John Geisler, vice president and CIO of Cargill, was a guest 8-10 years ago on an internet radio show my Aveus Partner Linda Ireland and I hosted every week back then. Between that time and today, John has led some of the largest, global change initiatives inside the company.
Think of change leadership as ‘stealth’ organizing. You know those great experiences when you meet someone for the first time and immediately the conversation feels natural, with common values and principles popping to the forefront in the first few sentences?
Positive is good. Negative is bad. Right? For example, positive stress in an organization typically helps drive towards a desired outcome. The challenge is to harness the positive to your advantage. Let’s contrast.
That headline was one of the last things Brad Hewitt, President and CEO of Thrivent Financial, said to me when we sat down together for a conversation. It came after a fast hour of “Brad-isms” as he dubbed them, and I have to say, this was one fun conversation.
If you’ve been in business for more than a few years, you’ve likely seen your own organization, and probably others, launch ‘research’ that ends up on the shelf. Or someone tries to use research for purposes that were not intended when it was collected – and probably not legitimate to the methodology used – or…
I’ve known and respected Pat Donovan, CEO of Bremer Bank, for many years – ‘socially’ as they say. Out my office window I look across a couple of city blocks to the Bremer sign atop their corporate office tower. One day, seeing that sign, I decided to reach out and ask Pat if he would…
“My clients get paid for making successful decisions. My job is to provide the insights that increase the probabilities that they will make better decisions.” — Frank Pleticha
Like the old cliché “If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know if you get there?” there is a benefit for everyone in your organization to have a clear, unclouded vision of the point on the horizon to which you are aiming. In the cliché the risk is overshooting the target….
I wasn’t thinking about driving profitable growth. I wasn’t thinking about how to unlock innovation. It was Sunday morning after all. As I settled down with my New York Times Magazine and my full body dark roast, extra strong coffee, I encountered this headline: “This is your brain on coffee.” That got my attention and I braced myself for…
“Hello. My name is Ryan and I’m an efficiency addict.” This is what I would say if there was an Efficiency Anonymous group. I’m a fan of Franklin Covey. I love Microsoft Excel. And yes, I’m an achiever in my Strengthsfinder results. I love getting things completed in the shortest amount of time with the…
