Greg Baker, on September 4, 2015
You may remember the nature vs. nurture issue in regard to where positive human traits (such as strong abilities) and negative human traits (such as diseases) come from. Those who land on the nature side of the argument profess that it is all predestined and based on our DNA. Those who favor the nurture side believe that how we are raised and what we experience is the primary driver.
Greg Baker, on May 18, 2015
On the field of battle we once heard Ready, Aim, Fire! Similarly, in today’s business environment, where working effectively is the name of the game, people must Engage, Align and Execute! If you want to be good at what you do, whether it is systems engineering, finance, HR, management consulting or some other discipline, here is your prescriptive advice:
Greg Baker, on June 14, 2012
While the genesis of unintentional conflict is often obscured, the costly disruption and dysfunction that result from it are usually quite visible. Such was the case with our story about Jane and her client Sandy in our last Advance Update, Managing Unintentional Conflict in Business. Let’s revisit the story and then discuss how to resolve the issue, or in this case avoid it by acquiring the skills to manage unintentional conflict.
Jane is meeting with her new client, Sandy, to make some recommendations for how to address some pressing problems on their project. Jane loves to engage in small talk and storytelling with people, including clients, to build relationships. (more…)
Greg Baker, on March 28, 2012
We continue our series of articles about client and stakeholder interviewing to inform and build alignment around important projects and initiatives. In our Advance Update, Conducting Stakeholder Interviews: Creating a Shared Space, we introduced the concept of shared space as it relates to conducting interviews. In this article we review that concept and discuss how it relates to the five most important actions for conducting stakeholder interviews.
Greg Baker, on March 19, 2012
This is the second in a series of blog articles about client and stakeholder interviewing to inform and build alignment around important projects and initiatives. This article addresses five wrong ways to conduct stakeholder interviews, common pitfalls that you should avoid when conducting interviews, and the next one addresses the five most important things you should do.
In our Advance Update article on Conducting Interviews, I introduced a new concept called creating shared space with those you interview. To quote a line from the article:
“The greater the shared space you have with another, the greater the opportunity to work in a way that accomplishes mutually beneficial work, and aspires to a higher purpose.” (more…)