Quotes from John R. Childress

Hear with your ears, listen with your heart.

In God we trust; all others must bring data. ~ W. Edwards Deming

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." ~ Mark Twain

When employees hold the same core beliefs and values, you need fewer policies to control or manage work. Instead, your employees have an innate ability to deliver solutions and customer service that match your desired culture.

People don't resist change. They resist being changed! ~ Peter Senge

Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got. ~ Peter F. Drucker

Stories get remembered about 13 times better than statistics. Facts tell, but stories sell!

A great place to work is one in which you trust the people you work for, have pride in what you do, and enjoy the people you work with. ~ Robert Levering, Co-Founder, Great Place to Work

I am a leader, therefore I lead; I am an executive, therefore I execute; I am a human being, therefore I care.

Anyone can copy your strategy, but no one can duplicate your culture!

Change Management seems to result in lots of management and little change. What I'm really looking for is Change Leadership!~ a very frustrated CEO

A proprietary technology can be reverse engineered and a star performer can be recruited away by a competitor. But a successful culture? That's bigger than any single individual or innovation, and can survive them both.

Don't use fancy words to make things sound better than they are or try to impress people. Build your breakthrough objectives using straight, clear, everyday language that your employees will understand.

We tend to think we can separate strategy from culture, but we fail to notice that in most organizations strategic thinking is deeply colored by tacit assumptions about who they are and what their mission is. ~ Edgar Schein, professor MIT Sloan School of Management

Performance (1992). Using the term 'adaptive' and 'non-adaptive' to describe high and low performing cultures, they studied over 200 firms, including Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI and Nissan, and concluded that adaptive cultures, those that are flexible enough to evolve with changing market conditions, tended to perform better economically than non-adaptive cultures.

Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, learn along the way, and keep moving. ~ Conrad Hilton

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. ~ Peter Drucker

A 50-deck PowerPoint presentation of the strategy may impress the board of directors, but it won't impress the competition or angry customers. Execution is the only competitive advantage. Strategy can only be realized through execution.