Thought Leadership

Go-To Insights Guiding Value Added Action

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The Story That Faked the Facts

By Suzie Garfield / June 5, 2022

Think about how you are making decisions. If you had the right approach, imagine the opportunity to optimize and tap into the powerful forces that lead to success.

Indeed there is power in data, yet In our hyper-competitive business environment today, is the power of story an edge that you may not be able to afford to ignore? Read on for a cautionary tale!

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Mr. Cellophane: Risk Managers Lack Influence 

By Scott Stribrny / March 4, 2022

From the moment that the risk manager embarks upon the formal risk assessment process, all the way through risk identification, analysis, planning, tracking and controlling, the effectiveness of her communication will dictate how successful the overall process will be. In addition to that, she must be able to build strong political partnerships with business and corporate staffs, communicate to a wide variety of audiences in clear, understandable language, and be a skilled facilitator of organizational action more than simply a technical manager of risk.

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What Was Sgt. Joe Friday Really Thinking?

By Suzie Garfield / October 5, 2021

Do you want to take the facts that define your story to the next step—the interpretation that helps you first to understand the challenge and then to define and deliver an effective solution—based on a deep understanding of the facts and the context that surrounds them?

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Change Management Considerations: Epilogue – Putting It All Together

By Jim Stanton / September 1, 2021

Effective change management absolutely requires us to cut loose our curiosity. Our curiosity must be extreme. Our curiosity must be continuous. Situational awareness must be uppermost.

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Critical Thinking – Asking Why?

By Jim Stanton / August 23, 2021

Critical thinking is the disciplined process of formulating information by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, and communication. The critical thinking process drives mindfulness – the activities of conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information as a guide to belief and action. Without critical thinking, beliefs and actions are misguided, senseless, thoughtless, unmindful – not at all in concert with real situations.

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Business Growth & the West Coast Offense

By Brendan Doorhy / August 20, 2021

There are many parallels between sports and business.  Business needs to excel at operations while also assuring its future by developing growth strategies.  Likewise, NFL teams constantly practice so that each play is executed well.  However, teams also need to develop a strategy that gives them an edge.  Bill Walsh was one the NFL’s best at balancing the team execution with innovative strategic thinking.  Here is an anecdote demonstrating Walsh’s systematic methodology.

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Learning Styles – Potential Show Stoppers

By Jim Stanton / August 18, 2021

We are always learning.  Every time we do something there are different nuances that we notice, adjust for, and add to our knowledge and skills sets. We have preferences as to how we learn. When forced into a learning situation that conflicts with our personal learning style, Self-2 starts up the chemical factory and we become less efficient.

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Behavior Flexing – The Platinum Rule

By Jim Stanton / August 9, 2021

The key to effective relationships and successful communications, from the Behavior Style point of view, is to eliminate the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and embrace the Platinum Rule: “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”

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Behavior Styles – Why Is The Other Person Such A Jerk?

By Jim Stanton / August 3, 2021

Having the knowledge to predict the interaction problems we may encounter with other people provides us with a basis for improving the quality of our interactions.  This improvement in our “situational awareness” gives us the ability to better control the outcomes of our interactions with others.

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Culture – This Is How We Do Things

By Jim Stanton / July 26, 2021

“Cultural awareness” means not only being aware of other cultures, but our own as well. Being aware of others’ culture and customs is critical. But an equally important question to ask ourselves is, “How are our customs and practices different from those we are engaging?”

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