How one student shamed his district Breaking into their school’s computer database isn’t usually a sign of a good student, but when senior Jacob Bigham used a teacher’s password to gain access to Troy High’s records, it wasn’t to change grades or cause mischief. Rather, Bigham was on the hunt for the vote count from …

Organizational Development History: Kurt Lewin’s Innovation (Guest post from John Scherer, Co-Director of Scherer Leadership International. This is the sixth blog post in a six-part series about the history of Organization Development, “On the Shoulders of Giants.”) NOTE: What I have learned about Kurt Lewin I received from four main sources. My mentor and NTL …

Giving One’s Best in Return for Recognition Recognition: For something so simple why is so hard to compliment people when they do something well or to encourage them as they work to improve their performance? I have heard a variety of reasons, in my training and coaching, why some managers let encouragement and recognition drift. …

Turnover is costly – just how costly? Research studies have shown that the cost of replacing a professional or managerial employee runs 1.5 to 3.0 times his or her annual salary. And it can cost up to five times annual salary if you are looking at the intellectual capital – what a key person knows …

The person who is going to be successful is not going to succeed just because of good work. That is a given. It is expected. You get ahead of and stay ahead of the crowd by managing your competitive advantage. Here are three ways to do it. 1. Think of Your Career As A Business. …

If I was a fly on the wall what would I hear your employees say? Would it something like this? “They won’t allow me to make even the simplest decisions.” “The red tape here makes it very difficult to do my job.” “Management has to sign off on everything; they don’t trust me.” A big …

Rather, the team or project leader functions like a coach who recognizes special talents in people and, at the same time, gets them to work together toward a common goal. The following steps will help you select a cohesive team and set it in the right direction. 1. Evaluate team candidates. You may be called …

Get it right, or the world will hear When passengers aboard a Middle East Airlines flight discovered that not only did their plane have no air conditioning in the scorching heat, but was also full of broken tables, malfunctioning entertainment systems, and safety booklets stuck together with chewing gum, the logical first step was to …

Change management is a hot topic in the Leadership and Organization Development world. While many people in organizations are leery of change, either due to change fatigue, or because they think the next change is simply the fad of the month, change can either be good or bad depending on many factors. If you want …

A common understanding in the learning field is that the best way to learn is to teach someone else. During the past year, I have had the privilege to learn a great deal from my HR students. What my students taught me this year: HR is still misunderstood in many organizations. Many of my students …