I love pineapple upside down cake. If you’re a pineapple fan and you haven’t tried it, you need to. When it’s done right, there are few better desserts on the planet. To satisfy my sweet tooth, I plan to bake one of these beauties the next time I have a bit of time and access [...]

I’m up in the mountains today and even though the calendar and the weatherman predicted it, one of this year’s first blasts of wintery weather caught me off guard. It also looks to have altered the clothing choices of most folks – including me.  A nice, warm coat is definitely this week’s hot fashion accessory. [...]

Ugh.  It’s election season in the United States and the rhetoric is flying in every direction. Since I live in the “swing state” of Florida, it’s nearly impossible to watch television for five minutes without being told who’s going to raise my taxes or destroy my future. Regular readers of this blog know that I [...]

Few professional skills will correlate more closely with your ability to lead change as your ability to facilitate influential groups through critical discussions and timely decisions. Being able to guide people as they define their goals for a given interaction – and then consistently reach those outcomes – is a big part of helping your [...]

So far in this series, I’ve focused on how Change Agents can be more effective by learning and applying the art of facilitation to their routine work. We’ve talked about different ways that people think and how good facilitators pay attention to this variance as they guide group discussions and decisions. Over the next few [...]

I wonder if the cattle-driving skills I learned as a child growing up on a farm in Minnesota influenced my interest in group facilitation. Long before the catchphrase “herding cats” became popular, I had come to enjoy pulling and pushing strong-willed people through challenging processes. Based on that experience, I firmly believe that the art [...]

As a Change Agent, one of my most common roles is that of “Facilitator”.  One moment I will be asked to guide an executive team as they make tough decisions. The next, I’ll help resolve a personality dispute that’s blocking team success. As a neutral Facilitator, I’m often called to help an individual or a [...]

Today is the birthday of Amelia Earhart – the great American aviation pioneer. In 1928, she became the first woman to accomplish a transcontinental flight. Today, thousands of women around the world fly planes routinely. Yesterday, America and the world lost a great space pioneer: Sally Ride. She became the first American woman in space [...]

theBigRocks Pictures of the Week! Photography is a side hobby of mine. While my hobby might not apply to helping teams through change in a text book sense, sometimes I notice little things when looking through the lens and it just clicks for me… I snapped the following pics during the Fourth of July Parade [...]

Tip #36: Consider How Your Change May Impact Existing Relationships Today’s post is a picture that tells a story of two ways one can view the impact of change on existing relationships. For clarity, it can help to think of your change as bringing about the end of something and the beginning of something new. [...]

I’m a huge fan of Freakonomics. In their books, blogs, films and podcasts, co-authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt regularly explore what they call “the hidden side of everything”. They research cool topics like aligning incentives to motivate behavior, proving or disproving causality and digging into data related to all matters of systems theory as [...]

Change Agent Tip #28 Open expressions of resistance can make a Change Agent’s work nearly impossible. But before diving right into confronting resistance, I recommend Change Agents take a closer look at the potential motivations behind it. In my last post, I discussed how the changing price of raw cocoa on the world market may [...]

Changing your organization’s culture is a lot like recovering from an injury. Neither situation tends to get better on its own. It takes accurate diagnosis, the right prescription for recovery and diligent follow-through by both the healer and the patient. Meet My Doc: Doctor Patrick Osgood is a fantastic Orthopedic Surgeon with North Tahoe Orthopedics [...]

I love college basketball. My favorite team is my alma mater, the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. Coach Bruce Weber’s over-achievers had just clawed their way into the Top 25 this past week only to lose to a feisty Penn State squad. While the loss was tough for me to watch, I did hear a [...]