The Blog of Mark Herbert

For those in the Christian faith today is Good Friday, the day we recognize the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I am not sure why we call it Good Friday, but that is a discussion for another day. It does represent for me a good day to contemplate, to look forward and backward at what I have achieved and what I still aspire to achieve. Over the last week or so a number of things have happened that...  Read More

The Wrong Paradigm Over the last week or so I have seen three different discussions from colleagues that I really respect that cause me to believe that much of our society and especially the business sector are still chasing what I fervently believe to be the wrong paradigm. In the first instance a colleague posed the question of whether or not an organization should focus on its ...  Read More

So, today is January 10 of a new year. If you put any credibility into the information collected by Gallup (and I do), we have so far this year lost $10 billion in potential productivity from the direct and indirect effects of employee disengagement based on their estimate that disengagement costs the U.S. economy $350 billion per year. Is it just me or does that seem like a pretty significant...  Read More

New Years is always interesting. You look forward and you look back, or at least I do. My mentor, Freya, has taught me a lot about spending more time looking forward and less looking back. Her philosophy is incorporating the valuable lessons and leaving the rest behind. Every day represents a new opportunity so you should embrace it. I don’t know about the rest of you, but 2012 seemed like a...  Read More

That statement is from the young man in the embedded video from a U.K. based movement called Engaged for Growth, a national employee engagement initiative. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqO3sfRZDAE I was intrigued by the elegant simplicity of the message. I was also impressed that the U.K. has recognized the importance of this phenomenon and strategy in making a difference. The young man...  Read More

It has been a while since I have written a blog post. I have had a chance to do some traveling, interact with a lot of family, friends and clients and reflect. The aftermath of the election continues to be interesting. It would seem that there is a sizable part of the population that is still kind of stunned on the outcome. They were sure that a return to our previous economic models would...  Read More

What an interesting week. I had occasion to spend a good part of it in a community where I continue to have roots and connections, but where I don’t reside on a full time basis. It was a nice visit, seeing people I care about and enjoying what the community and surrounding areas offer, which is rather a lot. It was also a little bittersweet. One of the reasons I don’t reside there anymore is...  Read More

I have been a professional change agent for more than 15 years now. I am in the business and have the avocation of trying to build different paradigms and models for how people and organizations see each other and work together. In some ways I guess that makes me an optimist. It also makes me a realist. Change is very hard for most people. People have different reasons for resisting change,...  Read More

As many know I am not a big fan of the concept of human capital. It is not that I reject the premise of measuring performance, in fact quite the opposite I totally agree with the position taken by BlessingWhite in their new book The Engagement Equation, that true engagement only truly exists when individual’s goals and motivations are aligned with organizational objectivesand goals. In my mind...  Read More

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. I took my first real vacation in quite a while, kind of. I took two weeks and drove up to our farm in Oregon with my primary thought partner and collaborator. Her name is Freya and she is an 80 pound Rottweiler. She doesn’t say a lot, but she is quite interesting in how she sees things and views her priorities. The last few weeks have been pretty tough...  Read More

A colleague of mine created a model some time back that she calls KindExcellence. Her premise is that kindness and excellence and forever linked and that in order to have one you must have the other. I agree with her. I have been a human resources practitioner, C level executive, and management consultant now for over thirty years, and it concerns me how we seem to be losing some of our ability...  Read More

Your culture can be positive, empowering, poisonous, passive-aggressive or anything in between. Successful companies invest in building a purposeful culture where engagement is a daily priority and shared responsibility of individuals, managers, and executives! © BlessingWhite 2012 That quote from a recent study by international consulting firm BlessingWhite succinctly states what I...  Read More

I apologize in advance that some of this particular post may be very personal. Although I am not a journalist, I am an author and consultant, and some measure of objectivity is probably a reasonable expectation. I found the events in Aurora, Colorado very disturbing. Not just the rather clinically executed way that they occurred, but the increasing tendency for incidents like that. I remember...  Read More

A few years ago I had the opportunity to become certified in what was then looked at as essentially a sales training program. I was working for a credit union at the time and like a lot of other credit unions we found ourselves at a crossroads. Credit unions, properly managed and run, are not banks or banking light. Their primary purpose when they were created was to pool the resources of ...  Read More

I realize that there may be several of you out there that wish I would stop haranguing everybody on this topic, but I continue to see evidence that we aren’t there yet. I had two different things occur yesterday that reinforced my viewpoint. A client that I work with quite closely sent me a message that was provided to him as part of a larger distribution of senior managers as a response to a...  Read More

June is always an interesting time for me. It is both the month I celebrate my birthday, but perhaps more importantly the month we celebrate Father’s Day. It gives me a chance to look back and reflect not only on the past year or years, but also ahead to what I still feel I have left undone. I have reached the point in my life and my career where what I leave behind me is more important than...  Read More

Over the last several months I have written a lot of blogs, made more than a few speeches, done some webcasts, and worked with a number of companies to discuss and, with any luck, create different models as to how we see and work with each other. As someone who began my career (and remains) deeply committed to the idea that relationships mean more than systems and people mean more than...  Read More

I admit it - I read a lot. I find myself very curious about many things, not the least of which are the viewpoints of other people. Since I wrote my last post things have been pretty crazy. I am working with a client to help build a bridge between philanthropy and businesses as one part of a new model to address some of our issues around the management of health and the delivery of health care. ...  Read More

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

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

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

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

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