Blog Topics
Looking for something specific? The following topics address a wide range of business needs and challenges.
OOPS #9: Overvaluing Smart, Talented People
Many companies waste a lot of time and money trying to find and hire smart, talented people. The knowledge and technology exists today to create a high performing workplace with the people you have…
Do Behavioral Economists Really Understand the Behavior Part?
Someone just sent me a YouTube video of Steven Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics, speaking to 1200 business leaders in London in 2007. The YouTube video is titled, “Why Incentives Don’t Work."…
Safety Leadership: Who's Accountable?
Recent events in mining, oil production, and even drug manufacturing uncover costly and more importantly deadly mistakes. Understanding the laws of behavior and applying them to environments where…
What IS Behavior-Based Safety?
For the past few months, I’ve been working on a safety leadership book with my colleague, Judy Agnew and it really got me thinking about the evolution of behavior-based safety. I began writing about…
The Wrong Spirit
Apparently the executives at Spirit Airlines are not familiar with the research of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. They demonstrated years ago that they way you frame choices impacts people’s…
OOPS #8: The Sandwich
The sandwich method of correcting performance is probably the most common way that managers are taught to deal with poor performance. It is called the sandwich method because criticism is…
Two Weeks is Here: ADI Launches New Web Site
Guess what? After many months of hard work by many people, we have given birth to a brand new website. The website was done in cooperation with What’s Up Interactive. They were great to work with and…
Ask Aubrey: Unions and Performance Feedback
Q:
I was recently promoted to a supervisory position at a federal agency where it is against the Collective Bargaining Agreement to discuss "performance standards" or "numbers" with employees.…
Celebrity Apprentice: Does the Donald know leadership?
Watching the new season of NBC's reality show Celebrity Apprentice got me thinking "What does The Donald know about leadership?" Read my latest Washington Post column on the subject.
OOPS #7: "You Did A Good Job, But..."
The meanest, most contemptible kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a man and then qualifies it with a "But," --Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)
A Checklist Never Saved a Life
When I read The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande three things occurred to me. The first was a joke someone sent me in e-mail last week. “ A man is recovering…
Little Evidence of Talent in the Winter Olympics: Business should take a lesson
I watched a lot of the Olympics over the past two weeks and the skill levels were amazing. There were not just a few skilled performers, there were many. Often the difference between Gold…
When Watching LOST, Think "Washington"
Last week at the insistence of Tyler, our Assessments & Surveys Guru, I watched an episode of the TV series, LOST, and boy was I lost! I quickly concluded this is not the kind of…
TARP: A Classic Study in Poor Contingency Management by the Government
Last week Neil Borofsky, Special Inspector General of the Troubled Relief Asset Program, said that a number of the bail-out’s key goals “have simply not been met.”
The question I have is…
Five Essential Stages of Safety Using a Behavioral Approach
If you’re interested in or responsible for workplace safety I recommend you read this recent two-part post in Safety Daily Advisor identifying the five essential stages of safety using a…
If You Missed Undercover Boss, Watch the Re-Run
After an intense Super Bowl game does not seem like a prime spot in the TV schedule to premiere a new show, but according to ratings, Undercover Boss proved to be one of the most watched post-…
Our Fascination With Sociopathic Bosses
I invite you to read my blog in the Guest Insights section of the Washington Post online.
Related Posts: OOPS! The Biggest Mistakes Made By TV's Top Bosses
Pitfalls of Performance Appraisal
No activity in corporate life is more universally despised, by both managers and employees, than performance appraisal. Richard Warner and I discuss the pitfalls and what to do instead.