Influencing and Problem Solving for Leaders and Others Mike Lehr's Blog

Forming and Tapping Relationships in a Group Interaction

Posted on06 Oct 2014

Tagsusing names, State of the Union, Leveraging Group Interactions Series, question and answer, meetings, group interactions, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, team building, relationships, presentation, organizational culture

Comments0

In addition to initiating and encouraging interaction, we can structure and deliver our remarks to form and tap relationships in group settings such as presentations...

Change of Personality or Change of Perspective?

Posted on02 Oct 2014

TagsFrame Changing Analogy, Pavlovian conditioning, perspective, Personality, organizational culture, change, behavior

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We easily think of our personalities as being a uniform whole. The idea of aspects of our personalities hiding, even for decades and more, isn’t...

Workplace Positivity as Weapon of Retaliation

Posted on29 Sep 2014

Tagspositivity, communism, fundamental attribution error, tools, Pollyannaism, movies, dissent, conflict, confidence

Comments6

Workplace positivity has negative side-effects. They show up when employees try to discredit internal competitors in office politics. Employees do this by labeling them as...

Problematic Personality Types in Meetings

Meetings are one of the big three time wasters in the workplace. One reason, they easily get off track. Agendas help but retard problem-solving discussions....

Programming People with Big Data

Posted on22 Sep 2014

TagsKISS Principle, athletes, musicians, dancers, Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, big data, simplification, The Economist, procedure, employees, customer service, comedians

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Big data allows us to overcome the human tendency to oversimplify. Whereas we focus on one or two big causes to our problems, big data...

Apocalyptic Decision Making – Dealing with Volatility

Posted on18 Sep 2014

Tagsdecisions, event, Harvard Business Review, history, planning, Statistical Analysis, comfort, big data, volatility, VUCA, Nathan Bennett, G. James Lemoine, Apocalyptic Decision Making Series

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Nathan Bennett and G. James Lemoine (“What VUCA Really Means for You” [Harvard Business Review, January 2014 edition]) superficially introduced the four horsemen of apocalyptic...

Wasting Time Not Making Decisions

Posted on15 Sep 2014

Tagsindecisiveness, ambiguity, volatility, over thinking, uncertainty, time, information, decisions, complexity, change management

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An executive expressed pride in his people’s efficient execution of an initiative, “Everyone came together as a team and got this done in under two...

Encouraging More Questions in Group Interactions

Posted on11 Sep 2014

TagsLeveraging Group Interactions Series, question and answer, group interactions, personification, compliments, appreciation

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Once we secure the first question in our group interactions (i.e. presentations, meetings, gatherings, events), we’re only halfway home. Our handling of that first question...

Computer Viruses Illustrating Diversity’s Power

Posted on08 Sep 2014

Tagshomogeneity, Battle of Pydna, cohort, computers, dissent, diversity, Macedonian, optimism, Personality, pessimism, phalanx, Roman, The Economist

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Computer security is a top priority in our digital age. Repeated reports of viruses and hackings remind us of that priority. Much of the reason...

Rise of Self-Censorship

Posted on04 Sep 2014

TagsCBS News, emotions, innovation, minds, negative, New York Times, people's differences, problem solving, peer-to-peer marketing, homophily, creativity, muscles, disagreeable, conflict

Comments8

Life requires effort. Just as it’s easy to be inactive and not eat right, it’s easy to associate with people who are like us and...

Practicing Safe Science

Posted on01 Sep 2014

Tagseducation, Jonah Lehrer, question, Scientific Method, Statistical Analysis, The Economist, The New Yorker, scientific papers, outliers, journalism, Practicing Safe Science Series

Comments3

Journalism has a persistent bias for the new and exciting. They sell in pop culture, and as it turns out, they sell in scientific culture...

The “Big Three” Time Wasters in Business

Posted on28 Aug 2014

Tagsefficiencies, email, Harvard Business Review, management, McKinsey & Company, technology, The Economist, time, Bloomberg Businessweek, meetings, Bain & Company, documentation

Comments5

The big three time wasters in business are emails, meetings and white tape, companies’ internal bureaucracies. All three aren’t new to most; however, what might...

The Four Horsemen of Apocalyptic Decision Making

The four horsemen of apocalyptic decision making are Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity or VUCA for short. Just as customers do when they don’t understand,...

Better Bedside Manner, Lower Malpractice Risk

Posted on21 Aug 2014

Tagsmedical, perception, placebo, Placebo Management Series, power behind beliefs, social skills, Time Magazine, Laura Blue, medical malpractice, bedside manner

Comments0

Three attorneys specializing in medical malpractice attested to me that better bedside manner lowers malpractice risk. One even claimed that he could predict doctors’ malpractice...

Initiating Questions and Comments in Group Interactions

Posted on18 Aug 2014

Tagsrelationships, organizational culture, appreciation, Techniques, Leveraging Group Interactions Series, question and answer, group interactions

Comments6

Questions and comments in group interactions attack the relational challenges these interactions create. They can occur at any time during the interaction, even the beginning....

Mike Lehr’s Blog

Change of Personality or Change of Perspective?

Workplace Positivity as Weapon of Retaliation

Problematic Personality Types in Meetings

Programming People with Big Data

Apocalyptic Decision Making – Dealing with Volatility

Wasting Time Not Making Decisions

Computer Viruses Illustrating Diversity’s Power

Rise of Self-Censorship

Practicing Safe Science

The “Big Three” Time Wasters in Business

The Four Horsemen of Apocalyptic Decision Making

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