business

The Decline of Trust (and What We can Do About It)

I recently ran across a very disturbing, but not surprising, statistic. According to the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual survey conducted by the global PR consulting firm Edelman, trust in our public institutions, industries, and leaders is taking a severe beating. This year’s survey, which polled more than 30,000 people in 26 markets around…

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Strategic Agility: The Antidote to a Hostile Business Environment

Remember when government was a friend to small business – the leading source of new jobs in the U.S.? Me neither. And now it’s getting worse. The Job Creators Alliance — a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public and policymakers on what it takes to create jobs – recently surveyed 600 small…

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Slowing Down to Go Fast

Twenty-five years ago, fax machines – which took minutes to transmit one page of data and print it out on wax paper in barely legible text — were considered the height of communications technology. These big, bulky devices had to be plugged into an electrical outlet in order to function, and were not very portable….

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Top Five Tips for Winning in 2013

Did you blink and 2012 zipped right by? Don’t worry, it happened to me too. Which means it’s time to start getting ready to win in 2013! Here are the top five things you can do to prepare your organization to win in the year ahead. 1. Get clear on winning (your destination). Specifically, get…

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Are You Ready to Win in 2013?

Did you blink and 2012 zipped right by? Don’t worry, it happened to me too. Which means it’s time to start getting ready to win in 2013! Here are the top five things you can do to prepare your organization to win in the year ahead. 1. Get clear on winning (your destination). Specifically, get…

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What I Learned Down Under

I recently had the opportunity to speak to more than a thousand CEOs and business owners in Australia and New Zealand. I had never worked in that part of the world before, so I didn’t quite know what to expect in terms of their most pressing issues and concerns. It turns out they face the…

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Appreciating the Best of the Best

The past few months have been a bit stressful for the Green household. My husband and I decided to move to Denver based on a number of factors we have been considering for some time. Mark got a job teaching in one of the toughest and lowest performing middle schools there (by choice) and started…

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Back from Down Under

Regular readers of my blog know that I occasionally complain about the seemingly endless travel required of a globe-hopping consultant/keynote speaker. Well, sometimes it is worth all that effort and hassle. Last month I had the pleasure of spending several weeks in Australia and New Zealand as a guest of The Executive Connection (TEC), Australia’s…

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10 Brainteasers to Stretch Your Brain

Earlier this year, I posted a blog entitled “Tease Your Brain.”  It offered 10 brainteasers that showed how our preconceived notions, combined with the brain’s tendency to see what it wants or expects to see, greatly affect how we solve problems and make decisions. To my amazement, it quickly became one of the most popular…

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Are You Afraid to Innovate?

Recently I worked with a very successful company that brought me in to shake things up and show them how to stoke the new product pipeline. In other words, help them innovate. I led strategy sessions with the senior management team. I gave company-wide presentations on the importance of innovation. I coached middle managers on…

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10 Good Reasons Not to Trust Your Brain

The human brain is a marvelous tool. However, it was designed for a very different world than we currently live in. As a result, it retains many design flaws that do not serve us well, especially in today’s business world where new ways of thinking and ongoing innovation are essential for success. Perhaps the most…

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Take the Innovation Self-Test

Ever wonder why some companies seem to effortlessly come out with one great innovation after another while others struggle to get even one new product or service out the door? There’s a reason for it. Innovation is a complex process that involves a lot more than just throwing money at an R&D department and hoping…

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