Change Management: Human Speedbumps to Change
By harveyrobbins | September 18, 2007
The most constant factor in each of our lives is change. At work, at home, at play, daily transitions occur that make things different. Some variations are large and significant; most are small and simply intrude upon our daily routine. In order to understand our reaction to change, Read the rest of this entry »
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Leadership Skills: The Myth of Leadership
By harveyrobbins | September 16, 2007
Leadership is the vessel for many of the worst team myths, for a logical reason. As keepers of the team vision, leaders make up a lot of stuff. Here are some of the worst illusions foisted on us by leaders about leadership
1. Teams require a single individual to lead them. Read the rest of this entry »
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Leadership Skill: Empowerment Uncertainties
By harveyrobbins | September 15, 2007
Between the subjects of goal setting and decision making is an enormous crevasse, into which teams fall, then fester and stink up the joint. This is the area of boundary management - or in the case of team failure, mismanagement. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Leadership Skill | 1 Comment »
Leadership Skill: Get a Personality
By harveyrobbins | September 10, 2007
There are lots of ways to lead. The best way is to try to lead in a way that takes advantage of your natural personality. In other words, don’t be what you ain’t. Learning how others behave, how they think, what they focus on and find important, however, will make you a better leader. Read the rest of this entry »
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Get ‘er Done: (Leadership Skill) How to Motivate Others
By harveyrobbins | September 5, 2007
This is the second installment of my current writings on leadership skills. As before, I would appreciate any feedback and/or examples you can provide me. I will be using this and future writings on specific leadership skills to create my next leadership book and include them in future workshops. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Leadership Skill | 2 Comments »
Leadership Skill: Why Should I Trust You
By harveyrobbins | September 4, 2007
Open invitation: I’m in the process of writing an e-book about leadership (tentatively titled On My Honor); from both the technical side and the people side. The people side will be based upon scouting principles…things like trustworthy, loyal, etc…you know the 12 scout laws we learned as kids…and which values seem to be missing in many of today’s leaders. Read the rest of this entry »
Topics: Leadership Skill | 2 Comments »
The Accidental Leader: What to Do When You’re Suddenly in Charge
By harveyrobbins | September 3, 2007
by Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley
It could happen today. You are called into the office, and the boss tells you that due to unforeseen circumstances, starting today you will be in charge of a team, a project, an office, a committee, or a business unit. Without any warning (or preparation on your part) you’ve become an accidental leader. Read the rest of this entry »
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Team Building: The Eight Engines of Teamwork
By harveyrobbins | September 1, 2007
There are quite a few methods currently in use to create high performing teams. All the way from outdoor experiences like ropes courses and climbing mountains to the classroom and on the job experiences. Some, obviously, work better than others for your situation. Read the rest of this entry »
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Team Building: Team Jerks
By harveyrobbins | September 1, 2007
Nowhere is is written that you have to get along with everyone. There are people in the world who should not, who must not, be on any team — ever. These are people who lack interpersonal skills. They are not necessarily bad people, although some (the dark angels I’ll talk about in the next newsletter) are truly bad. Read the rest of this entry »
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Change Management: The High Cost of Change Failures
By harveyrobbins | August 30, 2007
You win some, you lose some. Lest we imagine that a failed change initiative is a victimless crime, however, let us count the victims, and the aftereffects of a false start.
1. Loss of jobs. People lose their jobs when change fails to achieve hoped-for results. In the case of many initiatives, lost jobs is the hoped-for result. Job loss ripples through the organization, through the affected individual and his or her family, then into the community as a whole. Read the rest of this entry »
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Change Management: Seven Unchangeable Rules of Change
By harveyrobbins | August 30, 2007
Mark them well. In 40,000 years, they have not changed one iota. When designing any change initiative, it is important to keep these rules in mind
1. People do what they perceive is in their best interest, thinking as rationally as circumstances allow them to think. We call this the law of PUSH. Read the rest of this entry »
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The New Why Teams Don’t Work: What Goes Wrong and How to Make It Right
By harveyrobbins | August 29, 2007
Many teams run into trouble, say Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley, because teams themselves fail to think through the human implications of teaming. This practical guide teaches team members and team leaders how to maintain the highest level of team intelligence - providing the skills, attitudes, and emotional flexibility needed to get the most out of a team’s inherent differences.
No matter who is on your team, you can learn how to interact better with them, turn negative friction into positive disagreement, make better decisions, stay focused on goals, and come in on budget. This book shows you how to: get hidden agendas on the table, clarify individual roles, like who’s doing what, learn what other team members want from you, find a way to work with them in a way they can respond to, and much more.
Based on the authors’ previous book, Why Teams Don’t Work, this book includes completely new information on team intelligence, team technology, collaboration vs. teamwork, team balance, teams at the top, and the team of one, plus all new examples.
Reviews about The New Why Teams Don’t Work
“Finley and Robbins set us on a compelling journey to teams success by helping us to see and embrace the secrets we often hide from ourselves and our teammates.”
- Richard J. Leider, author of The Power of Purpose and coauthor of Repacking Your Bags
“An Immensely helpful book. [The] suggestions are a compassionate, yet tough-minded and practical.”
- Robert K. Cooper, Ph.D., author of The Performance Edge and Executive EQ
“Robbins and Finley are provocative writers…the read is fast, funny, and highly stimulating.”
- Business Book Review
“Robbins and Finley not only set us straight on the real world of teams but also tell how to make them work for our organizations.” - James A. Autry, author of Confessions of an Accidental Businessman
“This book is for the millions of workers who either volunteered or were enlisted by a team, gave their honest best to the cause, and then wondered why.”
- Library Journal
ISBN: 1576751104
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Team Building: The Myth That People Like Working Together
By harveyrobbins | August 28, 2007
Say you have just been to a galvanizing seminar on high performing teams, or read one of the excellent happy team books that abound on business bookshelves. You are excited about the potential teams have. You decide to “GO TEAM” with your colleagues.
You think, if we are to be a team, we must live, eat, breathe, and perform daily ablutions as a team. You tear down the cubicle walls, throw everyone in a pit together, sit back, and wait for those inevitable high-performance team results.
And wait. And wait. Read the rest of this entry »
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Workshop: Interpersonal Skills Training
By harveyrobbins | August 28, 2007
What is it?
The INTERPERSONAL SKILLS Training Workshop is one of the most powerful two days you can spend learning how to better understand and get along with others. It is also offered as a one-day format. The Interpersonal Skills Training workshop is designed to help participants discover and value the interpersonal differences between people and take specific actions to improve their relationships with others.
What’s in it?
The content is divided into three parts:
1) Self-understanding:
• Participants will receive feedback from themselves and from others via anonymous feedback forms distributed prior to the workshop;
• Participants will learn how they behave under stress;
• Participants will learn how vulnerable they are to others’ influence participants will learn how appropriate or not their behaviors are to their given circumstances.
2) Skills building in the diagnosis of others’ interpersonal styles.
3) Skills building in improving you interpersonal effectiveness with others:
• with the boss;
• with subordinates;
• with peers;
• with important others.
Who should use it?
The INTERPERSONAL SKILLS Training Workshop was developed for all people interested in improving their relationships with others. Since this skill is critical for both work and social success, this Interpersonal Skills Training workshop is highly recommended for all.
To schedule this workshop for your company, click here to contact me.
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Workshop: Change Management Strategies Training
By harveyrobbins | August 28, 2007
What is it?
Merger - acquisition integration, Re-engineering; Total Quality Management; Value-based Disciplines; Benchmarking; Transformation. Companies are encountering the forces of change management brought on by the changing nature of global competition. As a result, they have embraced dozens of new change management initiatives in recent years. Yet, despite well-intentioned efforts, the bottom line remains the same: change is not working, or is not working well. CEOs, managers and employees alike are wondering: “What went wrong?”
This workshop discusses the missteps, miscalculations and lessons learned by companies on the road to change. It examines the psychological and physiological barriers to many change management initiatives that are built into individual and group behavior. Change Management Strategies provides practical methods to help managers work with human nature, not against it, in their efforts to make change management programs, big or small, succeed.
What’s in it?
Some of the topics covered during this one-day workshop include:
• Why change strategies fails: participants learn about the 13 common reasons that change management initiatives often fail to produce the desired results. During this section, participants learn about the high cost of change failures and the main reasons people resist change.
• Types of change: there are three types of change which impact each other; individual, organizational, and global. We will discuss how they interact and impact our ability to adapt to new situations.
• Attitudes towards change: participants learn about the four basic ways people look at change and how they react to it. We talk about change and individual differences, your “change personality,” and how to modify behaviors to adapt to changing situations.
During this workshop, participants will assess both their own individual change personality as well as that of their organization.
Who should use it?
Change Management Strategies is useful for all individuals, managers, or senior executives interested in discovering why their change initiatives may be failing and what to do to get them back on track.
To schedule this workshop for your company, click here to contact me.
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