Share   Organizations don’t make choices…leaders do. This is a scary thought. But reading Jim Collins new book “Great By Choice,” this is what he says. And he is right. Here is a snapshot of what he says: “Organizations do not make choices, their leaders do, and the fate of each of those organizations depends on [...]

Share   If you read my post “Do You Have A Policy ABout Working Naked“, you will know my stance on having lots of policies and procedures inside Nurse Next Door.   But I also recognize that in  a fast growth company, the size we are at, and our goal to grow to become a [...]

Share “To me, marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world, it’s a very noisy world. And we’re not going to get the chance to get people to remember much about us. No company is. So we have to be really clear on what we want them to know about us.” — Steve [...]

Share In Southwest Airlines Rule # 16:  A Culture Has its Own Language, we looked at how great cultures  brand their own language to help bring out their uniqueness.  In Southwest Airlines Rule #15: Invent Your Own Culture and Put a Top Person in Charge of It, we looked at how great companies design their own cultures from [...]

Share I often get asked the question: What is the best way to discover my core values? As I stated in my post “The Mission to Mars: 6 Simple Steps to Discover Your Core Values,” I always say the same thing. Do the Mission to Mars exercise. It simple. And it works.   But shouldn’t [...]

Share Core Values  are your identity. They make you unique. Don’t you want to be different? Don’t you want to look, sound, feel and act differently then everyone else in your industry? Branding experts would say that is what they are for. And they are right. But only partly right. To really create a brand, [...]

Share   In Southwest Airlines Lesson #15: Invent your own Culture and put a top person in charge of it, it  talked about the need to be unique. A key component of doing this is creating your own language. So today we visit Lesson # 16: A culture has its own language.   Here is a [...]

Share   I was asked a truly great question the other day. What do core values really do? Why do I need them? Now, my usual reaction to a question like this is to spit out the answer. I mean, I talk about this stuff all  of the time, and I can give a pretty [...]

Share   I just did a speech for another Health Authority’s leadership team.  50+ leaders supporting 6000+ employees, so a fairly large organization. They started the day with 8 core values. You know, the usual suspects like “integrity”, “respect” “compassion” and so on.  ( See my post “6 Tips on How To Design Your Core [...]

Share Earlier this year, Southwest Airlines came out with their “40 Lessons To Learn” on their 40th anniversary.  Southwest is famous for their culture, and their leaders attribute their unmatched success in the airline industry to this. As you can guess, there were a number of lessons on the importance of culture. Here is Lesson [...]