Accepting responsibility for choices starts with understanding where our choices lie. We may not choose what happens to us, but we do choose how to respond – or not.  more  

If we continue to do what we've always been doing, we will continue to get what we've always been getting. To get somewhere else, we need to grow into someone else.  more  

As the years slide by, a growing number of people don't really live, they merely exist – trapped in their lives of quiet desperation. Just getting by is as dangerous as resting in the snow on a frigid winter night; our passion and spirit dozes off and dies in our sleep.  more  

Managers' behavior is the single most important variable in the success or failure of any organization's change or improvement effort. This starts with recognition that the organization is full of current or potential change champions.  more  

Continuous personal improvement means we often outgrow our own standards and what we previously thought was acceptable. Continuous learning, growing, and developing helps us find the path that is personal and unique to us.  more  

The faster the world changes around us, the further behind we fall by just standing still. If the rate of external change exceeds our rate of internal growth, just as the day follows night, we will surely be changed.  more  

"Change Management" is an oxymoron. A successful change/improvement path will evolve as we approach each fork in the road and take advantage of the unforeseeable opportunities that quietly present themselves along our journey.  more  

Change cannot be managed. Being prepared determines whether change is a threat or an opportunity and whether we become victims or victors.  more  

Failing to respond to inevitable change, results in being victims of change.  more  

We need to be careful about what we wish for – the popular goals of security, stability, and predictability are deadly. The closer we get, the more our growth is stunted and learning reduced.  more  

Change happens. We can't control much of the world changing around us. But we can control how we respond. We can choose to anticipate and embrace changes or resist them. The choice is ours.  more  

Grow with change by focusing on a vision, choosing your outlook, seeking authenticity, committing yourself with discipline and continue to grow and develop.  more  

When I look back at the hundreds of team or organization changes I've been involved in during the last three decades, most successful – and certainly all major ones – were driven by "monomaniacs with a mission."  more  

The determination to live out my purpose and dreams has been a strong personal motivator. It makes me wonder just how many unrealized dreams have died with their dreamers.  more  

Many managers in leadership roles have stunted personal growth. We can focus on the gain of improvement, by keeping our preferred future and purpose firmly in front of us, and develop the "habit" of personal improvement.  more  

What most of us clearly hate and strongly resist is — being changed. But when change represents learning, growth, and improvement, it generates energy and is often eagerly embraced.  more  

Now, more than ever, organizations need the bonding glue of a strong culture to hold everything and everyone together. At the core of that culture is a strong leader pulling the team together.  more  

Embrace change is a useless platitude We often don't choose the difficulties or negative changes that spring upon us. But we always choose how we respond with these how-to steps for staying above the line.  more  

A good change champion is passionate about their cause or change. We can't harness or manage champions. Often we're best to point them in the right direction and get out of the way. Then sponsor and protect them from the bureaucracy when they need it.  more  

Today's societies, organizations, and people have gone — and are going — through major changes. Emerging from research are key elements and characteristics of top performing organizations in today's environment.  more  

Rarely do most people examine their own assumptions, beliefs, skills, behaviors, and learning levels to see how they created their own circumstances. There are many circumstances we can't control — but we can control how we deal with the uncontrollable.  more  

Too often, we see the world in narrow binary, either/or terms, but top performers look beyond either/or, to and/also. Much of life consists of two opposite and sometimes opposing forces, the key is finding a balance that's right for the conditions and circumstances.  more  

There are no "success secrets." However, there are success systems, success habits, and success principles applied through discipline and persistence. Failure often results from following the line of least persistence.  more  

There is no one best or right way to keep ourselves growing and developing. But, without a vision and the discipline to follow through, there can be no personal improvement.  more  

As we contribute our work to our team or organization, we also need to contribute a deeper sense of meaning or purpose. If we're going to be leaders, we need to take our selves and ours to the Emotional and Spiritual levels.  more  

A great fictional story, illustrating a major problem we encounter again and again in our work with individuals, teams, and organizations trying to move to higher levels of performance. It's the problem of balancing the speed and pace of daily life or operations, with periodically stepping back to make sure we're heading in the right direction.  more  

Resistance to today's change comes from failing to make yesterday's preparations and improvements. We need to deal with change by improving ourselves. Then our time of success must come.  more  

Key characteristic of learning leaders; they refuse to be trapped by "conventional wisdom" or what others say is or isn't possible. Highly effective leaders go against the odds – or just ignore them.  more  

First, we need to accept that our frenzied pace of change is the new "normal." Then we must help others in our company understand why this is the case and become energized by the exciting possibilities offered by change.  more  

Some change and improvement efforts have been hugely successful, others have been somewhat successful, and some ended up in the swamp. In reviewing the results, it is clear that a core number of execution problems or failure factors are common to all of the team, organization, and individual improvement efforts.  more