Is the Broken Performance Review Worth Fixing?

Relying on annual performance reviews to measure and motivate employees generally does not work. This enduring truth and some of the underlying reasons were highlighted in an article from the Spring…

Common Leadership Error: Failing to Evolve

The world around us is constantly changing. The markets we operate in, current economic conditions, world events, access to material goods and competition are all things leadership considers when…

Are Habits Bad for Safety?

The debate about whether developing habits should be a goal in safety has been going on for decades. A recent article in Professional Safety (Making Safety a Mindful Value, Not a Mindless Habit, June…

Will This Behavioral Stuff Work With My Kids Too?

A reoccurring question I get while facilitating in-person workshops is whether the strategies and tactics discussed in class can be applied to other settings—be it spouse, kids, or family dog. While…

Common Leadership Errors: Failing to Create Sustainability

Common Leadership Errors: Failing to Create Sustainability Organizations are constantly evolving to keep up with a changing world. This evolution can include refinements to strategy, systems,…

Common Leadership Errors: Focusing on What You Don’t Want

The role of leadership inside organizations is to help achieve the mission, vision, and business objectives. Leaders define what winning looks like. They then are responsible for creating momentum,…

Common Leadership Errors: Retraining Fixes Everything

What happens in your organization when a human error occurs? By human error I mean an undesired behavior that could, or does, lead to some undesired consequences for the performer, people around them…

When Safety Systems Work Well

I recently had the opportunity to do an assessment with a company that is a safety culture exemplar. At ADI, we work with a lot of companies that have sophisticated safety management systems, but…

Common Leadership Errors: Being nice and expecting influence

The concept of providing feedback is nothing new.  Performance feedback has been studied for well over 40 years and shown to be an effective and low-cost method for improving performance. …

Not Another Survey

ADI regularly incorporates perception surveys into our work. Surveys are cost-effective and have several applications such as assessing organizational culture, doing a pulse check on the reliability…

Common Leadership Errors: Being Vague and Expecting Perfection

There is no doubt that how results are produced is just as, or more important, than the results themselves.  How work is done, the behaviors people do to produce an outcome, is a driver of long-…

Complacency Is Not a Root Cause

Complacency as a concept in safety has been around for some time. That said, I’ve noticed an uptick in client discussions highlighting employee complacency as a contributing factor in recent…

The Should vs. Is Leadership Error

This is the first in a new blog series from Bryan Shelton. Check in on the first Tuesday of every month for new blogs in the series. Our brains are designed to learn and adapt quickly to our…

Caution—Don't Try This At Home

In my experience, mistakes can be our greatest teachers under two conditions. We must take the time to understand both why they happened, and how to change our behavior to prevent repeating them. I’d…

The ABCs of a New Year’s Resolution

Many people make New Year’s resolutions dedicated to making themselves better in some way. Whether it’s to lose weight and get fit; become a better leader; or be a better spouse, parent, or friend.…

The Demise of Effective Training

My colleagues and I have noticed a disturbing trend as we complete surveys and assessments for our clients. A significant number of employees are telling us that skills training has become woefully…

The Importance of Psychological Safety for Safety Culture Improvement

The term “psychological safety” is having a moment. While on the surface it may seem like yet another organizational buzzword, this one has true merit, especially in safety. The term was coined by…

Productivity Theater

Productivity is a big concern for managers who have people working remotely. Will they actually work as hard as they would in an office? This fear has been called “productivity paranoia.” I recently…