Peg Neuhauser

Uncertainty is the word that best captures the thinking of most individuals and organizations these days. People say it's like working in a fog. Is the recession really over? Will things return to normal? If so, when? If not, what will the new normal be, and how do we succeed in that world? What do 90% of top execs rank as the critical organizational skill needed today--agility. Here are some practical definitions of what they mean by organizational agility:

Capacity to identify and capture opportunities more quickly than a rival does
Combining patience and boldness
Being ready to move the moment the fog lifts just enough so the choice is more than a crap shoot, but before things are clear to everyone including competitors

Help your leaders and employees understand the new normal in your organization and adapt as leaders and employees to these new realities.

Rethinking the Way You Lead topics:

Resist the temptation to spread the pain evenly through the organization. Consolidate your resources.
Beware of being too confident of your old leadership habits--challenge your own and each others logic, plans, assumptions, and behaviors.
Rigid calendar-based budgeting or planning processes are not agile.
Consider rewarding adequate performance with a generous severance package.  Adequate performances don't produce agile organizations.
Cross-functional teamwork needs to be fast and fluid.  Turf battles or endless meetings do not produce agility.
Reward people for feeding the collective IQ--sharing knowledge and advice that help other teams succeed.
Get honest about the "total cost of jerks" to your organization.  You can't afford them anymore.
Clone your "speed & agility" successes from one area of the organization to another.
If you're a control freak, get over it.  Control freaks are not agile leaders.  Control wisely, not constantly.

This presentation examines the power of storytelling in organizations, and its capacity to strengthen or damage the culture and spirit of the work place. The stories people tell can be positive and inspiring or negative and destructive to the future of the organization and the people who work there. In any case, the stories are a driving force that helps to shape the organization's destiny. Storytelling has always been the single most powerful form of human communication. This presentation is based on Peg Neuhauser's book,Corporate Legends and Lore (McGraw Hill), and is designed to give the leadership of your organization an opportunity to examine the stories that are told in your organization. New ways to use stories skillfully to reinforce important values and lead the way to your organization's future are presented and practiced.

Everyone’s work life has been affected by this era of uncertainty. The world we are living in today operates at a much faster pace than a decade ago. In addition to the increased speed, there is great uncertainty triggered by economic and world events. In this presentation, Peg C. Neuhauser, author of Culture.com: Building a Corporate Culture for the Connected Workplace, provides dozens of practical tips for coping with one of the most serious dangers of the high speed, uncertain world of work—burnout. In this interactive and entertaining presentation, Neuhauser will discuss ideas with the audience and help people sort out which tips they can put to use.

You survived the cut backs and restructuring in your company. Now you have to figure out how to survive in a downsized organization. You still have a job and in some cases you may have even ended up with an unexpected promotion. . You have more work, new responsibilities, and many of the experts who you could have turned to for advice and coaching are gone. In this presentation, Neuhauser focuses on the mind set and skills needed to succeed in a downsized company. In addition to the individual skills needed, she also explains how to rebuild a team rapidly and create a culture that will retain your best employees and keeps everyone focused on three important issues. . . take care of yourselves, take care of each other, and take care of this place.

With all the mergers, partnerships, and restructuring going on in organizations these days, clashes between the cultures are inevitable. People do not give up their old ways or blend two groups with different customs and histories without a struggle. Ordering people to change rarely works. The conflicts do not go away; they just go underground. To change or blend cultures requires negotiation to develop new ground rules and common agreements about how the groups will work together in the future.

This presentation guides participants through their own current cultures and to help them identify specific changes and common agreements that are needed.