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Celebrations. What do YOU and YOUR ORGANIZATION celebrate?

It’s December … and the holiday season … for many kinds of faiths. I was humbled by the reaction and feedback to last month’s gratefulness article.  Thank you.

Celebrations and gratefulness are pretty intertwined.  In my mind, celebrations are an expression of gratefulness.  I think of celebrations from both an individual and organizational perspective. December is a good time to “take stock”. 

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Gratefulness: My story and how to use it

Thanksgiving is almost here.  We all know (and most of us practice) this time to pause, reflect, and put our gratefulness into action. 

I have had a difficult year.  Been in the hospital four times for a total of almost a month.  I have  had cancer (a GIST) for six years now and we have that under control.  But this year, that tumor caused blood clots in the lungs and sepsis (bacteria) in the blood.  Separately, I have had significant hip and back pain necessitating injections and strong pain medications.   Finally in October, I had that hip replaced, but the recovery included a lot of pain and an intestinal blockage from the opioids (which I had really tried to keep under control). 

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The World Series and Best Teams

October is here.  That means the baseball/MLB playoffs (starting on the 7th) culminating in the World Series (in late October).

The World Series causes me to think about the best teams ever. In sports there are multiple. Baseball (as much as it pains me to say): New York Yankees Football: Green Bay Packers; then Dallas Cowboys; then San Francisco 49ers, then the New England Patriots. Basketball: Boston Celtics; Los Angeles Lakers; the 1992 Men’s Olympic Dream Team; and the UCONN Women’s Basketball Team (111 wins in a row). Soccer: US Women’s National Team.

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September 6th is Labor Day. But…is it really?

Labor Day was originally created (in 1894) to celebrate the achievements of American workers and their contributions to the economy.  But now, most of us have lost sight of that intent and regard it as the end of summer, outdoor pools closing (here in the Washington DC area), picnics, some parades, and the eager anticipation of football coming back. 

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Building a Culture of Truth-Telling

In companies that don’t execute well, there isn’t a lot of truth telling.

Tim Stratman

Just how does an organization build a culture of truth-telling.   Jim Collins, author of  Good to Great, gives us a four-part approach to answer this question: 

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Building AND Sustaining High Performance Teams

Teams are everywhere.  Some are outstanding, some average, and some suck. 

What is a team?   By definition, teams are comprised of people with INTERDEPENDENT roles or tasks. That means that different people are doing different tasks.  As well, person A will be doing or producing something that’s important to person B or C.

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2020 Behind Us

2020 is behind us. Thankfully, we have turned that page. With the new year comes a renewed sense of hope and anticipation. Some of that gets channeled into the NFL Playoffs and other sports. For others it’s resolutions and commitments. Still another group wishes for accelerated progress on the pandemic, economy, and social and climate change.

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