Archive for February, 2018
It’s Never Been Easier to Publish Your Own Book, So Go For It!
“Have you thought about publishing your own books?” No I hadn’t, and, to be honest, the question took me aback when I heard it a decade ago. I was chatting with a long-time colleague, Tom Berger, about the new book I was about to start writing. Tom and I had gotten to know each other years earlier at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio, where we worked closely together – I as chief of staff to the president and Tom as director of public relations. Tom asked his provocative question right after I’d given him my nutshell description of the … Read the rest
Blazing Trails on the Diversity and Inclusion Front at RTS
In Changing By Design (Jossey-Bass, 1997), I recount a real-life example of the difference between what Chris Argyris calls “espoused theory” and “theory in practice.” Early in my career I worked closely with a young, ambitious, fast-track college chief executive who was an avid consumer of the latest management thinking and could go on at length about one innovative technique or another. A favorite hobbyhorse of his was participatory management and team building. Waxing eloquent on the subject of teamwork as a key to organizational innovation, his eyes would tear up on occasion – he was that sincere. His espoused … Read the rest
Demonstrating Your Board Savvyness
Experience has taught me – and I’m sure many if not most of this blog’s readers – that the more board-savvy its CEO, the more effective a transit board is likely to be as a governing body and the more favorable the odds of building a rock-solid board-CEO partnership that can withstand the inevitable stresses and strains that come with leading a modern transit system. So transit boards have a big stake in recruiting CEOs whose governing intelligence is well developed. This is certainly a point I strongly made in the program I co-presented with Dave Stackrow, APTA Vice Chair, … Read the rest
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