I recently came across a survey conducted by SilkRoad, a “leading provider of cloud-based, social talent management solutions.” In other words, they do the human resources thing.

Their survey polled nearly 800 HR professionals on a number of issues related to engaging and energizing employees for business success. As someone who constantly stresses the importance of developing an engaged and inspired workforce, I would like to say that I found the results pleasantly surprising. Unfortunately, I can’t.

According to the survey, 54% said their company did not have an explicit employee engagement program. Thirty-eight percent said they did have such programs. The remaining 7% did not know. Many of the 54% reported having some informal employee engagement efforts in their companies. Nevertheless, the results indicate that, for the majority of companies, senior management has still not made employee engagement a strategic priority.

People – wake up and smell the coffee!

Employee engagement is not some “soft” topic that you discuss once a year in a management seminar and then dismiss entirely until the seminar rolls around again. It’s an essential component for developing strategically agile organizations that can survive and thrive in today’s hyper-paced markets. These days, everyone has access to the same information and technologies. The difference is having an engaged and committed workforce that can put them to good use and turn market laggers into market leaders.

What happens when you don’t have an engaged workforce? Again, no surprises from the survey:

• Low morale – 67%
• Unmotivated employees – 66%
• Employees who feel unappreciated – 64%
• Inability to retain employees – 48%

Other reported impacts included increased absenteeism and poor relationships between employees and customers – not exactly the kind of workforce that’s going to give you an edge when competing in crowded markets.

And guess what? Money does not work well as a tool of engagement!

According to the HR professionals in the survey, the two least effective employee engagement tools were diversified compensation options (5%) and good pension and retirement plans (4%). Salary and good benefits came in slightly ahead of these two categories. But they still lagged far behind other engagement mechanisms.

What does work?

The top two ways to foster employee engagement were trust in management (56%) and career development (52%). These were followed by stimulating work environment, recognition and rewards, flexible work options (i.e., work from home), learning opportunities, and career advancement.

Getting employees engaged isn’t rocket science. So why doesn’t it happen in more organizations? I see two primary reasons.

One, we’re all running so fast just to keep up that taking the time to focus on employee engagement seems like it will slow us down rather than help reach the destination. Two, despite countless studies showing the value of employee engagement, we still have all kinds of thought bubbles that get in the way. For example:

• We don’t have time for employee engagement.
• I’m not good at that touchy-feely stuff.
• We don’t need people to feel engaged; we just need them to do their jobs.
• Employees should motivate themselves.
• In today’s economy people should be grateful just to have a job.

As for the part about employee engagement slowing us down, nothing could be farther from the truth.

Granted, it takes time to develop and implement recognition programs, provide learning opportunities, and create a culture of accountability. But if we don’t do these things, we end up with unmotivated employees who care more about collecting a paycheck than doing things right. When we don’t do things right the first time, we get to do them again and again (if our markets let us). Meanwhile, competitors who get it right the first time are leaving us in the dust.

One final key point from the survey – employee engagement can’t be approached as a quick fix or “flavor of the month” management fad. Rather, it needs to become an integral part of the company’s values and operating processes. To quote from the Silkroad survey report:

“Engagement is a strategy that should ripple through the organization – leadership should not regard it as a checklist item. Companies must begin to think strategically and plan deliberately for engagement.”

I’m a big believer in making decisions based on data rather than thought bubbles. And the data shows it again and again – employee engagement has a measurable impact on the bottom line. Isn’t it about time we started paying attention?

Call to action: Commit to taking one action today that will encourage employee engagement.

As defined in the dictionary, innovation is simply “making changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.” Those blinding flashes of creativity that change the world represent maybe .001% of all innovations. The rest are a combination of hard work and seeing the world just a little bit differently than everyone else.

To de-mystify the innovation process and help you see the world a little differently, here are five “Playing With Your Brain” exercises from my new book, Using Your Brain To Win.

1. Conduct a cold-eye review.
Think about areas, processes or products in your company that have gone unchanged for a long time. Then bring in people from outside that area of expertise to ask questions like:

• How long have you been doing it this way? Why?
• What is one thing you have always wanted to change?
• What is the biggest barrier to the process being more efficient/faster/higher quality…?
• If you were in charge of this area, what’s the first thing you would do differently?
• If you were creating this process/product all over again, what would it look like?
• If money were no object, what tools/equipment/resources would you replace and what advantage would that give you?

2. Change perspectives.
When considering new products, services, or ways of working, prompting your brain with broad questions can help to shift your perspective.

For example, ask employees, “What’s the one thing you’re most concerned will take us down?” Ask a customer, “What is our greatest strength? Are we leveraging it enough in the marketplace?” Ask yourself, “What if a 6-year old was involved? What if I worked for a competitor? What if I had to explain this on a daytime TV talk show? What if I just got hired?”

3. Think like Napoleon.
To innovate, companies must first have a clear vision of winning. To get that clear vision, Napoleon imagined himself on the battlefield before stepping into battle. Conrad Hilton pictured himself owning a hotel before he ever bought one. Dr. Charles Mayo mentally rehearsed performing an operation before he suited up.

So pause for a moment and focus on what winning looks like for your organization. Describe it to yourself with as many details as you can. Who is involved? What are you doing to win? What are the outcomes? How do you feel about winning? Then ask: what do we need to do differently to get there?

Mental rehearsal of this type frees the imagination to roam, to consider different options, and to confront and achieve a new and better future.

4. Pre-think.
Take a deep breath. Get rid of as many distractions as you can. Then ask: what significant changes have we seen in our products, markets, industry, customers or competitors?

Think about how changes over the past six months to several years are impacting your business. What challenges are you facing today, and which ones are you likely to encounter again? What have others experienced that may be coming your way that you need to prepare for? What possibilities and probabilities are out there?

“Pre-think” about how you will react when these challenges and opportunities happen in your sector. Then ponder what you should be considering and exploring now to get ready or, even better, to leap ahead.

5. “What if?” it.
Consider what often gets said in meetings when a new idea or way of doing business is introduced. For example:

• “We can’t raise prices. Customers won’t go for that.” 
• “We can’t renegotiate our deal with our suppliers.” 
• “There’s no way we can penetrate that market because we’re the little guy.”

Pause for a moment and recognize these as thought bubbles – unspoken assumptions about your customers, business and industry that you automatically believe are “positively, absolutely so.” Then ask, What if….

• I’m wrong? What else might I see? 
• There are other possibilities? 
• Our competitors see it differently? How would they see it?
• I had to prove myself wrong? What other data might I consider? 
• We no longer had to follow these rules? How would we do it differently?

When you suspend your thinking and stop trying to prove yourself right, you’ll be amazed at what else you might see. So get out there, play with your brain, and start innovating!

Call to action: Select one of these “Playing With Your Brain” exercises and put in on the agenda for your next team meeting.

Well, today’s your lucky day! As someone who strives to keep up with the latest in leadership, it recently occurred to me we have tons of books, videos, blogs, and articles on how to be a great leader. But I have yet to come across any that talk about how to be a bad one.

Given the performance of our political leaders and the lack of integrity exhibited by many in the private sector, it’s obvious that the desire to be a lousy leader runs deep these days. So if you’re looking to take your leadership abilities to a new low, here are some useful tips. For those who don’t want to stop at merely bad leadership, but want to become the Michael Jordan of awful leaders, I’ve broken each tip into two categories that define progressively worse levels of leadership.

Leadership skill: Managing employees.
Suck: Don’t conduct regular one-on-ones with your direct reports.
Really suck: Go ahead and schedule the one-to-ones. Then cancel them at the last minute, using some lame excuse that both you and the employee know is bogus.

Leadership skill: Being open to diverse data sources.
Suck: Don’t allow others to disagree with you or have a dissimilar view of things. After all, you’re the boss, right?
Really suck: Encourage people to bring up new ideas by saying things like, “That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard!” Be sure to do it publicly, so everyone can see how much you love innovative thinking. When you’re done berating the employee, ask (with all sincerity), “Anyone else have any ideas they would like to bring up?”

Leadership skill: Giving ongoing performance feedback.
Suck: Don’t give employees candid or direct feedback. None. Nada. Zippo. Instead, assume they will just “get it.”
Really suck: Hold them accountable at annual review/merit increased time for things you never told them about.

Leadership skill: Updating your thinking/ways of working.
Suck: Don’t change the way you do things because they always worked in the past.
Really suck: Ignore and/or suppress obvious data that shows the way you always do things is no longer working and is actually putting your business in jeopardy. Then punish those who had the audacity to present the data in the first place.

Leadership skill: Engaging employees.
Suck: Don’t solicit or answer questions from employees.
Really suck: Make a big deal about having an open door and “open ear” policy. Then act really annoyed when employees come to you with questions, feedback and input.

Leadership skill: Leading effective meetings.
Suck: Don’t prep for meetings. Just run in (late) and hope you’re effective.
Really suck: Schedule last-minute meetings (very important ones, of course) that force people to rearrange their schedules. Then don’t show up because something else came up. Bonus suck: Don’t apologize because everyone knows your time is more important than theirs.

Leadership skill: Defining winning for your organization or team.
Suck: Define what winning looks like and tell people once. Then never mention it again, expecting everyone to remember it with great clarity and passion.
Really suck: Don’t define it, so that no one (including yourself) has a clue as to the destination. Then punish people for not taking you and the organization to the Promised Land.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. All humor aside, the vast majority of us really do want to be effective leaders. And we all know that we need to practice effective leadership skills on a consistent basis in order to achieve the results we want.

The problem is that we’re all running so fast to keep up that we don’t pause for a moment to do what effective leaders do. Or, we don’t pause to even consider what effective leaders do. Or, we get so caught up in all the daily interruptions that seem important that we lose track of what really is.

My suggestion: if you really want to be an effective leader, start every day by thinking about it. Take a few moments each morning to focus on what will make a difference a year from now, and then don’t let the deluge of distractions get in the way. I know…easier said than done. But the alternative is to suck as a leader, whether we want to or not.

Call to action: Take 5 minutes each morning to focus on what you need to do that day to be an effective leader.
TAGS: leadership, communication, leaders, skills, results, success, feedback, employees, innovative, performance

For example, you’re way behind your annual sales goal and no one seems to know why. People throw out the usual reasons: the economy hasn’t come back yet. Competition lowered their prices. Salespeople aren’t working hard enough. Our product doesn’t have enough features. Blah, blah, blah…

By the way, the first two most powerful words in business are “thank you.” Especially when spoken on a frequent basis to customers and employees.

Now, back to our problem.

If everyone were to get real honest, the answer to why you’re miles behind on your sales goal is probably the third, fourth and fifth most powerful words in business: I don’t know. In fact, when people are throwing out nothing but old ideas and clichés, it almost guarantees that the best answer is I don’t know.

What makes these words so powerful? Let’s visit our brains to find out.

The human brain is a problem-solving machine. It loves to attack problems and come up with answers. The upside to this is that human creativity has almost no limitations. The downside is that the brain doesn’t like ambiguity. To the brain, I don’t know is not an answer. So if it can’t find a legitimate answer to a question or problem, it will often make one up.

That’s how we end up firing salespeople and sales managers when they’re not the problem. That’s why we lower prices when we don’t need to. That’s why we use the economy as an excuse when the solution lies elsewhere.

When looking for answers, the brain also has a tendency to draw upon past successes. As in, “This worked well for us in the past, therefore it will work again.” So when faced with seemingly unsolvable problems, we dredge up what worked in the past and rationalize our way into believing that those answers still apply – even when today’s circumstances indicate otherwise.

Another reason we avoid saying I don’t know has to do with ego. In corporate America, “I don’t know,” is often seen as a sign of weakness or being unprepared. So we hold back for fear of looking bad.

I don’t know can also be seen as an admission of failure, which is absurd. In today’s information-overload world, leaders can’t possibly have all the answers. And with the ever-faster pace of change, it has become increasingly difficult to know anything with certainty anymore. Yet, rather than admit we don’t have all the answers, we forge ahead with what we hope is a good solution.

The power of I don’t know is simple: the words free our brains up to explore possibilities and find great answers! They enable us to cast aside all the old ideas, excuses and rationalizations that our brains want us to believe, and adopt a position of inquiry rather than justification. Once we get to a place of exploration and possibility, we can do things like:

• Examine our data sources. Are we getting data from the same limited sources? Are those sources still valid? Where else, both inside and outside our industry, should we be gathering data in order to make informed decisions?
• Examine our team. Do we have a diverse team with different backgrounds, disciplines and perspectives? Or do we have a homogenous group of leaders who see the world the same way? Do we have any new, fresh thinking on the team? Or do we have the same old seasoned veterans who “know how it should be” with our customers and markets?
• Examine how our team works. Do we typically rush to consensus? Or do we have a process for ensuring that all issues get put on the table and all perspectives get heard? Do decisions tend to get made based on positional power or on what supports our organization’s definition of winning?
• Examine our assumptions. What attitudes, assumptions and beliefs do we bring to this problem? What never gets challenged because we “absolutely know it to be true”? What are the sacred processes/ways of working/beliefs around this issue that never even get discussed because they are too threatening to bring up?

It takes guts to say “I don’t know.” Especially in organizations that don’t tolerate mistakes or failure. But it is a very freeing experience. More important, it’s often the first step to finding the best alternatives and solutions to problems.

Call to action: Don’t just make it safe in your business to say I don’t know, actively encourage it!

The Vatican can elect a pope from Argentina. We can now carry knives through airport security. And Dennis Rodman can become BFF (best friends forever) with Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

Who in the world saw that last one coming? Which begs the question: if all this can happen in the blink of an eye, what has happened to your strategic plan during the same time period?

If you rolled out your annual strategic plan in January, it’s time for a first-quarter checkup. In fact, depending on your industry, it may already be overdue. Which means it’s time to start asking questions like:

• Are we making progress towards the goal? 
• Is it still visible? 
• What are we doing to stay focused on the most important initiatives? 
• What (if anything) has changed in our markets or with our customers? 
• How do we need to respond to those changes and by when? 
• Who is responsible for implementing these changes?

In today’s markets, strategic plans can get off track faster than a speeding bullet train. If you don’t constantly monitor and measure your plan’s progress, you may end up at a very different destination than originally planned. So whether it’s once a quarter, once a month, or once a week, you need to regularly assess and update your strategic plan.

One simple way to do this is with a quarterly scorecard. This helps to clarify the strategy and goals while managing alignment across individuals, departments, and initiatives. It also provides diverse views into the business and helps to maintain focus across all the important indicators.

A scorecard makes the elements of your destination points very real by noting them in tangible, near-term, measurable ways. It also helps to further refine expectations and standards of excellence. Most important, a scorecard answers the question: “How will we know if we’re moving towards our destination?”

Start with three or four key financial metrics, such as revenue, profit margin, or operating expenses as a percentage of revenue. Then add in any others that are especially important to your business. Throw in a few leading indicators, such as number of proposals submitted, new customers signed up, or new employees hired. These forecast your future performance and provide insight into what is to come.

Next, measure what your key stakeholders (customers, employees, vendors, etc.) care most about. Product quality? On-time delivery? Your responsiveness to fixing problems? Find ways to quantify these measurements, and make sure they match up with what your stakeholders truly care about. Don’t just guess.

Another approach uses the following table to outline, by strategy, what your scorecard looks like. Answer the questions in each section to see how the pieces fit together.

Strategy

• Are we focused on the right thing?

Key Initiatives & Commitments

• What will we do by when?
• Who is on the hook for results?

Key Measures (including targets and/or destination points)

• How will we know if we are making progress?

Risks & Mitigating Actions

• What are our risks? 
• How can we minimize them?

This makes it easy to see the links between the strategies, initiatives and measures, and the risks or barriers. It also clarifies who needs to do what by when. It encourages accountability throughout the organization. And it develops a more proactive view by forcing you to consider and manage the risks before they become serious problems. It does not matter exactly which tool you use, just choose a tool that will work in your organization and that you will commit to sticking with.

Once you’ve created the scorecard, communicate it to employees – over and over again until everyone knows it well. You can’t over-communicate about your strategic planning framework and objectives. And your ongoing behavior in this regard will make it evident that you are steadfast in getting the company to where it needs to go.

Report progress as broadly as possible each month, including any challenges or barriers that may arise, and note how you are adjusting timelines or other elements. If you don’t communicate in these areas, people will MSU (make stuff up) and create much worse scenarios about why you’re not getting to where you need to go. The less made- up thought bubbles, the better!

I used to tell clients that “you can do it right the first time or you can go too fast and do it over.” I don’t say that too often anymore because today’s markets change so quickly that if you don’t get it right the first time, you may not get the chance for a do-over.

So get going on that scorecard, and make sure you’re still on track to reach your destination! In the meantime, I wonder which country Dennis Rodman will visit next.

Call to action: Conduct your 1st-quarter review and report the results to the organization.

Americans love to root for the underdog, and the upsets are a big part of what makes the NCAA Basketball Tournament so exciting. We know they’re going to occur, we just don’t know when. The fun part is trying to predict which of the higher seeds will fall, and to whom.

So far, this year’s tournament has delivered more than its usual share of surprises.
Fourteenth seed Harvard knocking of 3rd seed New Mexico. Fifteenth seed Florida Gulf Coast knocking off 2nd seed Georgetown in the second round (only the seventh time ever a 15-seed has knocked off a two-seed). Top-seeded Gonzaga falling to 9th-seeded Wichita State in the third round.

All three of those games messed up my bracket, but it’s hard not to root for a team that’s exceeding all expectations. And it’s hard not to get caught up in the excitement of the players and fans after an unexpected victory.

I often use winning in sports as a metaphor for winning in business, and March Madness is no exception. Here’s what I learned thus far from this year’s tournament.

Get clear on winning.

Every player in the tournament can easily visualize the goal — cutting down the nets and hoisting the NCAA trophy at the end of the championship game. In business, the goal can often be more elusive and harder to define. Your job as leader is to make it as clear as possible and then communicate it over and over so that everyone understands what it will look like when your organization wins. What will cutting down the nets look like for your business? What “trophy” will you hoist when your organization wins?

Get people believing they can win.
Whether in basketball or any other sport, one critical thread runs through every upset — getting the players to believe they can win. I love this quote from the coach of Florida Gulf State, who said, “I told our team that Georgetown is ranked #8 in the country. But after you get out on the court for two or three minutes, you’ll realize that you’re just as good, if not better than this team.” In business, this equates to constantly communicating to employees how you’ll win and why. If you hit a major snag, refocus your plan and let your team know why you will still win.

Get everyone working as a team.
It’s a truism in sports, and one that regularly makes itself evident with March Madness, that the most talented team doesn’t always win. In fact, if that were the case, we wouldn’t have any upsets to get excited about. Sometimes the disparity in talent is too much for the underdog to overcome. But more often than not, the team that plays together and does the best job of executing its game plan is the one that comes out ahead.

Expect adversity.
In basketball, refs make bad calls. Good players make silly turnovers. Key players get hurt. Sometimes the ball just takes a bad bounce. In business, markets can change overnight. A new competitor can come out of nowhere to steal market share. Business models can get obsoleted by new technologies. Whether in sports or business, winners takes these things in stride and continue on without losing focus. In fact, the clearer the focus on winning, the greater the organization’s ability to persevere in the face of setbacks.

Adapt and adjust.
The ability to adapt under game conditions is what makes the great coaches (and teams) great. They have a knack for figuring out what the other team is doing and adjusting their offenses and defenses accordingly. Business leaders must do the same. In today’s markets, the ability to analyze the data and react quickly and appropriately to changing customer needs and market conditions is what separates the winners from everyone else.

In the Sweet Sixteen round, new questions arise. Can the upset winners maintain their momentum? How will the favorites adapt when playing a team they didn’t expect to face? Which teams can handle the increasing pressure and which can’t? And most important, who will be the one team left standing to cut down the nets on April 8?

Who are you betting on to win this year and what will you do in your own life or business to focus and win?

Call to action: If you haven’t already done it this year, get clear on what winning looks like for your organization.

Well, prepare to be disrupted, starting with where you spend most of your working day.

I just finished reading “A Revolution Is Happening In Offices Everywhere,” part of the “Future of Business” series being sponsored by the global software firm SAP. If what authors Aimee Groth and Max Nisen say is true, the traditional office environment is going away for good. And going with it are many other things we take for granted that make up our economy and our work world.

The basic theme of the report is that the traditional work office is on its last legs. The workplace of the future will be less centralized, more mobile, and more flexible than anything we previously imagined. And this trend will only accelerate due to the rapid uptake of mobile technologies like smartphones, tablets, and other data- and file-sharing platforms.

Perhaps the biggest change is that the work office will no longer occupy a fixed location. Which should come as no real surprise. Anyone who has answered a business email at home or conducted an important client call from the airport already knows that mobile technology is enabling us to work with anyone, anytime, anywhere. Only now it’s going to become the rule rather than the exception. However, this doesn’t mean that corporate offices will completely disappear.

Despite Yahoo’s misguided attempt to force all employees to work in a traditional manner (as if achieving camaraderie, innovation, and higher productivity only happen in person), changes are occurring almost daily at most work sites. Companies will still need a centralized location for people to interact and create the sense of team that every successful organization needs. But it will look, feel, and operate very differently than the one we’ve known in the past.

For starters, say the authors, office design will become more important in terms of how work gets done. Instead of isolating people in walled-off offices and cubicles, companies will opt for open space to encourage creativity and communication. Office furniture will become more movable and comfortable, leading to fewer assigned desks or cubicles. Even the traditional desk will undergo transformation, with many companies opting for things like treadmill desks that enable employees to mix working with walking.

The primary challenge for most companies will not be figuring out how to reconfigure their offices to meet the needs of today’s work environment. It will be letting go of the old thought bubbles that tell us this is not the way an office should be.

Today’s offices tend to be organized around power and prestige rather than working efficiently. They keep people isolated. They don’t foster creativity or communication. And they serve to reinforce status and hierarchy rather than building a sense of team. (I was recently visiting a client that still has ‘executive parking spots’ and this client is struggling enormously with how to keep up and remain relevant in today’s world.) In most organizations, threatening the status quo is verboten. So mention the idea of treadmill desks to senior executives in their 50’s or 60’s and you can just hear the thought bubbles start to flow:

• That’s absurd! You can’t walk and work at the same time.
• Employees should exercise on their time, not the company’s.
• Desks don’t look like that.
• It will cost too much.
• I’m not paying my employees to work out.
• That might work for Google or Facebook, but it doesn’t fit our environment.

These kinds of impending changes to the office environment may seem a bit over the top. But consider that this revolution is backed by hard data, not soft. Meaning that it will happen, rather than might. Just look at the hard data showing the explosion in the use of mobile devices, the trend toward “robotizing” low skilled jobs, and the increasing number of freelance, contract, and virtual workers and it’s hard to come to any other conclusion.

So the question for business leaders is not whether this is going to happen, but when. And more specifically, when is it going to happen to my business? Companies like Google saw the writing on the wall a long time ago, and have designed their work environments accordingly. Is it any wonder that they manage to attract and keep top talent?

If you haven’t read this report (http://www.businessinsider.com/the-future-of-the-workplace-slide-deck-2013-2?op=1), I highly recommend it. The workplace changes it outlines are already happening. And, as I constantly tell my clients and keynote audiences, it’s easier – and a lot more fun – to lead the way instead of playing catch-up.

Call to action: Read the report. Then decide what it means to your business.

The truth is, our educational system is badly broken, and not just because the systems, structures, and philosophies that guide it are woefully out of date. Our educational system is grossly ineffective because the way we teach our children doesn’t align with what we know about how the brain learns.

In fact, the current system is the worst learning environment we could put our children into. And that’s not just my opinion. It also belongs to John Medina, noted molecular biologist and author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School.

According to Medina, the human brain evolved over millions of years to learn, problem-solve and survive while in motion. As our early ancestors came down out of the trees and began moving out across the savannas, humans walked 10 to 12 miles a day to secure food. In the process, they learned to avoid predators, identify sources of food, water and shelter, and solve the other problems required for survival, while in motion.

Medina’s research also uncovered many other facts about the brain that contradict most of what we currently do in our educational system. For instance, the human brain learns best through pictures, not through the written or spoken word. We have attention spans of about 10 minutes before we lose interest and tune out. The various regions of the brain develop at different rates in different people, meaning we don’t learn at the same rates. We also have a lot of ways of being intelligent, many of which don’t show up on IQ or standardized performance tests. Consider the important work in the area of emotional intelligence as one example.

Research also shows that when school children are active, they learn better. They pay better attention to their subjects. They’re less likely to exhibit disruptive behavior in the classroom. And they feel better about themselves, have higher self-esteem, and less depression and anxiety.

So what does our education system look like?

Large classrooms based on age rather than true learning levels. Kids sitting on their behinds for hours on end, getting talked at or read to by teachers. More and more school systems eliminating recess and physical education. Classroom instruction that focuses on getting students to regurgitate the “right” answer rather than learning how to think and solve problems.

We couldn’t design a worse environment for learning if we tried!

Obviously, we’re not going to change the educational system overnight. But we can start by challenging our ideas, attitudes, and assumptions about the educational system, and then determine whether they align with what modern research has discovered about the brain and learning.

Then we should ask a lot of “what if” questions, starting with: what if we designed our educational system for the benefit of the students rather than the department of education, teachers, parents, and administrators? In other words, what if we designed it around what we know about the human brain and how it learns best?

This would lead to some very interesting questions, such as:

• What would be the ideal classroom size?
• Would we even want or need classrooms?
• How would we take into account the fact that people don’t learn the same way or at the same speed?
• How could we design classrooms to allow students to be active while they’re learning?
• How would we incorporate the use of more pictures into the teaching process?
• How would we break the typical 50-minute class into 10-minute “learning chunks” that align with the brain’s normal attention span?

If this sounds like a radical approach to reinventing education, it is. But we can’t ignore the fact that we keep throwing more money at the educational system while student performance continues to decline. I believe it was Albert Einstein who said that a problem can’t be solved at the same level of thinking that created it. My first suggestion is for anyone associated with the educational system to read Brain Rules. Then we need to start asking the right questions to raise our thinking to a different level.

P.S. – If you think we’re doing a better job in the business world, think again. I’ll cover that in an upcoming blog.

Call to action: Read the book Brain Rules or visit

Education budgets at the national, state, and local levels have all taken huge hits over the past few years. And while we all want our schools to have sufficient funding to educate our children, more money is not the magic bullet solution for what our educational system needs.

The truth is, our educational system is badly broken, and not just because the systems, structures, and philosophies that guide it are woefully out of date. Our educational system is grossly ineffective because the way we teach our children doesn’t align with what we know about how the brain learns.

In fact, the current system is the worst learning environment we could put our children into. And that’s not just my opinion. It also belongs to John Medina, noted molecular biologist and author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School.

According to Medina, the human brain evolved over millions of years to learn, problem-solve and survive while in motion. As our early ancestors came down out of the trees and began moving out across the savannas, humans walked 10 to 12 miles a day to secure food. In the process, they learned to avoid predators, identify sources of food, water and shelter, and solve the other problems required for survival, while in motion.

Medina’s research also uncovered many other facts about the brain that contradict most of what we currently do in our educational system. For instance, the human brain learns best through pictures, not through the written or spoken word. We have attention spans of about 10 minutes before we lose interest and tune out. The various regions of the brain develop at different rates in different people, meaning we don’t learn at the same rates. We also have a lot of ways of being intelligent, many of which don’t show up on IQ or standardized performance tests. Consider the important work in the area of emotional intelligence as one example.

Research also shows that when school children are active, they learn better. They pay better attention to their subjects. They’re less likely to exhibit disruptive behavior in the classroom. And they feel better about themselves, have higher self-esteem, and less depression and anxiety.

So what does our education system look like?

Large classrooms based on age rather than true learning levels. Kids sitting on their behinds for hours on end, getting talked at or read to by teachers. More and more school systems eliminating recess and physical education. Classroom instruction that focuses on getting students to regurgitate the “right” answer rather than learning how to think and solve problems.

We couldn’t design a worse environment for learning if we tried!

Obviously, we’re not going to change the educational system overnight. But we can start by challenging our ideas, attitudes, and assumptions about the educational system, and then determine whether they align with what modern research has discovered about the brain and learning.

Then we should ask a lot of “what if” questions, starting with: what if we designed our educational system for the benefit of the students rather than the department of education, teachers, parents, and administrators? In other words, what if we designed it around what we know about the human brain and how it learns best?

This would lead to some very interesting questions, such as:

• What would be the ideal classroom size?
• Would we even want or need classrooms?
• How would we take into account the fact that people don’t learn the same way or at the same speed?
• How could we design classrooms to allow students to be active while they’re learning?
• How would we incorporate the use of more pictures into the teaching process?
• How would we break the typical 50-minute class into 10-minute “learning chunks” that align with the brain’s normal attention span?

If this sounds like a radical approach to reinventing education, it is. But we can’t ignore the fact that we keep throwing more money at the educational system while student performance continues to decline. I believe it was Albert Einstein who said that a problem can’t be solved at the same level of thinking that created it. My first suggestion is for anyone associated with the educational system to read Brain Rules. Then we need to start asking the right questions to raise our thinking to a different level.

P.S. – If you think we’re doing a better job in the business world, think again. I’ll cover that in an upcoming blog.

Call to action: Read the book Brain Rules or visit www.brainrules.net.

My first reaction was, “That can’t be right; that’s too low!” But the more I thought about it, the more it matches my experience working with companies on their strategy and planning issues, and in talking with business leaders around the world. I can’t tell you how many times I hear CEOs and senior managers say, “We’re great at planning, but we can’t seem to follow through.” Which goes back to the old saying, “A well-executed bad strategy will beat a poorly-executed good strategy nearly every time.”

Why do so many plans fail to achieve the desired outcome? While there can be many reasons for implementation breakdown, the IBM paper focused on four critical areas:

• A lack of alignment and focus
• Insufficient access to information
• Absence of a scorecard to measure results
• No process for holding people accountable

On these points, I am in total agreement!

Successfully implementing any strategic plan starts with having a very clear vision of what winning looks like for the organization. Once you have the destination in place, then you have to relentlessly focus on it each and every day. And as a leader, you also have to make sure everyone else stays focused on it until you reach the goal.

Along the way, this requires gathering data from many different sources to stay in touch with changes to your customers, markets, and industry. That way, you can adjust the plan as necessary, and in today’s hyper-paced markets it will be necessary. Then you have to tracks results and hold people accountable for what they’ve committed to getting done.

When I work with clients on creating strategic agility, one of the first things we do is destination modeling. We use neuroprompts to help companies get crystal clear on what winning looks like for their organization in a defined timeframe. Then we move to operationalizing the strategic plan by creating a breakthrough model. Compare your destination with your current state. Based on the gaps between the two, create stepping-stone goals that define what you will do differently for the first three months (incremental), from three to nine months (substantial), and from nine+ months (transformational) to achieve your goals. You have to consider and assess the company’s existing resources and capabilities, and determine what can be accomplished and in what time frame. It helps to be aggressive but realistic when looking at what you can accomplish so you set yourself and others up to win.

Keep in mind that implementing a strategic plan requires change. In particular, it requires people to think differently about what they know to be true within the organization. To help people shift their thinking and their behaviors, outline what will be different in each time frame and why. Then ask questions like:

• Do our current organizational processes and ways of working align with the goals and strategies outlined in the plan?
• As an organization, do we tend to easily get off track?
• Have we created day to day management routines that help keep us focused (i.e. reviews and scorecards)?
• Do short-term problems and opportunities frequently pre-empt and undermine our progress toward longer-term goals and objectives?
• Who in the organization is responsible for staying focused on executing the long-term plan and seeing that others stay focused on it?
• Who is looking across the organization to embed the behaviors and practices necessary to reach the destination into all of the processes of the company?
• Are there consequences when commitments are not met?

The hard part is accepting that operationalizing a plan takes more work than creating it in the first place. Companies invest a lot of time and energy in creating their plans, but then they have a tendency to sit back and wait for them to magically unfold – which helps to explain why we see dismally low 10% implementation rates.

Implementing a strategic plan is a dynamic, fluid, constantly evolving process that requires focused action each and every day. Taking the time and effort to link your plan to who needs to do what by when will greatly increase the odds of reaching your destination. Otherwise, don’t be surprised when you fall into the 90% of organizations who get close but never quite reach their goal.

Call to action: Identify one organizational mindset or way of working that gets in the way of implementing your plan. Then determine what you will do differently.

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 the world, found that less than one in five people believe that a business or government leader will tell the truth when confronted with a difficult issue. In fact, 18 percent expect business leaders to tell the truth, while only 13 percent expect it from government officials. (See full survey results at http://www.edelman.com/news/2013-edelman-trust-barometer-finds-a-crisis-in-leadership/.)

The first response for most of us is probably, “Ho hum, tell me something new.” After all, each day seems to bring some new scandal from a respected figure in the world of business, politics, or sports. Sadly, we’ve grown so cynical that no matter how illegal or unethical the conduct, it no longer seems to faze us when the offending activity is exposed.

For example, did you really think Lance Armstrong was clean all those years? We all wanted to believe. We’re so desperate for role models these days that we hoped against hope he was not taking performance-enhancing drugs. But I think deep inside most of us knew he was lying all along.

Putting our collective cynicism aside, this pervasive lack of trust represents a leadership crisis of staggering proportions. When we don’t believe that our business and political leaders tell the truth, it sets in motion a tidal wave of negative attitudes and ways of thinking and behaving that get in the way of achieving our goals.

In the business world, the negative consequences from lack of trust are too numerous to list here. Probably the most devastating, however, is that it creates an “every man/woman for his/herself” attitude throughout the organization, especially at the lower levels. If I’m a frontline employee and I don’t believe senior management will do the right thing by me, I have no choice but to look out for myself. When I put my own agenda ahead of the organization’s, any chances of the company achieving its vision of winning go right down the drain.

What can leaders do to regain the trust they have frittered away?

Act with integrity. Develop a strong, unifying mission and vision, and constantly communicate it throughout the company. Define and clarify the organizational values that determine how people will behave internally and externally. Then live those values on a daily basis.

Communicate constantly about the decisions being made and why they’re being made, especially those that directly affect employees and how they do their jobs.
Treat people with respect. Create an environment where people are encouraged to express their opinions, and listen when they do.

Provide ongoing feedback. Let employees know what you expect from them, and tell them how they are doing on a regular basis. At the same time, develop a culture of accountability. Reward high performance and hold people accountable for improving poor performance.

And very important, keep the information flowing. In today’s social-media world, secrecy breeds suspicion. When you withhold information, people think you have something to hide. In the absence of information, they will make stuff up and fill in the gaps on their own. When you eventually tell them, if the information conflicts with what they have made up or heard from other sources, chances are they won’t believe you.

So keep employees appraised on how the business is doing overall and where you see it headed in the next one to three years. Provide regular updates on shifts in the external environment (markets, competition, regulations, etc.) and when things change, explain why you will still win. Encourage employees to ask questions, and when they do, tell the truth, divulge as much as you can – even when it hurts.

Employee skepticism and cynicism are at an all-time high, and rightfully so. But I believe we can regain the trust we need to successfully lead our organizations. The key is recognizing that we can’t demand it; we have to earn it. And that starts with doing the little things, such as telling the truth, day in and day out.
In doing so, perhaps we can set an example that will encourage our political leaders to do the same – a move that would certainly benefit us all!

Call to action: Identify one action you will take today to begin rebuilding trust with your employees.