The Road to Abilene (aka the Abilene paradox) is Dr. Jerry B. Harvey’s 1974 parable about a family trip to Abilene. In that classic story about the results of group think, members of a family make a miserable trip across the hot desert in a car without air conditioning just to eat bad cafeteria food. … Continue reading Abilene, Dead Fish and Healthy Giraffes
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What if you are a manager and you hear one of your employees say he is having trouble getting to work on time every day because of some medical appointments? Dare you ignore the remark? Is it a trigger to start an intentional conversation with that employee? If so, how hard could that really be? … Continue reading The Interactive Process: AKA the Importance of Talk
It’s been said that the longest journey begins with the first step. The same may be said for organizational staffing. The question then becomes what the first step may be: As a business owner, briefly and quickly consider each of your employees. How many of them would you, right now, be excited to retain? … Continue reading What do you mean, Staffing?
The spectrum tracks questions often asked by organizational leaders. In the next several comments here, we will visit some of those issues. Today – Can we change an employee’s pay rate? This question nearly always arises when the anticipated change is a reduction. It seems the question fades to moot when the change … Continue reading Visits Along the Spectrum between “Can we?” and “Do we have to?”
The spectrum tracks questions often asked by organizational leaders. In future posts here, we will visit some of those issues. To begin – Do we have to have an “employee handbook?” The short answer is, “not necessarily.” The longer answer: There may be applicable external requirements (including but not … Continue reading Visits Along the Spectrum between “Can we?” and “Do we have to?”