On June 8th, the Golden State Warriors basketball team won its second consecutive National Basketball Association championship. Observers agree that the Warriors are packed with talent, no doubt the principal reason for their success. But on the way to winning…
Teambuilding
HR’s Job Should Be to Encourage Conflict
For years we’ve been hearing the drumbeat about making the workplace fun. So, as Amanda Ono tells it, we drank the Kool-Aid, installing ping-pong tables, organizing parties and offering a host of perks. “But what happens when we wake up…
Why Not Let People Form Their Own Teams?
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan Hiring the right talent is not enough to build a high-performing team. Team dynamics affect overall performance; they are like undercurrents that can carry a boat in a different direction than…
Why Teams Need to Be More Like a Jazz Band Than a Symphony
The ability to deal with uncertainty can make or break a team. Famous jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald made her biggest career mistake on a German stage back in the 60’s. That performance earned her two Grammy Awards though. Ella started singing…
Can Culture Be as Simple as Just 19 Words?
It’s well understood that culture can make or break a workplace. Understanding what “culture” means, however, is a whole other matter. As a working concept, culture can’t be easily defined or measured. Merriam-Webster offers six different definitions (and even named…
Your Teams Need ‘Boxing Rings’ and ‘Campfires’
Senior leaders were asked to estimate how much “wasted time” had cost their companies. Their average answer was nearly $15.5 million! It seems that our abundance of unproductive meetings, dysfunctional workplace dynamics, bungled opportunities and mishandled people problems are cumulatively…
Beware the Myth of the Super Leader
“We will all learn together. I want to learn from you as well as you learn from me.” This, from a new CHRO who sits on the executive committee for a global organization. She is at the table with a…
3 Conversations to Help Your Team Get Through a Reorg
A while ago, I was counseling a senior executive of a government bureau who was two years into shaping his agency to be more customer and results-centered. He rebuilt his 200-person group, propelled key actions, coached his staff on changing…
6 Ways Real Leaders Turn Insincerity Into Inspiration
The biggest barrier between leaders and followers is distrust. And the window dressing for distrust is insincerity. People put up with a lot of quirks in their leaders and coworkers just to keep the peace, but insincerity particularly grates on…
Decision-Making Doesn’t Always Require Collaboration
Collaboration is in vogue today. It’s a favorite theme for how to be a great leader and in how to solve most business problems. I’ve always tried to be collaborative and inclusive – even in situations when it probably wasn’t…
Don’t Break Down Silos, Bend Them
Conventional wisdom tells us that the best way to deal with organizational silos is simply to break them. Whether it’s the inward focus of HR departments or the “tower vision” that blinds leaders to surrounding issues and events, silos must…
Four Ways to Create a Growth Mindset Team
In my experience leading and working with teams — whether they’re startups, groups of engineers, or global leadership — there are a few things that have really stood out to drive success. First, leaders and team members have to be willing to “stand up”…
Is Team Building the Secret to Improving Engagement?
There are myriad factors that influence the productivity of any given organization. Employee engagement is one of the most crucial, thanks to its direct relationship to productivity. Organizational strategies and tactics implemented by progressive, productivity-minded HR executives can have a…
7 Reasons Why Your Team Can’t Work as a Team
Everyone worships teams. But, the way most companies operate, is not helping. That’s why teamwork is sometimes an illusion. What happened to the US men’s basketball team in the 2004 Olympics took everyone by surprise. The “Dream Team” was humiliated by the…
What Cisco Is Doing to Develop Better Leaders and Better Teams
The “Future of Work” is definitely a popular buzz word at the moment. What does it really mean? Across industries, we know that work is changing faster than people and organizations. The transition to digital is changing everything, from how…
HR Roundtable: Why Is Collaboration So Hard?
As the great business mogul Vanilla Ice suggested, we need to stop, collaborate and listen! Who knew that his classic song Ice Ice Baby would be so prophetic? Collaboration is something that companies express as an aspiration, but few do…
Make Your Team More Effective By Getting Them Out of the Office
“In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.”― Albert Camus Now that we’ve wrapped up another year, and are already well into 2018, the magic of the holiday season has evaporated. Your team is confronting…
Will a Team Succeed? Now, There’s a Way to Know
Gene Tange, who is best known as the former CHRO of Dignity Health (revenue $10 billion), has moved to developing technology for team analytics. He argues that HR is overly focused on individuals whereas success depends on teams. That’s a…
When It’s Safe to Speak Up, Everyone Benefits
Fear is a powerful emotion. It makes us feel defenseless. When we are under attack, we become more alert. Vulnerability heightens our focus. As Seth Godin says, defenseless is the best choice for those seeking to grow. But, most people, become defensive when…
We Should All Celebrate a Touchdown
At one time in the NFL, excessive touchdown celebrations on the field were frowned upon by the league and penalized as unsportsmanlike conduct. Nonetheless several players and teams routinely defied this practice, creating their own celebration rituals like the Ickey Shuffle,…