Can you count the number of times that someone gave you feedback that was not helpful? I know, you can’t count that high. Guess what, maybe people you have managed feel the same way. A recent article in Harvard Business Review* provides us with some interesting perspectives on providing feedback: Understanding Excellence. The authors suggest that many of us make the … [Read more...] about Better Ways to Provide Feedback
teamwork
The Chemistry of Team Communications
Researchers at MIT have uncovered some of the “mysteries” of team chemistry.* Not surprisingly, it is all about communication. But just exactly “how” do the most effective teams communicate? By equipping members of a wide variety of teams with electronic “badges” that captured communication behavior – tone of voice, body language, whom they spoke with, how much, and more – … [Read more...] about The Chemistry of Team Communications
The Importance of All Stakeholders
You might think that only the “senior” people in your organization feel like they have a “stake” in its current operations and future. You would be wrong. I have heard all of the excuses. “They don’t know enough about the substance of the issues to provide input.” “They don’t really care.” “We already know what they think.” Wrong, Wrong, and Wrong. There are … [Read more...] about The Importance of All Stakeholders
Master the Art of “Teaming”
Developing teamwork for intact work groups is challenging enough. But how about when a special group or task force is assembled and time is short? How can a group quickly create effective team dynamics for a short term project? Amy Edmondson, in her Harvard Business Review article (2012) “Teamwork on the Fly,” calls this “teaming.” And while many aspects of “teaming” are … [Read more...] about Master the Art of “Teaming”
Collaboration vs Consensus
In many workplace cultures, the process of pursuing consensus for nearly all decisions is creating inefficiency and frustration. With the best of intentions of including others and gathering wisdom from throughout the organization, “consensus” has become the default decision-making process in many places. Certainly, consensus has its place in organizational … [Read more...] about Collaboration vs Consensus