The underdog New Orleans Saints defeated the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 in yesterday’s NFL Super Bowl, in large part I believe, to the power of their purpose. Purpose is defined as “the reason for which something exists or is done; an intended or desired result; determination, resoluteness.” Not that the Colts didn’t have a purpose because…
One of the biggest challenges teams face is building trust and managing conflict. While you want differing opinions, it’s important that conflict stay focused on content and not become personal. How do you encourage healthy debate? Here are five team attitudes and perspectives that can help you build trust and keep conflict productive in your…
In an article for Strategy + Business entitled The Promise (and Perils) of Open Collaboration, author Andrea Gabor identifies the challenges organizations face when they choose to adopt a collaborative work environment. According to Gabor, the biggest obstacle for an organization is the deep change required in the way knowledge is controlled and shared —…
Most of us have worked on teams that, for whatever reason, never really achieved the results expected. With all of the focus on the importance of teamwork, why do teams fail so often? Research by The Ken Blanchard Companies has identified the top 10 reasons for a team failing to reach its potential. Lack of…
In a recent column at Forbes.com business consultant Terry Waghorn, (who co-authored Mission Possible with Ken Blanchard) interviews teams expert Patrick Lencioni about the challenges of managing virtual teams. Lencioni points out that the key to being a more effective virtual leader begins with acknowledging the fact that working remotely posing serious challenges. As Lencioni…
I was surfing various leadership blogs the other day and ran across an interesting post from Tony Morgan on 4 stages of leadership. Rather than looking at a leader moving through various stages in his/her career, I prefer to look at it as various “hats” that a leader has to wear, given the context and…
Dr. Margie Blanchard, past President of The Ken Blanchard Companies who currently heads up the company’s Office of the Future, loves real work problems. That’s because when you work on real issues instead of hypothetical ones, it really sharpens the process. You also solve a problem along the way. That’s why we have included real…
Most people do not pay attention to trust in their organization until it is broken. But by then the damage is done: people withhold facts and information, managers set convoluted goals, management is not available, people talk behind each others’ backs, etc. The list goes on and on. Part of the reason may be that…
One of the biggest challenges that organizations face is how to improve coordination among team members. While most teams are aligned to some degree, they are often not aligned to the degree that they could be. Check this out in your own organization. Ask individual team members independently what the top three strategic imperatives are…
Tomorrow we are starting our annual 2-day all company meeting. Over 300 Blanchard employees from around the world are meeting together to celebrate last year’s accomplishments and discuss this year’s strategies for succeeding in a tough economy. A couple of us are doing presentations (including yours truly.) I’ll be talking about engageable moments and…