greater influence on modern business management than Peter Drucker, as we wrote in this space four years ago on his passing just before his 96th birthday. The author of more than thirty books, Drucker single-handedly changed the focus of legions of progressive, far-sighted business executives.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/quote-unquote-peter-drucker-on-discretionary-effort.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5b71c14970b 2009-10-05T06:46:00-05:00 2009-10-06T07:37:56-05:00

According to research by Abt SRBI Public Affairs and published in Time magazine, 49 percent of Americans agree that businesses will make socially responsible decisions without the government telling them what to do. A slightly smaller share, 42 percent, believe the opposite, that businesses cannot be trusted to make socially responsible decisions, and that it’s up to the government to tell them what to do.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/by-the-numbers-trust-and-distrust-in-business.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5b96d88970b 2009-10-04T07:30:00-05:00 2009-10-03T14:40:53-05:00

Here is an interesting column by Joe Nocera, published Saturday in The New York Times, that illustrates the differences between the work of leadership and the work of management. It focuses on Kenneth Lewis, who announced his resignation a few days ago as chief executive of the Bank of America, the bank he helped build.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/the-work-of-a-leader.html tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d83451f6f769e20120a5b7c4f3970b 2009-10-03T07:42:00-05:00 2009-10-04T19:52:24-05:00

Leaders must never presume that their followers will fall into line, and they must never presume that their skeptics will be idle. Followers, both real and potential, will think and choose for themselves and align in their own strategic interest. They may or may not identify themselves in ways that the leaders presume. Their alliances may or may not reflect the assumptions of leaders. Their self-interest may or may not be apparent to leaders.

Minding Gaps http://rainbows.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/insights-on-leadership-from-the-2016-olympics-decision.html