Why family culture fails

You don’t choose family. They’re stuck with you, dysfunction and all. But you choose your team. And they choose you. Family tolerates poor behavior because blood runs thicker than performance. Teams can’t afford that luxury. When you call employees...

What will you tolerate

Time shifts our tolerance levels. What we accepted yesterday feels unacceptable today. What seemed normal a decade ago now looks barbaric. Progress, we call it. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: some behaviors persist across generations. Bad character finds a...

Tell me…

Brillat-Savarin knew something profound when he penned “tell me what you eat and I will tell you who you are.” But he barely scratched the surface. Show me your calendar and I’ll show you your priorities. Not the priorities you claim, but the ones...

Stir sleeping dogs

In business, underperforming products or segments are referred to as the dogs in the portfolio. Too often, companies merely let them lie. Yet the issue is that in time this creates a culture that will inevitably impact all other segments. If one dog is sleeping, why...

Culture wins

Numbers don’t lie. The strategy deck looks pristine. The mission statement is framed on the wall. Yet the team falters. Mark Fields, former CEO of Ford Motor Company, had one of his favorite slogans on the wall: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”...