Hidden Opportunities

What does “Tidying Up” have to do with your company’s growth?

Like many Americans, we’ve become hooked on watching Marie Kondo’s Netflix series Tidying Up. It’s fascinating to see how Marie (a Japanese “tidying expert” who exudes peace, energy, and joy) works through a translator with American clients. Her principles help them become more mindful and create a more meaningful and joyful space to exist in the present and grow into the future.

This got us thinking about the implications for business — if you are leading a company that’s going through transformation and game-changing growth, you might well be facing an opportunity for a similar “tidying up” experience… Read More

Why Connection is a Strategic Advantage in 2019

Happy New Year! I (Pam) started out the year by returning to The Small Business Advocate Radio Show^® with host Jim Blasingame to speak about the power of connections.

Find out why the more we depend upon digital technology for processing information, the more we need the wisdom and art of nuance that comes from connecting personally with each other. Look for this to become a recurring theme during the year.

To listen to our conversation in three segments, click on the “Listen Now” buttons for each segment below.
Read More

Juggling Life At The Holidays?

For many CEOs and C-Suite executives, holidays can be particularly stressful. Many people tell us that although they may be on vacation at some point during this time, they never feel like they can completely go offline and relax.

Yes, you know that it’s important to shut off devices and tune out so you can restore your mental and spiritual reserves. But there are always competing demands for your time and attention. You don’t want to miss out on opportunities, but burning out is not a good option either.

So how do you balance everything and truly refresh over the holidays? One way that we’ve found to juggle all the “balls” of our lives, including downtime, is to… Read More

Overcome obstacles through the power of improvisation

While there are many things we can’t predict about innovation and growth, we can confidently predict that we all will encounter obstacles of various sizes at some point along the journey.

Sometimes obstacles appear in the form of everyday problems such as misunderstandings. Other times, obstacles show up as life-changing events such as disasters. However, no matter the challenge, one thing that can help us all find our way to new solutions is using the power of improvisation.

While many people think of improvisation as it relates to comedy sketches, we’ve found that there are many other valuable uses for this type of communication. Read More

The Key to Finding New Opportunities in the Face of Ambiguity

We were on our way to a meeting when an unusual sign caught our eyes (see photo). If you were the driver of a bus, would you turn left or drive straight ahead? Or would you respond in some other way?

This is a great message for every leader about the need to think flexibly when the signs aren’t clear.

The fact is, no matter where you are located and whether or not you believe the economy is going well, the signs are… ambiguous. We all need to deal with uncertainty from changing global agreements, tariffs, trade wars, and more.

At the same time, we need to take into account how these issues may differently impact our markets, customers, employees, strategic partners, vendors, and other stakeholders. Under these circumstances, what does it take to make smarter decisions and be ready to take detours into uncharted territory? Read More

Attend a TEDx event: an idea worth spreading

As subscribers of TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) we’ve seen many videos filled with ideas worth spreading. But after attending TEDxAsburyPark 2018, we came away with another idea worth spreading: being there in person and engaging with the other attendees can bring a whole new level of excitement and value.

Appropriately enough, “Passion,” was this year’s theme. There were speakers of all ages representing business leaders, community leaders, celebrities, students, dancers, musicians, poets, and artists. Throughout the day we were moved from laughter and tears to inspiration Read More

“The End” or “A New Beginning?”

One of our favorite quotes that we keep within easy viewing distance is: “Sometimes what may seem like the end, may be a new beginning” (original author unknown). It’s especially relevant for any company that is on the journey of transformation and growth.

Even when everyone is excited about their current success and growth ahead, and know they need to change, people can still feel reluctant about letting go of comfortable routines and habits.

Visionary leaders who understand that growth includes helping people acknowledge both “the end” and “a new beginning” are the ones who are most successful at igniting and sustaining momentum for game-changing results.

As we’re firmly into the second quarter of 2018, now is the perfect time to take stock of both endings and beginnings. Here are a few questions to ask yourself and others: Read More

Growth Ahead: The Key to Making Space For New Opportunities

Although like much of the northeast U.S., New Jersey is in the midst of the 4th nor’easter storm over the past three weeks, the calendar says that March 20th is officially the first day of spring. The change of seasons also signals the time for “spring cleaning.” For us, this includes re-organizing our office. Usually, because we’re busy, this has been a relatively simple matter of tossing out old articles and straightening up. However, this year was different.

We surveyed the cabinets stuffed with articles and client files, bookcases crammed to capacity, boxes bulging with old magazines, and shelves filled with cherished items, awards, and old CDs and DVDs we’ve been collecting over the last decade. When we considered this along with the reality that Scott and I decided to work in the same office, we realized we’d hit a new stage of growth. It was time to call out the “elephant in the room”: we were running out of space.

Outgrowing office space is just one of the issues we’ve frequently seen in our clients and other successful companies that are transforming for growth. This is only one aspect of a more general question: “How can we create space to make room for new growth opportunities?”
Read More

Lessons From a Big Mistake – The 2017 Oscars Best Picture Mix-up

Inevitably, no matter how many fail-safe systems you put into place, mistakes are going to happen. How would you have responded to the Big Mistake during the 89th Oscars? And what are some of the lessons we can all learn from this story?

Here’s a quick recap: the final moments of the 2017 Academy Awards event were upended by a remarkable mix-up where Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway, the presenters for best picture award, mistakenly announced that LaLa Land was the winner. Of course, minutes later, we all found out that the real winner was Moonlight.

The reaction in the Dolby Theater and with viewers around the world? Shock and confusion for those watching mixed with mild chaos on stage. Even Hollywood couldn’t dream up this story line. We were watching live and at first, it seemed like just one of the many pranks that had been happening during the program. Until reality set in. Read More

Eight Steps to Overcoming Organizational Resistance

By Pamela S. Harper and D. Scott Harper

Major change is a double-edged sword. Even when people know that it’s necessary to do things differently because of new opportunities, mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, crises, or alliances, resistance is commonplace. The biggest challenge of leading through resistance to change, however, can be recognizing its various disguises.

It’s easy to recognize when resistance is overt and appears as hostile encounters with others, ignoring requests, or outright refusal to change. But even the savviest CEOs and executives can miss signs of covert resistance. This is because everyone appears to have good intentions and it’s often difficult to pinpoint exactly where the problems are coming from. For instance, employees may initially agree to take on new projects or adhere to new policies or procedures, but they’re steadily busy with other priorities or consistently forget to do things differently. The bottom line is that progress stalls.Read More