As I have interacted with people over the past months, one consistent topic tends to emerge; the phenomena of people leaving their current jobs. Labeled as the ‘great resignation’ it seems almost every organization has felt the impact. The great resignation is a result, a consequence of something, it is not just randomly happening. What that something can be described … Read More
Pandemic Ponderings – Our Experience So Far
Like many of us, the beginning of a new year seems like a good time to reflect back on the previous year. That’s what the next few posts will do; look back at 2020 from the perspective of our business experience, as we navigated within the pandemic and then look forward to 2021. We’re probably not all that different from … Read More
A Sad Time for TMS Americas – A Time for Reflection
It has been a sad period of time for us at TMS Americas. Yet within this time is a chance (sometimes forced upon us) for reflection on what we do and what it means to us. As many of you know, our colleague and co managing director of TMS Americas, Bonnie Cooper retired at the end of June. Of course … Read More
VUCA – Process trumps Outputs
This post is a little longer than our usual ones – we hope you will bear with us and take the time to read it in its entirety and perhaps make a comment. Two weeks ago I was talking to one of our Network Members and the topic of VUCA came up. This acronym for environments that are Volatile, Uncertain, … Read More
The Gift of Accountability – Be Gentle When Opening
Of all the gifts we could get at Christmas perhaps the best would be a whole new bunch of accountability, along with a big dose of self management to go along with it. At least that is what I likely would have said in previous years. Today I’m not so sure. Even earlier this year I posted Blame and Accountability … Read More
Coaching – The Rise of Immersion
Our last 2 posts have dealt with changes that we see as needed and inevitable as the world of coaching changes. These two posts can be read here: The Socialization of Coaching and Coaching – The Decline of Analysis . This post focuses on the real challenge and need for the coach to immerse themselves in the context and process of … Read More
Back to School – What Will You Be Learning This Year?
For many of us there is a different energy in the air this time of year as ‘back to school’ activities begin to happen. Perhaps it’s finding some cool new back to school clothes, wondering if your best friend will be in your class, and as we get older perhaps wondering what life will be like as we go to … Read More
Uncertainty and Shrinking Conversations
In March 2012 we wrote the post Motivation in an Environment of Uncertainty . We looked at the nature of organizational conversations during uncertain times and how those conversations could sustain the choices people make to be motivated. Unfortunately quite often the opposite happens in organizations. During uncertain times conversations begin to shrink, both in quantity and quality. We are … Read More
Virtual Teams and Local Interactions
How we make sense of our experience on teams is a critical element of their success. As we process our team experiences we may determine that the team is effective/non effective, well or poorly led, adding value or not, something we are happy to be a part of or would rather not be. As well, making sense of things is … Read More
Motivation in an Environment of Uncertainty
Imagine you are considering a new job. One of the key performance objectives of the job is to motivate the staff that will be working for you. You are told that there is no money in the budget for bonuses and in fact some salary reduction will likely take place. There is a chance of downsizing and it is unclear … Read More