From the category archives:

Business Management

Stack Your Phones at the Next Company Meeting

January 17, 2012

There’s a new game making the rounds these days called Phone Stack. Have you played it? The basic gist is this—when you dine out with friends, everyone puts their phones in the middle of the table and then embarks on a huge game of chicken— who  can resist the siren call of their phone for [...]

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Influencing Across Organizational Boundaries

January 11, 2012

Earlier this week I presented a session on Influencing Across Organizational Boundaries to the Western Michigan chapter of the Project Management Institute. The session was so well-received that many people asked for copies of the Power Point presentation. Well, you know how that goes—a Power Point without the corresponding speaker commentary is a bit flat. [...]

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The Way We Work: Creating a More Flexible Life

September 6, 2011

Part Three of a Three-Part Series The conclusion of this series on integrating our work and personal lives focuses on the changing nature of work—when we work, how we work, and how others around us deal with it. Part One of the series was What is Work Life Integration? and Part Two was Work Team [...]

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Work Team Leaders- A Key Ingredient for Successful Employee-Friendly Practices

August 30, 2011

Part Two of a Three-Part Series In this second installment of a discussion with Tracy Brower, Director of Performance Environments for Herman Miller, we explore a key factor that determines the probability of success for a company’s work/life integration policies. The first article in this series was in What is Work/Life Integration?.      JM: [...]

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What is Work/Life Integration?

August 23, 2011

Part One of a Three-Part Series   I attended a Workforce Issues panel discussion during which panelist Tracy Brower discussed forces shaping work/life integration. Tracy and I first met when we were colleagues in the Learning Development Group at Herman Miller. Tracy is currently the Director of Performance Environments for Herman Miller. In addition to [...]

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TEDx Grand Rapids – 8 Ideas Worth Sharing

May 17, 2011

I’ve joined the ranks of TED aficionados. Last Thursday, along with 599 other lucky people, I participated (on-site) in the first-ever TEDx event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A TEDx event is a spin-off of the popular TED Conference. For those unfamiliar with TED, it’s a unique conference format designed around “riveting talks by remarkable people, [...]

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Can a Computer Show Altruism?

February 17, 2011

Super-Smarts without Compassion: A Dangerous Combo I’ve been enjoying the press surrounding this week’s Jeopardy game show match-up of IBM super-computer Watson against two of Jeopardy’s most prodigious players, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.  Of course, there have been many accounts of the “man versus machine” angle. My personal favorite came from an interview in [...]

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Integrating Talent the Hewlett Packard Way

December 17, 2010

A Look at HR’s role in Mergers and Acquisitions One of my colleagues, Dave Carhart, a former technical recruiter, is studying for his MBA/MILR – (Masters of Industrial and Labor Relations) at Cornell University. He recently sat down with me to discuss the lessons learned from his internship with Hewlett Packard (HP). Dave was part [...]

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When Leaders Let It All Hang Out

December 10, 2010

Organizationally Speaking, That Is I heard an interesting interview last night with Ned Breslin, CEO of the nonprofit Water for People on American Public Media’s Marketplace radio program. Water for People’s mission is to provide safe drinking water all over the world. The interview explored the level of transparency that was created when the organization [...]

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The Urban Legend of Command and Control Management

December 3, 2010

An email arrived the other day; it was a request for assistance from a person who is gathering research for his Master’s study program. His thesis will explore, in part, a study of the demise of the command-and-control management style. I was happy to supply the information he sought. After sending the email, I found [...]

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