When leading Adaptive Change, you have the opportunity to design the journey initiated by Destabilizing Events so that you can reach the future you desire. Because the actual path you take is unknown and can’t be predicted your leadership provides direction but you cannot control the process. As each person, team, or division moves through …

Weak start to communications hinders crisis management Last week, Sony’s “Playstation Network” suffered one of the largest breaches of confidential user information in history. With over 75 million users affected, to say that Sony has a crisis management case on its hands would be an understatement. The electronics giant put itself in a bad place …

Most organizations have a Board of Directors. Carter McNamara, coordinator for this blog site, writes that some common responsibilities of Boards include: Determine the Organization’s Mission and Purpose Support the Executive and Review her Performance Ensure Effective Organizational Planning Ensure Adequate Resources Determine the Organization’s Services and Programs What if you had a Spiritual Board …

A key problem for many new nonprofits is that most of their founders, that “small number of caring people who want to help,” have the impression that fundraising has to do with “fundraisers” — special events or sales: dinners, circuses, golf tournaments, T-shirts, cookies or candy. That couldn’t be farther from reality. While those activities …

In my organization it was decided we had depended on technology and already available computer training too long. The leadership and management had to admit that there were knowledge gaps in our workforce. People with valuable corporate knowledge were leaving or retiring who we couldn’t replace for budget reasons, but we still needed to get …

As stated in my previous two posts, training sessions can be a dreaded activity by many. Despite research that tells us lecture is not learning, it is still the most used delivery method. And with current updates in technology the lecture is often supported with a deck of PowerPoint slides filled with the words being spoken by the presenter often times while reading directly from the screen or his printed copy. It is not surprising that this is the most common method. It is the easiest to develop and control and it is what learners often expect. This may just be why they dread coming to training.

Even the best laid plans can go awry, and we all have tough times in business. It can be challenging to close major sales, get the growth we want, and our competitors tend to throw up obstacles. Through all this, how do you stay motivated? What works for you may not work for someone else. …

One of the main reasons companies go out of business is for lack of cash. These companies may even be growing, successful in the market — but they run out of cash. Don’t let this happen to you. Make sure you prepare cash flow projections on a regular basis. One time of great risk is …

The way you hear some social enterprisers talk, you’d think it’s an inherently good thing to lose money, or if you have to make a profit, keep it small. For example, the new Low-Profit Limited Liability (L3C) corporate structure, which allows an SE to have social objectives and attract investors, has that low profit mentality …

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of listening to Deepak Chopra speak in person at an inspiring minds series held just outside of Minneapolis. While he was speaking one of the things that really struck me was how brilliant his mind is. He’s one of those few people who are the leading edge …