Conversations with license to talk.

Creating High-Engagement Cultures

Engaged employees are up to 25% more productive and 80% more likely to stay – yet only a small percentage of employees are highly engaged and most tend to disengage with time on the job. Why? Because leaders tend to think about engagement too narrowly – as enthusiasm, dedication or a positive attitude, which tends to erode with the disappointments, contradictions and challenges of organizational life. We need a broader view of engagement if businesses are truly going to get the benefit. This means considering other meanings of “engagement”, such as sharing responsibility, interacting authentically to enable learning, even engaging in constructive conflict if needed for the company’s larger aims and values.  In this interactive conversation, we will explore the practices that build a culture of high-engagement, expanding beyond a few engaged individuals to cultivate entire organizations that act with agility and intelligence.

Growing Your Business by Building Customer Trust

When customers trust a business, they are more likely to return, less sensitive to price, and more likely to recommend it to their friends and colleagues. Yet only 30% of consumers in the U.S. trust the companies they do business with regularly. Why? Because the fast pace and complexity of daily operations make it difficult to keep promises and all-too-tempting to make the subtle compromises that erode trust and destroy relationships. Most professionals respond to this dilemma by trying harder to attract new customers, when the easiest way to grow your business is to ensure you are honoring your commitments to the customers you have. Paradoxically, your greatest allies in this process may be your employees.Join us for this practical interactive discussion about ways to grow your business by investing in customer trust, the challenges of keeping promises as a business, and how building your capacity to be trustworthy can lead to long-term competitive advantage.

Keeping Your Mission Real

Contrary to popular wisdom, individual integrity does not add up to organizational integrity. Without systems to help organizations coordinate to deliver on their commitments, keep their values and visions real, or stay in touch with external reality, we can end up delivering results that give lip service to a goal but miss the real potential and even cause harm. In this exploratory conversation, we examine what it means for an organization to have integrity around its mission, and what it will take to move toward greater organizational integrity in our society.  Elizabeth will show why constructive, collaborative conflict is crucial to organizational integrity, innovation and effective execution -- and provide guidelines for sorting healthy and unhealthy compromise in social ventures.   She will also introduce the principles for a high engagement culture that helps social entrepreneurs keep commitments real in practice, and provide an opportunity for participants to explore how those principles apply to their own organizations.

Why We Need an MBA Oath

Have you ever been asked to do something at work that gnawed at your conscience? A surprising number of professionals have confronted unhealthy pressure to compromise, even while working with companies and leaders they otherwise admire. Unfortunately, going with this pressure can lead to a “devil’s bargain by degrees”, taking a bite out of our self-respect, eroding our organization’s long-term viability, and even contributing to serious economic, social or environmental catastrophes.  In this frank discussion about compromise and courage at work, Elizabeth will outline ten common misconceptions that can undermine our ability to live up to our values under pressure – and how the MBA Oath can serve as a critical component of an internal reinforcement system for taking more creative, courageous and constructive action.

The Power of a Positive No

So many of us struggle with saying "No".  Too often we accommodate Others' requests or offensive behavior or, at the end of our ropes, lash out in ineffective ways.  But how do we say "No" without damaging important relationships or failing to deliver on our responsibilities? Although it is challenging, leading edge organizations and inspired professionals are learning that the right “No” actually improves their results. In this interactive dialogue based on William Ury’s The Power of a Positive No,  we will explore a practical approach for saying “No” that can improve working relationships, quality and performance, while reducing complexity, burnout, and frustration.

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