Eclectic Change

Skills Shortages and Community Sustainability

On November 21st my good friend Doug Jordon was ever so kind as to include me as on of this four facilitators in an interesting consultation in Toronto on "Addressing the Technical Skills shortage - Attracting and Integrating Technically Trained Immigrants into Canada's Labour Force" hosted by The Canadian Council of Technicians and Technologists (CCTT). I found such interesting similarities between the issues faced at this consultation to the work we are doing at 1-Focus International. Ther...

Authenticity and the Power of Emotions

Next week on December 6th, Harvard Business School Publishing is co-sponsoring a virtual seminar on Authenticity: Are You Delivering What Consumers Want? It features James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine II, co-authors of Authenticity: 'What Consumers Really Want as well as The Experience Economy". While I am not recommending or endorsing the webinar, I do find the topic one of great interest. The authors state, "Inundated by fakes and sophisticated counterfeits, people increasingly see the wo...

Large Group Intervention Change Strategies and Collaboration

I was very pleased recently to come across Jack Martin Leith's blog "Creating The New. In it he has published a whole chapter that he contributed on creating collaborative gatherings using large group interventions. Jack and I have since been in touch and he has been so kind as to share with our readers his Guide to Large Group Interventions.  If you download it, please respect the copyright and give credit where credit is due. Chapter 28 of the Gower Handbook of Training and Development, T...

Which European companies have the best leaders and more importantly WHY?

On September 19th, Hewitt announced in a press release Europe's Top Companies for Leaders. Sponsored by global human resources services company Hewitt Associates, in partnership with The RBL Group, a firm dedicated to helping clients increase quality of leadership and deliver the strategic HR agenda, and FORTUNE magazine, the Top Companies for Leaders were selected and ranked by a panel of judges based on criteria including leadership practices, company reputat...

CEOs’ Seven Common Leadership Complaints

BlessingWhite Press Release - October 16th, 2007 Chief Executives make seven classic complaints about their leadership team, according to BlessingWhite, a global consulting firm based in Princeton. The complaints are clear signs that the senior-management team is not functioning well, the firm said. "As a rule, such gripes or comments made by the President or Chief Executive Officer reflect underlying interpersonal issues confronting the leadership team," said BlessingWhite CEO Christopher Rice...

Effective teamwork is so much more than just following a recipe?

Have you ever wondered what it would be really like to walk through the door into a Professional Kitchen? Roberta of 1-Focus and Gavin Clutterbuck of Chex.ch are co-sponsoring an exciting new team building event on the evening of Thursday, November 28th at Gavin's professional kitchen in Geneva, Switzerland. This is unlike ANY training or team building you have experienced before. We will be taking participants into the workings of a real commercial kitchen and experience what it really takes...