We conducted a focus group about a year ago with a group of business leaders around the idea of organizational values and culture. In this focus group, we presented seven key values, based on research that defined organizational culture. The goal was to see what these professionals thought about these seven values in the context of a broader assessment product. And whether this values set could predict a company’s culture in order to match candidates to cultures that align with individual the candidates’ values. Often things like this come down to semantics, but one piece of feedback where there was
Last week, during a meeting with a client’s leadership team, we got on the topic of just how much time they spend each week in meetings. One of the managers told me that meetings take up about five to six hours of his day, every day! That only leaves him two hours to get his work accomplished. When I asked him to tell me about his meetings, his list went something like this: 8 AM- Meeting with team 1 to discuss issues 9 AMM- Meeting with team 2 to determine what issues from 8 AM meeting are critical 10 AM-
I’m pregnant. With our third child. We are beyond excited and joyful about this new life coming into existence. But when you have an 8-year-old and almost 5-year-old, you and your husband both have demanding yet rewarding careers, and you are what the doctors call old enough to be of “advanced maternal age,” you get some interesting comments when you tell people this news. Some of my favorites have been: “You know, they say women with three kids are the most stressed.” “Well, when did that happen?” (I’m not sure if they were asking about conception or the decision to
During my bout with the flu when my husband was proceeding to tell me about how busy his calendar was, he showed it to me on his phone later. He actually did this while we were in the emergency room while I was hooked up to an IV that was administering fluids and nausea drugs to me while I waited to be admitted. Hey, there is only so much you can talk about in the ER. I was somewhat out of it (go figure) but talking about his schedule for the week reminded me of some good habits we ought
The flu knocked me out cold last week. Then it knocked my kids out. Trying to take care of two people that have the flu while you have the flu just doesn’t work well. After trying to take care of one of them on his first day down, the other one started running a fever. I felt worse than I had if that was even possible and I looked at my husband and said, “You have to stay home from work tomorrow. I need help.” My husband hasn’t missed a day of work in over twelve years due to illness.