Restructuring an organization may be commonplace, but it isn't easy. I'm currently working with three companies that are either being acquired, or spinning off divisions to create new publicly traded companies — and I've been a leader during a restructuring (when PepsiCo divested itself of Pizza Hut). There are rumors that PepsiCo may be at it again; financial blogs are buzzing about the possible spin off Frito Lay.

Happy Holidays from everyone at Interaction Associates.
 
As the year winds down, I have been reflecting on how lucky I am to work with such wonderful clients and colleagues. We live in challenging times -- in business and in the world at large. And yet, the holidays are a time to take stock and express gratitude for family, friends, and professional colleagues.
 

Over on the excellent RethinkHr.org blog, Benjamin McCall writes a thoughtful post on meetings (with a bonus dollop of hilarity at the end). 

In "Meetings Can Be Unbearable," Benjamin laments purposeless meetings as time-wasting and dull. No argument here! His examples include meetings with no agenda (disastrous, generally) and meetings to which you’re invited for no apparent reason.

Increased business acumen is an important component of any strategic initiative for developing leaders — i.e., the specific literacy around business fundamentals and the key functions of an organization that drive business results. Lately, I've been thinking that there's a parallel to business acumen that's equally important for achieving strong results. Let’s call that "collaborative acumen."

Ashley Welch of Interaction Associates conducted a timely conversation with her colleague from the Interaction Institute for Social Change, Melinda Weekes (pictured below left). They discussed Strategies for Designing Social Change, exploring ways leaders in any sector can succeed when leading change.

Well, this has been quite the World Series – a Fall Classic showdown between Texas and St. Louis that even a die-hard Red Sox fan like me has enjoyed. Around Red Sox nation these days, anything to do with baseball is a sore subject – after the Sox suffered such an epic collapse in September.

But the film Moneyball has me thinking about the cliché that "baseball is a metaphor for life." And as the 2011 season winds to a close, I'm struck by how that movie offers a definite lesson in leadership that I want to explore here briefly.

Harry Nilsson’s Grammy award winning song, "Everybody's Talking at Me," has been stuck in my head all day, specifically the lyric: Everybody’s talking at me, I don’t hear a word they’re saying, only the echoes of my mind.

I actually met Harry Nilsson years ago when I managed a restaurant in Southern California called Severino’s. Nilsson’s sister and her partner, Severino Surace, owned the place.

In October's LeaderLens online conversation, Ashley spoke with Karlin Sloan: author, speaker, and CEO.

September's LeaderLens online conversation featured Brooke Deterline, Director of Corporate Programs for the Heroic Imagination Project.  Brooke has spent most of her career working with executives to create “best practices” to positively affect corporate culture and reputation. She has lately moved into the arena of corporate social responsibility, a field that combines her strategic focus with her passion for sustainability, leadership, empowerment and social and environmental justice.