The Blog of Mark Herbert

Wow - what another interesting couple of weeks. Seems like once again everybody has lots to say about what the other guy is doing and not much about what they will do differently. I am not a huge fan of our current status quo. I recognize that if you gauge it purely by the stock market we are seeing some progress, but I continue see too many things to take a break. A recent study by Maritz...  Read More

“When the pace of change outside an organization becomes greater than the pace of change inside the organization, the end is near.” John R. Walter, President, ATT Maybe it is just my perspective, but it seems to me this might be the crossroad we are approaching. When I read different things that are out there whether on the “news”, social media, or published I see a pattern of things...  Read More

So I am sitting here at a beautiful site in South Carolina about 500 yards from the ocean. It is a good place and time for reflection. I am lucky that way; my chosen profession as a consultant allows me time for reflection on what I do and why I do it. I have also reached a time and place in my career and my life where I choose who I work with pretty carefully to be sure there is a level of ...  Read More

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the immensity of the sea. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery A colleague shared that quote with me earlier this week and I thought it brilliantly and succinctly summarized the essence of engagement and true employment branding. As those of you who are...  Read More

I was having a conversation with a client of mine recently where he shared with me his experience in having a conversation with the human resources department of his organization. I want to be clear that this organization has 18,000 employees in three states; it is not a small company. The discussion was around some issues he was having transitioning out some underperforming employees and...  Read More

I often find myself thinking that there is a real benefit in not being a genius. As I alluded to in my last blog post I thought the research that was shared about the cost of compliance, it is interesting how much pressure being seen as being a genius or expert can put on you. In that post I explored the fact that when we evaluate entrepreneurial ability like leadership, there was an...  Read More

Almost anybody that knows me or has had to sit through one of my presentations or read any of my books, blogs, or other ramblings knows that I am not a big fan of compliance for the sake of compliance. I much prefer the atmosphere and environment created by engagement, the alignment created when people and organizations share a set of ideas and values and work towards common goals that are...  Read More

Called to Serve Modeling and embodying the culture you want is perhaps the most important duty of a healthcare leader today. I read this comment from an editorial in the most recent edition of Healthcare Executive and immediately two reactions came to my mind- First, wow that is right on. Given the state of dysfunction in health care delivery in the United States that is a...  Read More

Meaningful Leadership I have had a chance to do quite a bit of driving over the last week or so which I really enjoy. It gives me a chance to think a lot. I find that a reasonably open road and good music in the background is a great vehicle to really let things crystallize in your head. I think one of the downsides of technologies like PDA’s, cell phones, etc. and email is that we are...  Read More

Meaningful Change I had an opportunity today to spend some time with a pretty powerful group of people from the KeyChange Institute, www.keychangenow.com I am very proud to be associated with this group and the important work that they are doing. If you look at the situation we face today it is or should be apparent that a lot of our tried and true solutions are failing us. As I have...  Read More

Defining a Path I had a chance to respond to a question on a business networking site this morning on if I had the opportunity to choose my career path over again would I still choose human resources. My response was in the affirmative. I have been essentially a human resources professional and change agent for over three decades now. I chose that field because I have always believed the most...  Read More

Rites of Passage Two events occurred over the weekend that I at least found important and interestingly connected. I am a student of leaders and leadership so how leaders handle themselves is intriguing to me. To be candid neither of the events I mention included Newt Gingrich prevailing over Mitt Romney. While I find them both infinitely more articulate and qualified than the Donald, I...  Read More

Contemplating 2011 I wear many hats these days. Apparently there is a new movie out using the plot line from the old John LeCarre novel- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy I feel the metaphor. Aging human resources executive, coach, mentor, parent, author and consultant. I wonder if I do any of them well? Over the last few years I have seen a growing interest in a couple of topics that speak to...  Read More

It Is the Season It seems a little surreal to recognize that not only is the season upon us, but almost here. Before anyone takes offense, the season can be Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or whatever you care to celebrate or not celebrate. For me what is more important than what religious affiliation we associate with is that the idea of peace on earth and goodwill resonates with me. A brief...  Read More

I find words and their interpretation fascinating. Maybe it was growing up kind of sickly and nerd like and having books as companions rather than playmates, but to this day people who can really express themselves well fascinate me and earn my appreciation and respect. I include poets and the writers of great music in my identification of those people. I personally find Bob Dylan, Bruce...  Read More

Perpetuating the Insanity I think it was Einstein who I paraphrase in saying, " Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity." Yet still we persist. I read a lot. I read blogs, articles, books, etc. I am always curious to benefit from the thinking of people smarter than I am, which I have calculated to be about 95% of the population...  Read More

As a student of both history and leadership, I am always intrigued and captivated when I see or hear about defining moments playing out. I don’t know that I, or for that matter any member of the public, will ever know what truly transpired at Penn State with Joe Pa and other leaders of that institution, but they did not handle the situation well and now have a stain on their reputation that...  Read More

I had an opportunity last week to do a couple of things that might seem very incongruent to others, but not so much to me. Over the previous weekend I had a chance to read the book, The Four Purposes of Life . It was an interesting book, similar in some fashion to the Spark, the Flame, and the Torch. Both books explore the concept of what I refer to as our longest mile, even though neither...  Read More

I think like a lot of people last week I watched the events at Penn State unfold with a kind of mesmerized, horrid fascination. As the story began coming out, it seemed to become worse and worse and engulfing more people in its appetite like some kind of a fire. I am not a huge sports fan, but Joe Pa has been an icon for decades. Unlike people like Woody Hayes and even Frank Kush from my alma...  Read More

Making the Connection I had a chance to read a couple of really excellent articles this week on the issues around the management and delivery of health care. One of them talked about the differences between the effectiveness of the Medical Home as opposed to Accountable Care Organizations, the other about the importance of involving the patient as consumer in the evolution of our health care...  Read More

HR- Are We Not Getting It? A few weeks ago I got a chance to collaborate with a respected colleague, David Shedd, on the perspective of HR from the C-Suite. He actually followed up our podcast with an excellent blog post titled "HR –Needed More Than Ever, But MIA." David’s perspective, and I happen to share it, is that we are at a time and place in our society where the connections between...  Read More

I had a chance to read a couple of blog posts from two colleagues whose work I really respect this week, Dan Bloom and Drew Stevens. There were in my mind some parallels between what they were saying both between each other and my own thinking. There are also some slight differences in my perspective and Dan’s. Dan talks about how much of corporate America seems to feel they are at war with...  Read More

Inspired by a blog post by Seth Godin and preparing to relocate from Eugene, Oregon to Phoenix in May of last year, I wrote a blog post I called "Completing the Circle." It was about things that you do and people that you touch. At the time it was a very contemplative period. I had lived in Eugene a great deal longer than anywhere I had lived before. It was a deliberate decision; I just somehow...  Read More

What’s the core of leadership? I have often wondered about this. Like everyone, I have worked for individuals who have the capacity to inspire and energize an army, and I have also worked for people who would have been a better match for jobs where they could have worked without ever encountering people. But recently, I read an interesting quote, and I believe it defines the true core of...  Read More

Maybe I am just ready for it to cool off here in Phoenix and be a bit more hospitable, but this just seems to have been a long week. Some of the events that I found more discouraging than usual were the Reno air show disaster, the execution of a prisoner on death row in Georgia where although it seems like due process was followed the shadow of a reasonable doubt remains, and then the what seems...  Read More

Our Future Success Depends on Creating a New Model This blog is co-authored with Kathleen Schafer, Founding Principal of Leadership Connections and a leadership consultant and executive coach with over 20 years of experience in the public sector and academia. In my dream the angel shrugged and said, “this time if we fail it will be a failure of imagination,” and then she gently placed the...  Read More

Tomorrow as we all know represents the 10 th anniversary of one of the most tragic events that occurred in U.S. history. The media is already replaying the videos over and over. As with I suspect a lot of other Americans it causes me to reflect back on that day and the days immediately following, it also causes me to reflect on what we have learned in that decade. Perhaps nostalgia is...  Read More

Given that this week kind of represents the official return of the college football season I thought the using a sports analogy wasn't altogether inappropriate. I think I made some progress this week in moving my personal ball forward. As I have expressed previously on my blog I like to think that over the years I have evolved from corporate employee to consultant to social entrepreneur. I like...  Read More

I had an opportunity this week to read Accenture’s latest report on engagement. Two things went through my mind - I found it very validating. 90% of what they talk about are concepts and constructs I have believed, practiced, and tried to teach for years. The prescription and my Compliance to Commitment model have a tremendous degree of overlap Every aspiring leader, manager, and MBA...  Read More

What an interesting week! I had the opportunity to interact with a number of different people this week ranging from a brilliant scientist and physician, people deeply committed to the philanthropic purpose, an entrepreneurial organization that manufactures industrial coatings and is going through a succession transition, and finally a multi-billion real estate investment firm engaged in the...  Read More