I love coaching sports teams. They share many of the same dynamics as organizational teams. In the case of field hockey, you have to rely on others to help you achieve big goals. When I was in high school, I played on a championship field hockey team. Field hockey was where I learned to be fierce, play hard, and work
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September 26, 2024
You often hear people bandy about the terms “climate” and “culture” as if they mean the same thing. They don’t. Culture is the deeply rooted set of values that manifest into every aspect of the organization’s character. Culture doesn’t change quickly. Climate, on the other hand, is a snapshot of
May 30, 2024
At FourSight, we believe the fastest way to high performance is to give diverse thinkers a common language to solve problems together. Drawing on twenty years of data from our FourSight Thinking Profile assessment—we reveal our unconscious problem-solving patterns that cause conflict and stall progress.
May 2, 2024
Last month marked the passing of my beloved high school field hockey coach, Muriel Brock. She was 94. She never married. Never had kids. Her memorial service was last Saturday. I drove six hours to Detroit to attend. I wanted to make sure she had a good showing. I shouldn’t have worried. The church was packed.
April 9, 2024
Jerry Folz leads a team of a dozen small business owners who meet monthly to develop themselves as leaders. Every month, Jerry starts his team meeting the same way, by calling on the host to share the team’s purpose. The host, often a new member, invariably jerks to attention. Everyone else smiles knowingly, as they
March 5, 2024
A fast-growing HR firm based in Sydney was stunned when revenues suddenly plummeted. LinkedIn had just entered the Australian market. The HR firm had heard of LinkedIn; the tech start-up had launched in the United States seven years earlier, but the firm’s management team had been so focused on growing revenues, they
January 31, 2024
Watch the 80-second video. Here's the transcript: A good goal is like a steering wheel. It lets you or your team move toward things that are positive and away from things that aren’t. At least that’s what happens when you pick a good goal. But sometimes we pick bad goals. Ones that are unattainable or just not that
October 10, 2023
Dorte Nielsen, founder of the Center for Creative Thinking in Copenhagen, gave the FourSight assessment to the faculty of a Danish high school. She gathered all the teachers in the cafeteria, handed out their results, and asked them what they had learned from their thinking preferences. One teacher stood up and said,
March 7, 2023
Building a good team is harder than it looks. People’s personalities, approaches, backgrounds, and styles don’t always line up. In fact, they don’t usually line up. If your team struggles to collaborate (and most teams do), team-building activities can help. But what’s the best team-building approach for your team?