In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, builds on a previous blog regarding increasing an organization’s capabilities. In some organizations the learning and skill development tends to be limited to the higher level employees, management and owners. This can be due to limited finances for training and development or organizational culture or even the higher level employees not knowing or wanting for one reason or another to spend the time to develop their employees’ knowledge and […]
A few weeks ago I was in Arizona for a week. I did not receive any phone messages while out there. From 7am to 6pm it was all business, but with no phone calls between meetings and quiet evenings, I had an opportunity to feel and think about what we do as a business. I got a break from all of the “busyness”. While I have worked for years to not let busyness control me, it is still amazing how […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Nick Gonzales, discusses the importance of forgiveness. Many people in today’s society hold on to resentment, anger, and wrong doings that have been done to them. This can people effect both personally and professionally. Holding onto these feelings can become an obstacle for success and prevent nurturing relationships. In “Nurturing Healing Love” by Scarlet Lewis – she discusses her mission of finding forgiveness and nurturing healing love to honor her son, Jessie […]
Life is like interval training: we all need time to reflect and then time to act. Time to reflect. Time to act… It is exceptionally disappointing to see how so many people over think and do not act. Thinking is not necessarily reflecting. Reflecting without acting is day dreaming. It is also exceptionally disappointing to see people act before they reflect. Acting without reflection can do much damage. Acting without reflecting is chaos. Quote from William Blake: “He who desires […]
Manufacturing is challenging because it requires large investment in hard assets. The skills of the workforce and periodic shortages of materials make it even more complex. In order to survive and succeed, many manufacturing organizations are transitioning to more of a marketing and sales mindset and are using innovation of product and/or process to differentiate themselves. Out of necessity, they are also becoming more efficient partners in the supply chain. In almost 30 years of working with manufacturers, we see […]
At Applied Vision Works, we work with many types of organizations (public, non-profit, government, educational institutions, manufacturing, etc.) We are finding that we are working more and more with “family” businesses. Below are some interesting things about family business according to a report published by the University of Vermont: There are 5.5 million family businesses in the US. Contribute 57% of the U.S. GDP (that’s $8.3 trillion) Employ 63% of the workforce Create 78% of all new jobs 35% of […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Don Hadley, talks about what happens when the leader or business owner gets “off track”, or inadvertently sends the wrong message. This can happen for several reasons. Sometimes is that the owners’ perceptions are that they are being direct and honest and sharing with the team. However, the team interprets this as the leader or owner not having confidence in the work they are doing, success of the organization, etc. So what […]
One of the deepest parts of our work is tying why a business owner owns a business to their personal purpose in life. In our 2nd book, “The Challenge of Meaning”, we show how that impacts the business day-to-day. A client for 25 years started his business because his previous boss threw the phone through a wall while chasing an employee down a hallway when he lost his temper. This client quit and went off to start his very successful […]
In this week’s video blog our expert guide, Nick Gonzales, discusses the difference between empathy and sympathy. When we empathize with someone – you truly care about that person, understand that individual’s situation and feel with him or her. However, when we sympathize with someone, not only do we do all the above, but we are also going down that same road with them and enabling or supporting any bad habit or situation along the way. In the business world […]