What first crosses your mind when you hear “accountability?” I usually get two reactions: that there isn’t enough of it, or a wary reaction. Unfortunately, both reactions often reflect reality. We encounter organizations with products, services or results that fall short, with no one

Where do your ideas, solutions and inspirations come from? If you’re like me, sometimes they originate unexpectedly, from sources that have no direct connection to any challenge or topic at hand. If you’ve read my articles before you know that I find sailing and wilderness camping esp

With only a few notable exceptions, I’ve been fortunate to sail with very compatible crews. All were interested in the same destination (or no destination in particular,) shared duties (pleasant and unpleasant,) enjoyed each other’s company and gamely faced whatever interesting challe

We are conditioned to wanting a Standard and Poor’s “AAA” or Moody’s “Aaa” rating, those agencies’ highest level of confidence that organizations can repay their debt. Those traditional ratings are lagging indicators, however, after-the-fact reflections of what organizations have or h

(July’s guest blog post is by Stephanie Klein, PhD. I met Stephanie at a gathering of Minnesota Professionals for Psychology Applied to Work (MPPAW,) and I was happy to learn about her interest in the connection of environmental stewardship to organization effectiveness. –

Day after day, day after day, We stuck, no breath no motion; As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean. –      (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner) Sailors know doldrums well – persistent stillness and lack of wind that prevents movement. They were the bane of a

Early on the second day of a client engagement, I found myself at the dentist’s. The nagging tooth ache that we thought a filling fixed had gotten worse; I needed to be “on” in a couple hours, and was leaving town early the next morning. X-rays were inconclusive about whether a root c

We were on a nice port tack, but Raspberry Island was coming up fast; we needed to come about. I coached my nephews – one at the wheel and one at the winches – how to execute the maneuver, so soon we were “hard-a-lee,” turning through the wind to begin our starboard tack. There was on

“What’s the difference between a line and a rope?”  That is one of my favorite questions to ask new LOON crew members.  The answer is that a rope just sits there, with no purpose or use yet, like a pile of rope on the dock or extra rope in your locker.  A line is rope with a purpose t