cost of culture

Recap: Emotional Intelligence

Social intelligence, social competence, emotional competence, interpersonal intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, emotional adaptiveness, emotional quotient, emotional intelligence, EQ, and EI. There are many schools and many thoughts about what is and is not emotional intelligence. And just as many tools that attempt to measure, monitor, and predict the impact of emotional intelligence. For me, Emotional Intelligence [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, EI, emotional competence, Emotional Intelligence, EQ, hiring, recruiting, social competence, strategy, VC, venture capital

In review: Mergers and acquisitions systems thinking strategies, part 1

October 2010 in review. A roundup of blogs from the previous month: Mergers and acquisitions systems thinking strategies, part 1 — Leadership, management, and talent create and sustain organization success. The total environment of an organization is a major determinant of corporate choice and corporate success. A key to change is circular reasoning — Supporting the [...]

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Tagged as: change, change management, communication, cost of culture, leaders, risk, strategy, trust

Hiring the right person is more cultural than technical

As mentioned in the post Hiring is more emotional than rational technical skill rarely assures success in an organization. There are just too many elements that impact someone’s success that are more important than technical fit. Many times when you plant an individual into a team, business unit, or client site there is potential damage that no [...]

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Tagged as: Competing Values Framework, cost of culture, Emotional Intelligence, hiring, onboarding, recruiting, return on talent, talent

Hiring the right person is more emotional than rational

You have to assume every person you interview has the technical skill to do the job. Once past the traditional human resources gate-keeper by the time you meet a candidate they have the skills. When assessing a hire it is not only technical skill that keys your decision, it is about integration or how they [...]

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Tagged as: Competing Values Framework, cost of culture, Daniel Goleman, EI, Emotional Intelligence, EQ, hiring, interview, recruiting, Richard Boyatzis

When a small business should fear growth

A small company is a dynamic, creative place where it is necessary for people to take risks to build a new organization. Leaders of small companies are visionaries and there are strong demands for innovation to do more with less and to bite off grand goals. The people that work in small companies work around an assumed [...]

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Tagged as: change, Competing Values Framework, cost of culture, human capital assessment, human capital development, human capital strategy, organization, organization sabotage, risk, skills

What for-profits can learn from non-profits

For-profits commonly look down upon the management and staff of non-profits as woefully inefficient. Non-profits are hounded relentlessly to operate more like for-profits. An Economist article, Profiting from non-profits, writes about the reverse flow of innovation for-profits can gain from non-profits. When I mentioned non-profits, charities might come to mind first, but non-profits covers: hospitals, [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, for-profit, motivation, non-profit, private, strategy

In review: A key to why so many companies blow it in social media?

August 2010 in review. A roundup of blogs from the previous month: A key to why so many companies blow it in social media? — Do companies blow their social media efforts because they are afraid to fail, preferring to fall back on old marketing rules? The comments section offers a chance for Jonathan Salem [...]

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Tagged as: bureaucracy, cost of culture, hygiene, moral hazard, motivation, organization performance, performance review, project management, risk, small business

Discounted risk is human capital risk

Many firms admit they rely on the quality of entrepreneur to determine their funding decision, but rarely is this “quality” represented in a measurable, comparable assessment, or at least as measurable as weighted average cost of capital, discounted cash flow, capital asset pricing model, risk-adjusted rate of return, and other abstract financial models. Human capital [...]

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Tagged as: behavior, behavioral competency, cost of culture, Emotional Intelligence, human capital assessment, private equity, risk, venture capital

Tony Kmetty, Partner, The Hunting Territory Consulting

“I have had the privilege of interacting with Toby in a variety of capacities…first as the Director of his MBA program, then as a colleague as we launch a professional services consulting firm and through the years as a friend and sounding board as he worked with consulting firms and intelligence agencies. “His diverse background [...]

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Tagged as: Arctic Group, Central Europe, consulting, cooperate, cost of culture, Emotional Intelligence, Hungary, opportunity, small business, start-up, startup, succeed, Tony Kmetty, transformation, valuable

More workers voluntarily quit their jobs

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal presented More Workers Are Considering Quitting Their Jobs This is the boomerang effect of companies cutting payroll costs to the bone, redistributing work to the smaller remaining staff, and leaving an environment where workers feel “lucky to even have a job”. This leaves little left for motivation and the result of [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, fear, management, morale, motivation, organization development, organization performance, portfolio management, return on talent

Change management bottom up or top down

Classic change theory: leadership drives change; leadership must be committed for change to work. Seems to make sense, but in reality leadership is irrelevant. The organization’s ability to change is dictated by the operational units and employees, not leadership. The reality: culture eats strategy for lunch. Your workers dictate change and strategy. Leadership doesn’t drive [...]

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Tagged as: change, change management, cost of culture, John Kotter, leadership, management, strategy

Googled again: cost of culture is innovation

What, really, is the cost of culture? Is culture tangible to business bottom line or is culture an intangible behavioral science term only useful for dissertations? Culture, innovation, values, diversity, opinion. Related? Perhaps to each other, but related to the bottom line? I read a recent blog on Fistful of Talent had me revisit diversity’s [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, diversity, Google, innovation, intangible, tangible

Googled: the cost of culture

What does culture really costs a company? Is it worth investing in culture or passively letting culture form, also known as luck-based leadership? What is the cost of culture, in profit or loss? I found this one company a great example: Maternity leave: 5 months full salary Paternity leave: 7 weeks full salary Plus new [...]

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Tagged as: Abraham Maslow, benefits, cost, cost of culture, Frederick Herzberg, Google, Googled, Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory, Herzberg's Two Factor theory, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, motivation

The cost of culture, a 50% turnover of the Fortune 500

What is the cost of culture? Why is it even worth identifying corporate culture? Let’s start with what is culture. Culture is the values, norms, assumptions, expectations, and definitions that characterize organizations or affectionately known as: how things are done around here Culture is often a holdover from the founder(s) actions; sometimes developed consciously by [...]

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Tagged as: Built to Last, business process reengineering, change, cost of culture, Fortune 500, Jim Collins, Peter Senge, process, transformation, turnover

Dan Sorger, Founder, Dutch Bicycle Company

“I can honestly say that without Mr. Elwin’s input we would not be in business today. “Our importing business was suffering and we were losing money, we asked Mr. Elwin to analyze our business to help us determine what we need to do and how best to implement the changes. “He acquired a deep understanding [...]

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Tagged as: analyze, change, consulting, cost of culture, Dan Sorger, Dutch Bicycle Company, Dutch Bike, goals, help, mission, mission statement, observation, road map, small business, start-up, startup, transition

Competing values drives your organization out of business

Cultures are characterized by how things are done around here. Culture is sometimes adopted from the founder, sometimes developed consciously by teams who try to improve performance, and sometimes culture is formed in reaction to a lack of leadership or need for survival. Culture emerges from collective: behavior, values, norms, assumptions, expectations, and process When [...]

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Tagged as: Competing Values Framework, cost of culture, leadership, organization performance, strategy, teams

Organization strategy and development – party like it’s 1969

How do organizations survive? The only way an organization survives is to grow. Like people, an organization grows and develops by developing new skills, knowledge, and abilities. An organization’s strategy is nothing without an organization’s development. Most professionals have an image of what marketing, sales, accounting, or human resource professionals do, but fewer are naturally [...]

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Tagged as: adapt, change, cost of culture, Edgar Schein, motivation, od, organization development, Richard Beckhard, strategy, Warren Bennis

Why Startups Should ALWAYS Compromise When Hiring? — Never!

Reading a blog on the venture capital website Start Up Hire called: Should Startups Compromise When Hiring? I found a reference to a blog Dharmesh Shah, Chief Technology Officer & Founder of Hubspot* and Onstartups.com, wrote, “Why Startups Should ALWAYS Compromise When Hiring?”. I posted a comment to the blog as I felt Start Up [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, Dharmesh Shah, hire, HubSpot, recruiting, skills, stat up, VC, venture capital

The bully in the corner office

I challenge myself to write blogs that might start a conversation either leading to change or to sustain what is working. I want to present an idea to provide a spark for action or follow-through. Anyone can come up with an idea, that’s easy, the hard part is to take an idea into implementation. My [...]

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Tagged as: bully, communication, cost of culture, diversity, fear, leaders, leadership, motivation, organization development, political correctness

The most difficult industry to work in

I admit each organization is unique. Each handles and manages industry and firm-specific stress and demand differently. I do not admit that organizations are anything more than a system of human interrelations. The organization is a product of human interaction and social construction. Organizations do not follow ordained, industry-driven culture. There is no set of [...]

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Tagged as: change management, cost of culture, diversity, industry, learned helplessness, social construction, sociology

Diversity facade, part 1

Intelligence does not guarantee insight. However, diversity does. The very leverage of knowledge is dialogue. And dialogue, a true exchange of ideas and opinions, is only possible in an environment that welcomes and fosters diversity, not the diversity facade, but the diversity lever of possibility. Although diversity can be a sensitive and often incendiary issue, [...]

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Tagged as: buy in, cognitive, cost of culture, diversity, fear, goals, knowledge, motivation, plan, planning, qualitative, strategy

Emotion versus intelligence – the tortoise and the hare

In a prior post I advocate emotional intelligence as a more important quality job interview criteria than a corporate or team culture fit. What is emotional intelligence or EI? And what does the EI vs. IQ debate mean? Where IQ intends to measure the ability to reason deductively or inductively. Much has come to light [...]

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Tagged as: Boston Globe, cost of culture, Drake Bennett, Emotional Intelligence, EQ, fear, IQ, leadership, recruiting, team

In review: Leaders and fishing

May 2009 in review. A roundup of blogs from the previous month: Leaders and fishing — Leaders craft the vision and convey how to embark on a course from what is to what could be. Leaders must rely on their managers to manage, but leaders need to roll their sleeves up and steward the message [...]

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Tagged as: buy in, change, change management, cost of culture, diversity, goals, leadership, leading, managing, resources, risk, stakeholders, vision

Culture war

Does your company have a hiring philosophy to find people who fit into the company culture? Do you interview people to fit into the culture of your division? Do you interview people to fit into the culture of your team? Why do we look for people who will fit in when what your business needs [...]

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Tagged as: cost of culture, diversity, Emotional Intelligence, EQ, fear, Fortune 500, IQ, risk, Russell 2000, S&P 500

Quick Bio

Toby Elwin has lived around the world and worked globally with, and for, some of the most highly-respected leaders and organizations in their fields.

This site, and thoughts, are rooted in the role leadership and talent have on an organization's motivation to influence, achieve, and sustain.

Toby's work combines systems theory, organization development, marketing, and portfolio and project management from more than 15 years in post-merger integration.
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Toby Elwin organization talent, change, and leadership

cost of culture

In review: Mergers and acquisitions systems thinking strategies, part 1

Hiring the right person is more cultural than technical

Hiring the right person is more emotional than rational

When a small business should fear growth

What for-profits can learn from non-profits

In review: A key to why so many companies blow it in social media?

Discounted risk is human capital risk

Tony Kmetty, Partner, The Hunting Territory Consulting

More workers voluntarily quit their jobs

Change management bottom up or top down

Googled again: cost of culture is innovation

Googled: the cost of culture

The cost of culture, a 50% turnover of the Fortune 500

Dan Sorger, Founder, Dutch Bicycle Company

Competing values drives your organization out of business

Organization strategy and development – party like it’s 1969

Why Startups Should ALWAYS Compromise When Hiring? — Never!

The bully in the corner office

Diversity facade, part 1

Emotion versus intelligence – the tortoise and the hare

In review: Leaders and fishing

Culture war

Quick Bio

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Biggest Influences – So Far

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