By, David Friedman A number of years ago, I was leading a workshop and I was telling my “Ritz-Carlton story.”  For those unfamiliar, I developed the concept of the Fundamentals and the weekly rituals we practice after learning about Ritz-Carlton’s “Basics” and their “Daily Lineup.”  Ritz-Carlton has 20 Basics (behaviors) that they teach and practice, primarily through daily lineups that take place in every property in every shift in every department, every single day around the world.  It’s the backbone of their extraordinary consistency around service excellence. As I shared this story, an audience member shared his own Ritz-Carlton story, …

By Jake Friedman, Consultant Over the last couple blogs we’ve shared stories of how our client companies have relied on their culture to provide a stable foundation and a guide for decision-making during the current crisis. So what is it about practicing Fundamentals that makes a culture so sturdy, that makes it so ingrained, that even in these unprecedented times it remains reliably unchanged, even if everything else around us is changing? The key is in the ritualized practice of the behaviors that define your culture. In fact, our Founder/CEO here at HPC, David Friedman, says the idea of using …

By Al Curnow, Vice President One of the things I enjoy most about my job is the opportunity to work with such great leaders representing incredibly diverse organizations.  Our clients include those that are for profit while some are not-for-profit.  Some are high-tech while others are “get your hands dirty” low-tech.  They include the world’s largest horseradish manufacturer and firms that provide vital services to some of our country’s most vulnerable populations.  Yet, while the industries we work with vary dramatically, there is a common thread among those that lead these organizations.  These leaders understand just how important their leadership …

By Bill Kaiser, Vice President The news is scary and the short-term future is uncertain. Now is certainly the time for us all to be thinking we rather than me. Although, when it comes to toilet paper and Spring Break beaches in Florida, it seems the “me’s” are dominating. I saw a recent Instagram post and the suggestion was, “Why don’t we all buy groceries that will last a week. And if everyone did that weekly, we would all have what we need!” Very sound advice. A Time to Lead I’ve been in a reading frenzy of late and recently …

By Rob Wolff, Vice President Think of your best employees, the ones that you’d like to clone.  We all have these people on our teams, and there are usually people whom we used to work with that we’d also like to clone and put on our teams.  Usually there are only certain aspects of those people that we want to clone.  One person is incredible at follow-up, while someone else is really great at developing long-term, trusting relationships with customers.  A completely different person comes to work every day with a fantastic attitude – full of positive energy that radiates …

Why is culture so confusing for people and how can you make it simpler?  Click on the video below to learn more.  

By Jake Friedman, Consultant My first job out of college was as a science teacher in a local high school. One August morning prior to the start of the school year, I found myself in a department-wide meeting, called by the district. The school district was changing the required structure and delivery of science lessons, and a representative from the district office outlined the new requirements, reading out what teachers must do, must not do, and how they would be monitored for alignment. The district rep seemed to think he was doing a good job of explaining it all, but …

By Bill Kaiser, Vice President It’s time to take our last look at 2019 and begin our assault on the success and excitement that lie ahead in 2020. I hope that 2019 was an outstanding and rewarding year for you both personally and professionally. I wish you massive success in 2020! I wanted to provide you with a summary of some of our “Blogs of 2019.” A convenient collection of the titles, brief summaries, and links to our Culture insights of this past year. We enjoy sharing and learning together and look forward to continuing the same in 2020. Click …

By Al Curnow, Vice President It’s that time of year again.    A fresh start.   A clean slate.   A time to think about what we’re going to do differently this year or get better at.    A time to be intentional and mindful (yes, I used this most overused of words).      Every new year we’re presented with the opportunity to think about the things in our lives that we want to improve or change.  Yet, the real trick is finding a way to implement and sustain these changes.  We’ve all seen this movie before.    We excitedly begin the year armed with our …

By Rob Wolff, Vice President Those of you familiar with our 8-step framework for institutionalizing culture will recognize Integration as Step #4.  It’s a step that demonstrates that those of us at HPC are pretty particular about the language that we use. Where other companies use terms like “new hire orientation” or “on-boarding”, we prefer the term “integration” because it more clearly defines the intent of that process – we want to make that new employee part of our organization, not just show her or him what we do. Reflecting back on my career, I’ll admit to feeling pretty good …