Getting to a culture of always is an elusive outcome for organizations. Achieving excellence with every process, behavior, and customer interaction—is hard. It separates great organizations from good ones. Even the best organizations don’t achieve perfection in all things. The conversation around always led me to study and create materials on the topic. Achieving always involves a combination of people, processes, and tools/technology. It also includes making sure each person understands what is being asked and is provided the opportunity…

What we permit, we promote. I learned this phrase from speaker and author Liz Jazwiec. If new ideas and challenges are permitted and celebrated, more of each will take place. On the less positive side, permitting can reinforce actions that are not good. For example: A person regularly shows up late, and nothing happens…a leader repeatedly misses goals, and nothing happens…a person gossips, and nothing happens. The results are lateness, missed goals, and increased gossip. This…

“We need to eat our own cooking.” This is a statement that resonates with me. I write and speak about customer service, employee engagement, creating cultures of high performance, and building foundations of trust. I feel it’s important to practice what I advise others to do. This includes measuring how we’re doing in these areas. When I was at Holy Cross Hospital in Chicago, we became well known for having excellent patient experience. I spoke at…

Why does a good decision or action end up not going well? Was it the decision itself or how the action was taken…or was it a communication issue? My experience is that leaders put a lot of time into making thoughtful decisions. The “miss” occurs due to how things are communicated during the rollout. Micromanagement can get a bad rap. Yes, there are certain actions in which it makes sense: making sure a recipe is correct,…

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” This quote is most often attributed to Mahatma Gandhi. It comes up in conversations with groups to which I am presenting. In these conversations, I often share that research shows that when a person receives three compliments for every one criticism, they feel more positive about the sender. Two compliments per criticism creates a neutral feeling about the sender, and a one-to-one ratio creates a…