Caterpillars spin cocoons. Spiders spin webs. Young kids sometimes spin to make themselves dizzy. Whirling dervishes definitely spin toward a higher power, and fitness clubs are fond of offering spin classes. But is PR spin? Most of the public relations professionals that I know consider “spin” to be a pejorative term in their profession. It …

Many Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) use the term “Major Gifts” to refer to those that are larger than the usual range of gifts that arrive in the mail. Typically, $1,000 is the magic number. But, unless an organization’s budget and/or the amount to be raised via the fundraising process is unusually small, gifts of $1,000 won’t …

We often generalize leadership and skills to be the same traits needed all the time and everywhere by all leaders. Is leadership really that simple? Let’s look at different domains of leadership and the different skills that are needed in each. Leading Yourself To effectively lead yourself, useful skills are, for example: physical fitness decision-making …

Understanding a Board’s System: Key of Improving Recent Breakthrough in Development: Systems Thinking One of the recent breakthroughs in organizational and management development is the ability to understand organizations and each of the various functions in them as a system. Each of the functions, such as Boards, planning, leadership, management, marketing, sales and finances is …

What Is an Organic Approach? Organization and management sciences today are placing a great deal of attention to naturalistic approaches to development. One of the most prominent approaches is called “self-organizing” systems. These are systems that develop primarily according to certain values, rather than according to specific procedures. Biological systems (people, plants, animals, etc.) are …

One of the nice things about writing a blog is getting comments. And now that the Free Management Library blogs are attracting more than 10,000 readers each week (wow!), we’re glad to hear what readers are thinking. Here are two particularly interesting recent comments: On whether the “social” in social enterprise is redundant, Andy Horsnell …

Does this bird look familiar? If not, let me introduce you to “Ono the Ostrich,” the long-time official mascot of my Crisis Manager email newsletter. Now, I’ve launched The Ono Awards to honor those whose public statements embody the image displayed by Ono. And the winner of the first Ono Award is…..here. Readers are encouraged …

Many of my coaching clients struggle to maintain work-life balance. With all of their family and work demands they feel out of equilibrium. One client shared this metaphor about balance that I trust will help you look at your work-life balance in a different way. She views life balance as a teeter totter – one …

Being an HR professional seems to bring a number of questions from friends, family, and new acquaintances. These questions cover the gamut of all things that fall in the broad spectrum of HR responsibilities and often involve actual scenarios from workplace situations in which the asker is questioning the handling of the situation by the HR department or manager involved within. A common response to those specific questions is, "well, it depends

This is not my greatest strength, e-learning was not a part of my education and what I have learned is from my own research, however since this type of adult learning approach is becoming such an intrinsic part of human performance I feel I should help point out a few items that have crossed my …