Have you ever noticed that the problems we encounter in our work, and even in our lives, seem to be at least vaguely familiar? Do you ever wonder why people make the same mistakes that others have made in the past – or even the same mistakes they themselves have made over and over again? Administrative professionals can’t afford this luxury!

While working as a project manager at HP long ago I noticed that the topics raised at our project post mortems (so-called “Lessons Learned Review Meetings”) tended to be pretty much the same for every project. I mean, really, how many times can we “learn” that goals should be made clear, that communication shouldn’t be abysmal, or that strong, trusting relationships are essential to team success?

After more than 20 years of working on the biggest challenges people face in individual leadership, team effectiveness, and organizational cultures, I’ve noticed an astonishing pattern of predictable and avoidable failures. Are we doomed to repeat past mistakes, or can we break out of this “Ground Hog Day” cycle and make new and more exciting mistakes as we lurch fitfully in the direction of our goals and dreams?

Highlights:

• The biggest causes of individual failure to achieve their goals.
• What the worst leaders do, and the 70% of unengaged workers that results from this.
• Why teams of good, smart, decent people all over the world fail to achieve the results they seek.
• What organizations know, but don’t do, that leads to their predictable demise – and even downfall.

About Kimberly Wiefling
Kimberly Wiefling has extensive experience in the R&D and manufacturing of complex systems of hardware, software, firmware, chemistry and physics. Her physics background has provided her an
excellent framework for systems thinking, dealing effectively with complex challenges, and the insight that what seems “impossible” is often merely difficult. She’s held leadership positions ranging from NPI Program Manager to VP of Program Management at HP as well as several startups to Organizational Effectiveness for a Xerox Parc spinoff, and has helped companies from startups to Global 1000 successfully grow and – more importantly – SCALE.

She enables leaders to avoid or fix the most common causes of failure in global teams, problems that damage or destroy companies, along with billions in shareholder value. Although a physicist by education, she has found that many of these are “human” problems that don’t require “rocket science”. All that’s required to achieve significant positive impact in many cases is to make common sense into common PRACTICE. This includes applying practical frameworks such as project management and design thinking, two areas of her expertise, that she has combined to create a predictable and repeatable process to “innovate on purpose”.