Given the numerous requests from around the country to dive deeper into PEAK theory and practices, we are current developing PEAK seminars which will be beta tested this fall.
BETA SEMINAR SCHEDULE AND CORE AUDIENCES
Thursday, September 25 - PEAK: Developing an Inspired and Loyal Workforce
Core Audience: Human Resource, Learning & Development, Organizational Development Executives; Division or Department Directors of organizations with 20 employee minimum
Thursday, October 9 - PEAK: Converting Customers into Evangelists
Core Audience: Sales, Marketing, and Strategy Executives; Owners and C-level Executives of organizations with 20 employee minimum
Thursday, November 13 - PEAK: Creating a Peak Performing Organization
Core Audience: Owners and C-level Executives and direct reports of organizations with 20 employee minimum
DETAILS
8:30 - Registration/light breakfast 9:00 am - 5:00 pm San Francisco location (tbd)
To maximize learning and implementation (and secondarily, networking), we are assembling a total of ten companies with three representatives from each (for a total of 30 participants) for each seminar. By having three representatives, companies will benefit by creating their own internal team that can take this learning and collaboratively make it real within their organization.
Costs: $775 per company (includes three people). This includes a light breakfast, lunch, seminar materials and a book for each participant.
CONTACT
If you are interested in participating in the betas, please contact Rachel Carlton at rcarlton@jdvhospitality.com . Space will be available on a first come, first serve basis. If you have any specific questions about the seminars please contact my colleague, Sue Funkhouser @ sue@pinwheelperformance.com.
Hope you continue to have PEAK experiences and are helping others to do the same.
Cheers,
Chip
August 18th, 2008
I give about 8-10 speeches a month and, over the course of 2008, I have noticed – just based upon the questions I’m being asked at these speeches – a big shift in the “fear factor” out there in the American workplace. As I tell my historical tale of woe (that’s outlined in the book PEAK) of what it was like being the Bay Area’s largest independent hotelier in the dot-bomb, post-9/11 years when hotel revenues in the region were dropping 30-50%, the number one question I’m hearing these days is “How can I keep a positive company culture intact during really difficult times?” I have four suggestions: (1) Read the Recognition chapter of PEAK. The number one reason people leave their jobs is due to a poor relationship with their boss. We all feel under-appreciated and under-recognized. But, in a downturn when fear is rampant and everyone tends to be focusing on problems, that sense of under-recognition is amplified. Companies get very good at “catching someone doing something wrong.” As I talk about in chapter 5 of PEAK, great companies create a culture of recognition that’s based upon both formal and informal forms of recognition. In a downturn, informal recognition – just catching someone doing something right and letting them know how much you appreciate it – has the greatest impact as it’s personal and spontaneous. And, miraculously, it’s free – a word we all want to hear in these penny-pinching times. What if I told you that your company could create much happier employees who were more engaged in what they did such that your customers would become more loyal even in difficult times and you could do this without spending a dime? Would you take this happy pill? Of course you would. That happy pill is created by developing a culture of recognition. When we are fearful, we need even more recognition. This doesn’t mean that you accept or cheerlead bad performance, but it does mean that those who are most valuable to the company – some of whom are doing mundane tasks – are recognized and appreciated. (2) End your meetings with 10 minutes of Recognition. While chapter 5 gives you all kinds of suggestions on how to create a culture of recognition, the number one tactic that you should start tomorrow is to end all your meetings with a recognition moment. Four years ago – when the San Francisco hotel market was at its worst – we started this practice of ending our weekly Executive Committee meetings (the top 16 people in the company) with 10 minutes of recognition when any EC member could tell a one-minute story about someone out there in the field or in our home office who had done something wonderful – whether it was a bellman who made a child’s day by given her a birthday gift or a maintenance person who pulled an all-nighter when a plumbing pipe burst in a hotel. Once the recognition is mentioned, one of the other senior leaders at the meeting (but from a different department) volunteers to say thank you to this person who has done a great deed. Three great outcomes sprouted from this new practice: (a) We ended our meetings on a positive note which is a valuable ritual when you’re going through tough times; (b) Someone out there in the field got recognized for doing something right which probably made their day and made them a joy to work with (and I bet the customers they came into contact with that day also noticed the spring in this recognized employees step); and (c) Because the recognition came from someone from a different department (for example, the head of Accounting might have recognized the bellman), it creates a cross-departmental positive connection which is very important during a downturn when the silos between departments can lead to lots of finger pointing. (3) Support your superstars. Sit in a room with your other manager/colleagues. Each of you write three names and put them in a hat and then tally the results. The names you will write will be those who first come to mind when you ask yourself the following question, “If our biggest competitor were to come in and raid our company and steal three people, who would be the biggest losses for our organization?” Once you’ve tallied the results, have a discussion about what extra recognition you can do to make sure these superstars are feeling the love. The reality is the ideal time to steal a superstar is when a company is going through a challenging period. You are vulnerable and you get more vulnerable when you lose those folks who are difficult to replace. This is the death spiral. Avoid it like the plague. (4) Use the metaphor of a pond. Have you ever noticed a pond that was stagnant and maybe a little parched from a lack of rainfall or new water flowing into it? That’s what it feels like in a company when it’s going through a difficult time. There are thousands of companies across America that are like stagnant ponds given the economic climate we’re living through. So how do you make a pond healthy during tough times? First off, realize that ponds can be full of ripples. If you throw a stone into a pond, there is a ripple effect that helps to stir up the water. The question is whether the ripples you are creating are positive or negative ones. In fearful times, companies have lots of negative ripples and those ripples ricochet off of each other in ways that create a turbulent culture. Great companies create positive ripples. They create healthy habits that promote great “psycho-hygiene” in the workplace. What if you created a habit for yourself that you would give one positive piece of feedback to someone every day you’re at work? What kind of ripples would that create and how would those ripples come back in a positive way to you? I’m a big believer in “karmic capitalism”: what goes around comes around. As Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see in the world.” If you want to be in a positive workplace (a healthy pond), be a role model for it…you’ll be amazed by the ripples you create.
July 14th, 2008
I’m thrilled to announce that PEAK is now available in an audio version…unabridged and read by “yours truly.” Visit AUDIBLE.COM for details.
Enjoy!
July 9th, 2008
Till then, enjoy your summer and keep me posted on your PEAK experiences!
Cheers,
Chip
June 19th, 2008
Sometimes, I think there’s a secret society of companies that just “get it.” From top to bottom, these companies live and breathe their culture and know that it’s their most valuable asset, and, strangely, one that is invisible on a corporate balance sheet. Which companies are part of this secret society? Google, Genentech, Harley Davidson, Continental Airlines, Whole Foods Market, Medtronic. But, the company that sets the standard is Southwest Airlines. Thirty-five of our top JDV execs did a three-day off-site retreat twelve years ago exclusively focused on what makes Southwest Airlines the champion of the flying business. Of course, they have the odds stacked against them in that industry and this company is the low-price, second most unionized airline so who would expect them to be the most profitable, most admired, highest customer loyalty company in the biz. From that off-site sprouted our Joie de Vivre heart which has been a foundational piece of our business strategy ever since as all 3,000 of our employees gets educated in how culture drives employee enthusiasm which fuels customer loyalty which drives profits which can then be invested back into the culture. It’s a virtuous circle.
Last week, the New York Times printed a fabulous story juxtaposing Southwest and American Airlines. Both are based in Dallas. Both have their annual shareholder meetings on the same day every year. If you want to understand the importance of culture, read this article as it demonstrates that a vibrant culture leads to applauding investors at the Southwest shareholders meeting – even during a very difficult time for the airline industry. Quite the opposite at the American meeting.
NY TIMES story
I will sign off by just taking my hat off to two giants of industry. Southwest co-founder and former CEO Herb Kelleher is stepping down as chairman after 37 years. Shareholders at the annual meeting “gave him the kind of standing ovation usually reserved for rock stars.” His “Herbisms” (great quotes like “the customer comes second”) taught me more than any Stanford Business School class I ever took. And, I also want to express deep appreciation to Warren Buffett whose company, Berkshire-Hathaway, had their annual “Woodstock for capitalists” this month. This company’s annual shareholder meeting attracts 30,000 of Berkshire’s faithful and it’s almost like a church revival event. In the era when corporate CEO’s are “over-handled” by their PR departments, I truly admire the fact that Warren gets up on stage in the big arena and answers questions and extols wisdoms for five hours to the tens of thousands of Berkshire shareholders. And, he does so with humanity and a sense of humor. I am the Finance Chair of the venerable, inner city Glide Memorial Church Board and have to tell you that each year the Church auctions off a “Private Lunch with Warren” to the world on eBay. Warren has donated himself for this cause because he’s such a believer in African-American Minister Cecil Williams’ brand of liberation theology and the impact it has on San Francisco’s inner city. What’s truly remarkable is that people will bid as much as a half-million dollars to have a private lunch with friends with Warren sitting at the head of the table. Thanks to both Warren Buffett and Herb Kelleher for reminding us that there’s a culture-driven brand of capitalism that is more powerful and sustainable than the transaction, dog-eat-dog brand of capitalism that we tend to read about in the popular press.
May 29th, 2008
May 10, 2008
Dear Barack,
It isn’t easy being a transformational leader, is it? Congratulations on what looks to be a victory for the Democratic nomination, but let’s look at the last four months (which must have seemed like four years) and see what lessons we have learned about transformational leadership.
1. First, we need to give some credit to James MacGregor Burns who long ago wrote the book Leadership and described two kinds of leaders: “transactional” and “transforming.” He wrote, “The relations of most leaders and followers are transactional - leaders approach followers with an eye to exchanging one thing for another…Transforming leadership, while more complex, is more potent. The transforming leader recognizes an existing need or demand of a potential follower. But, beyond that, the transforming leader looks for potential motives in followers, seeks to satisfy higher needs, and engages the full person of the follower. The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and may convert leaders into moral agents.” It’s almost like a transactional leader is leading from the bottom of the pyramid while the transformational leader (I prefer “transformational” to “transforming”) is leading from the top. No doubt, while most political pundits haven’t read my book PEAK, I do believe they would acknowledge that your chief political adversary, Hillary Clinton, has run her campaign as a transactional leader with her very tangible, policy-driven, and practical approach to solving problems. In fact, one of the chief knocks on Hillary has been her inability to inspire or help people see the bigger picture and, at times, her tendency to focus on the fear-driven survival needs of the electorate.
2. Many of the things that Burns has written apply to your campaign: the “complex” but “potent” message, the fact that you recognized the “higher needs” in your followers - the desire for a new kind of politics that stands above the past political pollution, and the “Yes, we can” message that “converts follower into leaders” and has helped convert you into a “moral agent.” You are a different kind of leader: one who asks us to “be all we can be” if I can be so bold as to steal a phrase from Maslow and the US Army. JFK used to talk about a rising tide lifting all boats and that’s the kind of feeling many Americans experience when they hear you speak, read your books, or really take a moment to understand your truly American Dream of a life story. We are living in a time when my fellow countrymen and women are looking for the kind of change that a transformational leader can offer. It’s a new century. It’s a delicate and small world. We don’t fit into the demographic boxes that made sense in 1958. Fifty years later, America is waking up to the fact that other countries around the world are passing us by as we live in splendid isolation on this big island we call the US of A. Your diverse history from Kenya to Indonesia, from Kansas to Hawaii speaks to the future, not the past, and the only way you will win the election in November is if you help America see the necessity of transforming ourselves to succeed in the future as opposed to just wallow in our glorification of the past.
3. You will be painted as the “American Dreamer,” a nice enough fellow but someone different enough to not understand the issues of the common man. You will be seen as a Harvard-educated elitist who can give a great speech, but who doesn’t know how to get his hands dirty to make things work. You will be vilified as a “snake oil salesman” with your slick and polished manner and you will be cast as the “other,” not really one of us. When they hit you with this kind of rhetoric, just remember two things: remind them that our greatest leaders were different and that the world isn’t what it used to be. Lincoln, that greatest of Presidents from your state of Illinois, was different. He wasn’t a transactional leader making deals in backrooms. He helped America see that we were on a path toward ruin if we didn’t unify. Kennedy was different. He was elected President when Catholics were considered to be lower class and not fit to be the supreme leaders of the land. He reminded us to reach for greater things whether it’s putting a man on the moon or having the courage to stand up to the Soviets. Reagan was different. He was an actor–and a not too impressive one. But, whether you liked his politics or not, his transformational message took us from the ugly 70’s to the confident 80’s with his “morning in America” perspective and his “tear down this wall” speeches to the Soviets. Our best Presidents have been transformational in their ability to unite us and help us individually and as a country “be all that we can be.” You are also the perfect messenger of the message: the world has changed and we need to change with it. Our American empire will crumble like the Romans if we don’t adapt and see that our leadership needs to be future-oriented and visionary as opposed to being wedded to the past. Be bold and transformative with your policy proposals whether it be in the area of energy independence, educational reform, or helping us to regain America’s status as a trusted and respected ally to our foreign friends around the world.
4. Whether in business or politics, transformational leaders need to surround themselves with practical, solutions-driven operators who know how to “make the trains run on time.” Choose a Vice President who can be a Chief Operating Officer, someone who can take your vision and make it actionable. To show that you truly mean to unify the country, choose a few members of your cabinet that are independent-minded Republicans who can give you the kind of 360 degree perspective that our current President has so sorely been lacking. Be specific about your policy goals and deadlines as the greatest risk you have is being perceived as the ethereal monk on the mountain who gets high breathing the air but hasn’t provided for the basic survival needs of himself and his people. Find a few Presidential potholes to fix. As a transformational leader, just remember that your greatest gift is in helping us see the sense of “oneness” that we have at our core and that you so eloquently speak of and exhibit on the campaign trail. Our greatest leaders help us see what we couldn’t envision on our own.
Good luck to you. You have a formidable and admirable opponent in John McCain who shares many of your qualities.
Wishing you all the best,
Chip Conley
May 11th, 2008
I’m not one to hang out at séances, but I do need to remind the world that today, April Fool’s Day, Dr. Abraham Maslow would have been 100 years old. Not many people can attest to having an IQ of nearly 200 (those who do attest to this should save the info for their Mensa meetings), serving as the President of the American Psychological Association, and creating a self-affirming philosophy of life that the US Army translated into an effective advertising campaign (“be all you can be”). Abe reminded us of the power of pyramids and the purity of potential.
When in doubt, create a gratitude list, right?! If Abe had never joined us on this earth, we might never have:
- understood that more can be learned from the “best practices” of human beings than the “worst practices” (his psychologist brethren tended to focus on the latter)
- fully appreciated that self-actualization is a state in which we ironically transcend ourselves and connect with the oneness of something bigger than us
- realized that “being out of our minds” can actually be a good thing from a psychological perspective
- understood how important it was to find the intangible, “deep satisfiers” in life as opposed to the tangible base needs (think MasterCard’s Priceless commercial)
- been able to re-interpret “being-ness” for the “busy-ness” world as I’ve tried to do in my book PEAK.
The metaphor that I imagine when I think of Abe and self-actualization is the idea of a runner. Self-actualization isn’t easy. It’s not something that just miraculously appears and gives you a magic carpet ride. It is the difference between wearing a pair of ill-fitting running shoes that diminishes your ability to run as fast and as far as possible versus wearing just the right shoes. Self-actualization does mean you sweat and labor, but you do it in a manner that taps into your endorphins rather than sapping your energy. Living your calling produces a high that allows you to have a high threshold for pain as well as a high capacity for love. Happy Birthday, Dear Dr. Maslow, and thank you for introducing the world to the powerful idea of human potential.
April 1st, 2008
We haven’t seen such a mess on Wall Street since my grandfather was a teenager. Fortunately for these titans of capitalism, our activist Federal Reserve has stepped in to – at least temporarily – stem the tide of a bank run that threatened to collapse more than one investment bank. Bear Stearns didn’t dodge the bullet and ended up trading for little more than 2% of what it was worth a year ago. Cynics are suggesting that the whole investment banking culture and the very nature of capitalism is at fault here, but I beg to differ. I believe Dr. Abraham Maslow and his iconic and idealistic human hierarchy of needs can shed some light on why some investment banks are peak performers and others are now virtually out of business.
As I outlined in my book, PEAK, there are three essential business themes that come from my interpretation of Maslow’s humanistic hierarchy: SURVIVE at the base of the pyramid, SUCCEED in the middle of the pyramid, and TRANSFORM at the peak of the pyramid. This “Transformation Pyramid” helps explain why some companies like Toyota with its eco-hybrids or Apple with its revolutionary iPods transform their industries while others like Sears or General Motors languish barely in a survival state. Investment banking would seem to be an industry that is deeply divorced from the feel-good humanism espoused by Maslow. But, a PEAK-focused comparison of the industry leader, Goldman Sachs, with the virtually bankrupt, Bear Stearns, proves that this legendary approach to human behavior can even be predictive of which investment banks flourish and which fail.
Just a week before the Fed and JPMorgan shocked the market by taking over a crippled Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs announced to the world that they were making a $100 million donation to give at least 10,000 women a business education and, more broadly, to develop and enhance business education programs in the developing world. Amidst all the wealth on Wall Street, no firm has generated more charitable foundations than Goldman Sachs. This gift – which was the largest U.S. corporate donation since 2000 – is a reflection of why Goldman Sachs was recently profiled by Fortune as the #1 Admired Company in the Securities industry. Furthermore, the company is consistently listed on the “100 Best Companies to Work For” list and was the first investment bank to adopt an environmental policy back in 2005.
No doubt, investment bankers are motivated by money. But, unlike most of their brethren, Goldman Sachs has created a culture that has transcended that bottom of the pyramid goal in life. The company has nine key leadership principles (not one of which uses the word “money”) including “act with a profound sense of integrity and fairness” and “promote meritocracy by welcoming and leveraging differences.” So, those are just words, right? No, Goldman has used these principles to create a transformative culture that has allowed the company to outshine its industry the way few companies do. Stephen Friedman, former co-chairman of the firm and now a director, says, “There is no mystery, no secret handshake. We did a lot of work to build a culture in the 1980s, and now people are playing on the balls of their feet.”
This culture – while competitive and money-driven like the rest of Wall Street – has focused on creating a collegial environment, serving their clients with an eye to long-term relationships, and making a difference in the world. The company creed has not purely been about making money. Goldman has become a breeding ground for successful leaders from the current US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to the White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten to the head of the World Bank Robert Zoellick to the Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine. Goldman isn’t just transforming the industry, they are creating a culture that breeds leaders who want to change the world.
And, in a “karmic capitalist” kind of way, this transformative approach to investment banking has led Goldman to get it right in the recent credit meltdown when the rest of Wall Street got it desperately wrong. Goldman Sachs just experienced its best year ever. While their competitors are awash in losses, Goldman’s revenues grew 22% and they had record profits. Their most recent quarterly earnings represented the 11th quarter in a row that Goldman exceeded analysts’ estimates of how successful they would be. Like Southwest Airlines, Harley Davidson, and Whole Foods Market, Goldman Sachs has proven that they can be the leader of their industry by transcending the base survival needs that most companies never get beyond.
Bear Stearns is a company that never transcended the base of the pyramid. Even on ultra-competitive Wall Street, Bear Stearns was an outlier with sharper elbows than most. Money wasn’t just important. It virtually represented a religion. Bear Stearns’ legendary Chairman Ace Greenberg said they were looking for people with PSD degrees – poor, smart, with a deep desire to become rich. William Smith, a former Bear Stearns employee, in an NPR interview, recently suggested what happened to the firm was karma as it was the only Wall Street firm that didn’t assist in the 1998 bailout of Long Term Capital Management. Smith says, “Bear Stearns operates on their own…and they don’t believe in the greater good. They believe in Bear Stearns and that’s ultimately what brought them down. No one came out of the woodwork to help these guys. As a matter of fact, it was the exact opposite.” In fact, in the wake of the dot-com crash in 2000-2001 when Wall Street took a tumble, Bear Stearns was the first firm on the Street to lay off staff, ultimately giving pink slips to nearly 1,300 people.
Bear Stearns wasn’t a bad place. In fact, there was a diverse family there of misfits from all demographics, as they weren’t as WASPy as the old blue blood firms like Morgan Stanley. They were a scrappy underdog. Sure they had the occasional scandal, but possibly not any more than any other Wall Street firm. But, what was missing was a sense of firm aspiration that helped Bear Stearns execs see beyond the base goal of just making money. People are comparing the firm to Enron with their hyper-focused mercantile culture and psychologist Alden M. Cass, who counsels many Wall Street executives, says “Among employees, I am seeing a similar sense of distrust as we witnessed after Enron.” Not a surprise. These Bear Stearns employees lost their life savings over the past month and when your sense of value as a human comes down to how many zeroes you have on your personal balance sheet, it’s got to be disorienting to wake up and realize you’re broke – in more ways than one. That’s part of the reason why – to their credit - the firm has hired a set of grief counselors to help their employees get through this troubling time.
It’s hard to imagine an idealist like Maslow having a message that could resonate on Wall Street, especially during these times of fear. But, one need only look at two companies – one that aspired to longer-term, higher goals and one that got trapped in the transactional trenches – to understand that peak-performing companies are not full of robots. Investment bankers will never be confused with saints, but Goldman Sachs proves that transformative companies that seek their peak look for ways to “be all they can be” (as Maslow and the U.S. Army used to say) in a manner that creates long-term profits and sustainability.
March 30th, 2008
For those of you who’ve read PEAK, you’re familiar with the Transformation Pyramid, which slims down Maslow’s five level Hierarchy of Needs into an adaptable form with just three levels: SURVIVAL at the bottom, SUCCESS in the middle, and TRANSFORMATION at the top.
This Transformation Pyramid represents universal themes that are applicable to any organization’s relationships with their employees, customers, and investors. For example, the Sierra Club can attract meaning-seeking employees by focusing on the “transformational” peak of the employee pyramid, but if they don’t compensate these employees enough to pay their rent at home (their “survival” needs), they haven’t created a sustainable relationship.
On the other hand, most for-profit companies mistakenly think that the compensation package at the base of the employee pyramid is what creates loyalty and differentiation as an employer. They are wrong. Peak performing companies have much higher employee engagement and much lower turnover by helping their employees move their focus from money (what defines a “job”) to recognition (what defines a “career”) to meaning (what defines a “calling”).
The Transformation Pyramid is relevant to customers and investors, too, and it can be applicable to everything from how you approach your expectations of your family vacation to how you view the Presidential candidate choices. No doubt, Barack Obama is a transformational candidate (I’m a big fan), but Hillary Clinton has clearly suggested
that his intangible, self-actualizing appeal is distracting from his potential lack of “in the trenches getting it done” management capabilities. In many ways, Americans see the choice of Barack as a peak-minded leader versus Hillary as the foundational, base of the pyramid manager. When we have the choice between inspiration versus perspiration, most of us will choose the former (unless we’re living in a time that’s full of fear…a bottom of the pyramid time).
Clearly I’m a transformation nut. But, let me say that transformation doesn’t come easily. I’ve been reminded of that in my own company this past year. Joie de Vivre Hotels is growing faster than it ever has. We will be launching or re-launching (after renovation) something like 14 unique boutique hotels over the next 16 months plus approximately a dozen restaurants. That’s quite an endeavor and about triple the growth path we’ve typically had in past years. During this time, many of us in the company have noticed that we are a little more stressed and, at times, overwhelmed with the variety of choices and decisions we need to make. We’ve all felt it. Our work climate surveys suggest it’s noticeable, especially with our 80 employees in our home office (fortunately, our on-property staff scores continue to be
exceptionally high).
It was in preparation for a recent leadership class to our General Managers and Operations Managers that I came to realize we were “in the goo.” We are all familiar with the miraculous transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. That’s exactly where we are today. Here’s a passage from an online site that describes this transformation:
“The caterpillar knows something is going on as the transformation begins. ‘Imaginal cells,’ which are initially thought to be a virus or enemy, start to build up in the caterpillar’s body until such time that these imaginal cells overtake the caterpillar’s cells and the caterpillar creates a cocoon.
Some imaginal cells start changing into wing cells, some start changing into antenna cells, some start changing into digestive tract cells. They are no longer imaginal cells, but instead have become butterfly anatomy cells. In essence, the caterpillar disintegrates into a puddle
of ooze. If we were to open the cocoon halfway through the process, we wouldn’t find a half-caterpillar, half-butterfly type creature, but a blob of goop.”
It’s hard to describe my company as a blob of goop, but having that evolutionary reference point has helped all of us understand that our situation is temporary (if this caterpillar to butterfly transformation is too revolutionary or graphic for you, consider the tadpole to the
frog instead). We are in a cocoon and what will truly determine whether we properly exit as a beautiful, fluttering butterfly is what we do in this cocoon to use the “imaginal cells” of change in culture and processes to help us be strong enough to emerge from this transformation.
So, the next time you and your company are feeling “in the goo,” ask yourself, “Are you in the midst of a transformation? Or are you just spiraling downward in a kind of corporate quicksand?” If you’re lucky enough to be the former rather than the latter, take this opportunity in the cocoon to truly transform your organization into something exceptionally beautiful. It will be a lot of work, but it will be totally worth it!
February 26th, 2008
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