Travel with Us!

Dear Travelers, With the arrival of autumn, my thoughts naturally gravitate towards soup—particularly the rich flavors of Hungarian cuisine. One of the top ingredients being Paprika, of course. In telling the story of one of our first visits to Hungary, Ari shared: There’s a Hungarian saying that “One who has salt and paprika has all … Continued

Over 20 Terrific Years of Using Bottom Line Change

A wonderfully gentle and effective way to manage organizational change Excerpt from Ari’s Top 5 Thirty-three years ago, the creative consultants at a small company called Dannemiller Tyson Associates (DTA), published their collective creation entitled, Interactive Strategic Planning: A Consultant’s Guide. Long out of print, the spiral-bound book is just shy of 200 pages, printed, … Continued

Weaving Dignity into the Way We Do Service Every Day

Small actions add up to make a life-altering difference From Ari’s Top 5 In 1955, the year before the Hungarian Revolution, Anne Morrow Lindbergh released a small book entitled, Gift from the Sea: An Answer to the Conflicts in Our Lives. It got a surprisingly great response right from the get-go—Gift from the Sea was the … Continued

A Look at the Leader as Teacher

Learning to teach can teach us how to be better leaders A note from Ari’s Top 5 Malcolm X once said: “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” His point remains as relevant right now as it was half a century ago. And it’s … Continued

Learning to Lead Through Better Listening

From Ari’s Top 5 Meaningfully taking in the sounds that surround us Last week I wrote about the power of language in our organizational ecosystems, and how the words we choose to use impact everything around us, both for better, and/or for worse. What follows is a continuation of the conversation—a look at the importance … Continued

A Loving Look at Natural Law #14

From Ari’s Top 5 Acknowledging love as an essential element of ecosystem health Like anyone who can slip into a small bit of procrastination, I often need a little push to get myself going. Deadlines certainly help. More inspirationally though, the coming together of coincidences can be a compelling motivation for me. It was a … Continued

A Look Back at Natural Law #11

A note from Ari I’ve been working a lot of late, as many of you know, on a “new” list of additional Natural Laws. So far I’ve shared #13 (It’s all out of control), #18 (Everything is naturally related and interconnected), and #19 (Everything—and every one of us—is imperfect). Although many of these organizational laws of nature started … Continued

Find the Positives

An excerpt from Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading, Part 4: A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to The Power of Beliefs in Business, Secret #41. It’s not easy to stay positive in a world in which we’re surrounded by cynicism, knocked down by tragedy in the news, trying to work through illness and uncertainty in our personal lives. … Continued

Effective Organizational Change

Step#1: Write Up the Clear and Compelling Purpose for Change BLC begins with getting clear on the why behind the change. We want to get everyone on the same page—if we all agree on good reasons for the change, the odds that it will succeed increase greatly. As Detroit-based anarchist Jo Labadie said a century ago, “Discontent … Continued

Better Followership

Without effective followers no leader will get anything of consequence completed. The key is that followership shouldn’t be tied to hierarchy any more than leadership is. Regardless of who’s leading on any given day, others of us will need to follow. Just as frontline staff will be better off for learning to lead, so, too, … Continued