Our Blog
We pride ourselves on staying up-to-date on the latest research and information available – so we are always bringing fresh, innovative and significant ideas to our clients. Immersing ourselves in the latest thinking, coupled with our vast experience in the industry, gives us a robust capability when it comes to effective learning design and delivery. We share our unique point of view through our blog.
Winnie the Pooh and You: How Good Learning Design Supports Effective Teaming
Not getting the effective teaming you need to succeed? It could be a problem with your learning design. Several years ago, I was part of a faculty at an esteemed professional services firm that taught core consulting skills to new hires who had been recruited right...
Act Like a Child: 5 Characteristics of Success Children Can Teach Us
Go to any office in America and you will probably hear about the childish behavior of some co-workers. Managers will express frustration that their direct reports are acting like children. The implication is that acting like a child is a problem because a child...
Dance Lessons and Diversity in the Workplace
Managing cross-cultural diversity in teams means finding a common goal. In this article, I discuss my personal experience with dance and what it can teach us about diversity in the workplace. In preparation for my son Adam’s wedding, my wife Rose and I are taking...
What is Culture?
Wallace stated, “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about.” While his speech was initially intended to inspire the individual college graduate, I believe we can take the concept of “what is water” and apply it to organizational culture. The three fish could easily be three co-workers, the more experienced worker says, “We have some cultural issues here,” and the others say, “What are cultural issues?”
Three Leadership Imperatives for 2020
2020 has been a year for the books. Leaders across disciplines were challenged in ways they never thought possible. Many had to reach deep down for what got them to their position and hang on tight to their beliefs, and sanity, as the rollercoaster of a year continued.
The Adult Learning Trap – or, What Cats, Chess Masters and Adult Learners Have in Common
Most adults love to learn something new while paradoxically over-valuing and over-relying on what they already know. The Wicked Learning Environment requires us to spend more time exploring, which is a critical concession since few of us know as much as we think we do.
The Unreliable Narrator
Turns out, you lie to yourself all the time. Don’t worry, it’s completely natural – an evolutionary fail safe installed in our brains since consciousness evolved. However, these lies are rarely in your best interest. Developing the discipline to identify these lies is key in life and in business.
We Learn in Rows, but Grow in Circles
When we think about classroom learning, and now online learning, we often think of people sitting at their desks looking forward at their computer or lined up facing forward and attentive to the person at the head of the class.
At JMReid Group, we know that while we may learn, or take in information, in rows, the real growth happens when we are engaged with others. In a circle, if you will.
The Second Call
In sales, and with many other things in life, you should begin with the end in mind. But exactly what is the end when thinking about sales? When it comes to the prospecting phase, the end appears to be getting that initial conversation – the first call, if you will. This focus by sales organizations on the first call tends to either be about what they want to “tell” the customer about their value or an attempt to qualify for the next phase.
Pivot or Perish
Whether this novel Coronavirus is regarded as a cause of, a culmination of or a catalyst to the disruption it has brought to our lives, it is remarkable in many ways. First, it has highlighted how interconnected we truly are—to a point that is almost impossible to disentangle. From the wildfire-like spread from a small market in Wuhan to the re-emergence in New Zealand, we can no longer act like our communities are isolated from global events. Second, it’s placed a floodlight on leadership. The reaction and interaction of our leaders at every level will be scrutinized for years to come—and no single blog could do the analysis justice. One thing that is clear, however, is that egos in a crisis are destructive. But the silver lining, and the focus of this blog, is the undeniable human ability to “pivot”—to change our outputs, structures and processes to meet the needs of a new challenge.
Why Your CEO Hates You
We don’t actually know if your CEO hates you, but we do what frustrates CEOs. CEOs know that In business, you either get reasons, or you get results. A culture of good reasons quickly becomes a culture of low accountability.
Be the Change
One of the most common things I hear from leaders working on ways they can be more effective is, “The problem is, the levels above me don’t work in this way. It’s very hard to implement these behaviors when the leaders at the top aren’t behaving this way.”