On the journey to becoming great, every team struggles with root cause analysis. I’ve found that my clients fall into one of two camps: 1) They don’t dig deep enough to uncover the real issues or 2) they overanalyze everything and make the issue into something bigger than it really is.   As Gino Wickman writes in Traction, identifying the real issue isn’t easy. But you can have greater success with the Identify step of IDS by breaking it down into one of three types of issues: Information – You have information to share with the group so that everyone is on the same page. Brainstorm – You need ideas from the group. Problem – There’s a problem that needs to be solved, and you will need to figure out what the real problem is before you can fix it. Many teams get stuck because when they introduce the issue, they don’t state which

Ever find your team struggling to get your rocks done each quarter? What’s worse is when everything seems to be on track 80 precent of the way – then suddenly, the rock is off track. The end of the quarter comes, and it’s not done. The next quarter, you’ve still got your original rock to complete, but now you have another three or four new rocks to do as well.   Often, it’s not just one person on the team who struggles. It’s several team members. And that’s a sign that your organization is following some worst practices for completing rocks. Here are some of the most common worst practices for completing rocks – and some tips to get you back on track. How to Not Complete a Rock When my clients have run into this issue, they usually report the rock as being on track throughout the quarter. But something

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard business leaders groan about the millennials in their companies. Millennials are difficult to manage because they’re so vocal, they don’t work the same way “we always did,” and they question everything. It often seems as if leadership teams want to just throw their hands up in the air and be done with them. Their tone suggests that “Millennial” is basically just a label for difficult employees. But one team discovered something surprising about the millennials in their company.   Recently I was facilitating an annual planning session, and the team began enumerating all the issues millennials were causing them. The room was brimming with emotional energy, so I prioritized this as Issue #1 for the team to IDS. There was more here than met the eye, and I guessed the team would be surprised by what they’d discover. I was right.

The danger of a family business is that relationships between relatives can easily get confused. The familial relationship is too familiar, and it’s too easy to make assumptions, take things for granted, or make excuses for behavior. As a result, relationships break down, tension builds, productivity declines, and profits stagnate. It’s not easy around the dinner table at family get-togethers, either. And with the holidays approaching, this will hit home for many family businesses now, more than ever.   Handpicked related content: Top Profit-Eaters of Family-Owned Businesses One of my clients was stuck in the middle of that situation. They were a retail business with five locations and 50 employees. The father was the Visionary and the son was the Integrator. The father’s daughter-in-law was in the company as well. Family Tension Every time I met with the leadership team, there was noticeable tension in the room. One meeting, we started

One of my clients was chomping at the bit to document their Core Processes – especially their HR process. They were a family-owned business and their turnover was holding back their profitability. They believed a robust HR process would reduce turnover and help increase profits. So I taught them the three-step EOS® method to document their process. They created a rock for it, and got to work. But there were problems.   An Unusable Process The HR process was developed and launched, but it wasn’t working. There was no effect on turnover and they were more frustrated than ever. The Visionary felt like it was a complete waste of time because his son, the Integrator, had spent so much time and energy on an initiative that wasn’t solving their turnover issue. What had gone wrong? We reviewed their HR Process in the next session. To my surprise it was 54

As we turn the final corner of 2017, many family-owned businesses are preparing to become more profitable in 2018. When I took the helm of our third-generation family business several years ago, I was eager to boost our profitability. But what I found was that there are a lot of profit-eaters in a family-owned business. And they can be very difficult to get rid of without a robust and objective operating system in place. Want to have a more profitable family-owned business in 2018? Watch out for these profit-eaters!   Entitlement of Family Members What happens when the owner’s under-skilled son gets ready to take over the company? What happens when the CFO’s brother-in-law needs a job? How about the lackadasical son who gets promoted above a non-family member? Every family-owned business faces the possibility of having unqualified relatives who are the wrong person in the wrong seat. Relatives aren’t treated