When I teach seminars on teamwork, I usually break people into small groups and give them a few minutes to come up with what they think are the five most important aspects of a high performing team. What would you say? Usually groups come up with lots of good ideas, but almost never do they list the importance of “constructive conflict.” Yet, the research on teamwork … [Read more...] about The Power of Constructive Conflict
Archives for June 2011
The Four Fundamental Questions
If you want focused, effective, coordinated action from the people in your organization, then every one of them should be able to answer these four fundamental questions: *Why are we here? *What do we stand for? *Where are we going? *How are we going to get there? Why are we here? This is the mission question. But we don’t need to make people memorize the mission … [Read more...] about The Four Fundamental Questions
The 7th Deadly Sin of Nonprofit Strategy: “Not Ambitious Enough”
A strategy and its associated goals and plans should be focused on a vision that is big, bold, and inspiring. Many strategies are based simply on an analytical forecast of the way things are currently headed. How dull. It was Goethe who said: Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. In his presidential run, Robert Kennedy used to quote … [Read more...] about The 7th Deadly Sin of Nonprofit Strategy: “Not Ambitious Enough”