Few plans are implemented as intended. That’s one of the reasons that people lose faith in planning. They expect their plans to be implemented exactly as described in the plan. One of the unfortunate aspects of this situation is that many consultants assert that “planning doesn’t work.” It does work when it’s done well. During …

For nearly 30 years the heroic story of Johnson & Johnson quick action to remove Tylenol from the shelves after a deadly tampering incident has been folklore in business circles. So what do we make of the news today that The Food and Drug Administration is considering “additional enforcement actions” that might include criminal penalties …

Finances Are Just a Symptom, Not a Solution When people think of financial sustainability, they usually think of getting enough money to pay bills for the long-term. Then they focus on strategies to keep getting enough money. That’s the wrong approach. 1. Strategy for Sustainability — Be Realistic If an organization is trying to do …

Organizational Change Unveiled: Definition and Implementation Every now and then I gift myself with the luxury of time available for reflection, and I “mine” my own learning of what existed. What made that effort a successful change process? Why did that one and that one work well? First of all, my experience is that organizational …

Winners gravitate toward winners. They challenge each other and they push each other to give a little extra at the finish line. When winners lack challenge, they glide through the race. How are you challenging your winners? Do you know the potential of the members of your team?

One surprise email fought 64 others that day for my attention – and won, hands down. The subject line; “Free Shred Day”. These smart business managers had a viral marketing success story here. I wanted to hear more about it.

My grandmother was born in an ethnic neighborhood of Chicago in 1900 and had never seen a live cow growing up. In first grade her class was given cut-out farm animals and told to trace and color them. She had a cow to draw and painted it purple because she liked the color purple. The …

It’s well established in Dr. John Gray’s best-selling book, Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, that males and females communicate differently when trying to relate to each other on different levels. While it’s a slippery slope in the universe of communications to equate this gender-based metaphor to the public relations arena, slide with …

That’s an important distinction. The defining characteristic of a gift is that control over its use passes to the recipient the minute the transfer is made. While some donors may restrict a gift to a general purpose — scholarships for example — decisions over the deployment of the funds within that restriction rest entirely with …

[This supersedes and is a greatly expanded version of a post originally published on May 14.] Retaining someone to provide a service about which you know little yourself can always be tricky, whether it be an auto mechanic, a lawyer, a plumber, a computer tech or — the topic du jour — a media trainer. …