B STATE BLOG

The best organizations operate through teamwork, but getting each member to work seamlessly with each other can be a challenge, especially without a plan. Drexler-Sibbet’s Team Performance Model provides organizations

The behavior of change (how people accept, embrace, and perform it) is the core component of modern organizational change management. Kurt Lewin’s Model of Change was the first widely recognized

By Mark Samuel – Organizations are only as successful as the teams who move them to success. The difference between being a high-functioning business team and a low-functioning business team

By Mark Samuel – While many companies are starting to plan their journeys back to the office, many are making coming back to work optional for their employees and some

By Mark Samuel – Leaders in an organization wield a lot of power and responsibility. They set the tone for their team, make decisions that affect business outcomes, foster leadership

An accountability coach is a professional who works with you and your business to help develop new skills that are required for problem resolution and resource management. There are numerous

  When evaluating Accountability vs Responsibility, it’s important to remember responsibility has to do with the tasks you’ve set out to accomplish, but accountability is a mindset and has more

By Mark Samuel – The standard wisdom for planning the future has been to look at past results. Studying metrics that included past revenue, sales, customer purchases, market reactions and

Cross-functional teams haven’t always been popular, but nowadays we know organizations can’t get breakthrough results without them. When departments operate in functional silos, they simply don’t have the knowledge, awareness,

By Mark Samuel – A cross-functional team is any team that includes members of multiple departments. Creating cross-functional teams in your organization can be a great way to reduce breakdowns,

By Mark Samuel – During a time when the line between our home and work life is blurring, it’s important to talk about the role of personal development. The work

Companies of all sizes benefit from what successful start-ups already know. Cross-functional teams can be a goldmine of innovative ideas and productive collaboration. Suppose you can minimize the dysfunction of

Cross functional teams (CFTs) are groups of employees from different functional areas within a company or business. Another word for cross functional is cross departmental. For example, a CFT could

By Mark Samuel – What is a Cross-Functional Team? Business organizations are riddled with silos. A silo is when functional teams or departments don’t communicate or work with each other,

By Mark Samuel – Business teams are always looking to be better together, to be more productive, to get along better, and to achieve successful business results. One of our

By Mark Samuel – What are team agreements? Team agreements are agreements that are co-created by the members of a team about how to behave, communicate, and work together on

By Mark Samuel & Stacia Topping – Agile has proven to be such a valuable process and tool for technology companies that organizations in other industries have adopted it with

By Mark Samuel – What is a business team?     A business team is any team that works together for a common goal, typically for a business organization or company. Business

By Mark Samuel – In the field of organizational consulting, there are certain principles about achieving high performance that are considered common knowledge. I received my master’s degree in organizational

By Mark Samuel – If you want to transform your business, you must be willing to risk the unknown.  The year 2020 was filled with unexpected and unprecedented challenges that

What is Adrenaline Addiction? Adrenaline is a central component of an animal’s flight or fight response that kicks in when danger is sensed. Adrenaline causes one’s heart rate and blood

  At work, offense is being proactive. It’s what we call “playing big.” Defense is “playing small” or being reactive. Offensive vs. Defensive are terms that we’re familiar with when talking

Self accountability, also known as personal accountability, is a way of living in which you take responsibility for your actions and your life, learn from your mistakes, and quickly recover

8 Behaviors That Help Develop Personal Accountability One of the leading concerns among senior executives is accountability from managers, leaders, and employees. Blame doesn’t solve problems and only creates a negative culture

By Mark Samuel – We’ve all experienced team relationship breakdowns, especially at work in our teams and organizations. We try to address those team relationship breakdowns by implementing teamwork and

By Mark Samuel – The myths of accountability are deeply ingrained in our business paradigms. Accountability is one of the most misunderstood terms in organizational development and a concept that

By Mark Samuel – Did you know that departmental silos are the biggest obstacle tohigh performance, increased profitability, value-driven culture, andoverall success? In my consulting practice, I’ve seen that bringing functional leaders together to speak

When trust in the workplace breaks down between individuals or teams, relationships suffer — poor communication, hiding, defensive posturing, blame and other forms of aggressive and passive-aggressive behaviors ensue. The

By Mark Samuel – Creating virtual trainings, and especially translating in-person trainings to virtual trainings takes skill and an understanding of the inherent differences between sitting in a room with

By Mark Samuel – The viral pandemic of 2020 has become the Great Game Changer, not only for the decade, but most likely for the century. There has been so

By Mark Samuel – Many people, including myself, thought we would only be working remotely for 3 to 5 months as a result of the pandemic. So much for our

By Mark Samuel – The word “priority” can often be a point of confusion for leaders and employees at all levels within an organization. Some of the common comments I

By Mark Samuel – What does Breakthrough Mean? A breakthrough is a change that uplevels both understanding and behavior to create an entirely different experience. In business, a breakthrough change

By Mark Samuel – Most team consultants talk focus on individual habits, styles of communication, and personal accountability, but hardly anyone ever mentions team habits. “I felt like I was

By Mark Samuel – So far we’ve explored two of the most common traps that even seasoned content designers and facilitators can make when they turn to offering virtual events:

By Mark Samuel – In Part 1, we shared one of the most common mistakes made by seasoned content creators and trainers—to underestimate the differences between live and virtual events.

By Mark Samuel & Licia Rester – Those of us who are experienced in delivering in-person training workshops with a high degree of success are finding the move to a

By Mark Samuel –  Business is always shaped by external drivers: those circumstances beyond our control that we must respond to if we want to succeed. Economic conditions, customer demands,

By Mark Samuel –  It’s been less than a month since many local governments loosened restrictions, and some companies are already making significant mistakes in how they are approaching reentry.

By Mark Samuel –  This is part 4 in a 4-part series to help organizations navigate re-entry after the initial impact of COVID-19.  If you’re just joining the conversation, don’t

By Mark Samuel –  This is part 3 in a 4-part series to help organizations navigate re-entry after the initial impact of COVID-19.  If you’re just joining the conversation, don’t

By Mark Samuel –  This is part 2 in a 4-part series to help organizations navigate re-entry after the initial impact of COVID-19.  If you’re just joining the conversation, don’t

By Mark Samuel – This is part 1 in a 4-part series to help organizations navigate the virtual workplace and re-entry after the initial impact of COVID-19. A Roadmap for

By Mark Samuel –  The conversation around goals is a familiar one to all of us. You can read up endlessly on tips and tricks for creating realistic goals, identifying

By Mark Samuel –  Louis Carter, Founder and CEO of the Best Practice Institute published a business book roundup of 33 of the best leadership books. And as the article

By Mark Samuel –  The recent pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty in every area of our lives as our finances, personal health, and immediate futures are subject to

By Mark Samuel –  Business in the coronavirus environment continues with people working from home, being laid-off or furloughed, or finding creative ways of  collaborating with others while keeping social

By Mark Samuel and Nate Johnson What do Blockbuster, the San Francisco 49ers, and me in the 9th grade have in common? We all played not to lose; we played

By Mark Samuel and David Rodgers The first month of the new year is in the bag. It’s an exciting time with new goals, new challenges, and a fresh start.

By Mark Samuel People solve problems in order to achieve success in their business, create a more satisfying relationship or grow to their next level of excellence. Who is a

By Mark Samuel There is a major misunderstanding about burnout that suggests it stems from over-work, change, and driving toward higher levels of business results year after year. However, we

By Mark Samuel A few years back, a client of mine implemented a Performance Management System to assist managers in coaching their direct reports. The company spent nearly one year

By Mark Samuel It’s when we are sick and tired of being stuck that we are the most motivated to make a change. This could be getting more organized, losing

by Mark Samuel In the middle of a recent coaching session, a CEO complained: “I shared our new vision and mindset change in an All-Hands Meeting. People were inspired, asked

by Mark Samuel I recently talked to a frustrated senior leader who said… “I’ve communicated the new picture, why we need it, and how urgent it is to our success.

by Mark Samuel –  So you’ve created your Picture of Success – a new vision that’ll take your company to new heights. You’re excited and you can’t wait to get

In business and life, there are often moments when one simply can’t seem to find a way forward. A collaborative mindset is a critical part of the path ahead. We

by Mark Samuel In a recent meeting of global company executives, I was asked about the difference between traditional change management and a B STATE approach for getting breakthrough results.

No one wants to be micromanaged, or be a micromanager—but managers are held accountable for completion of work, and if the work isn’t being done, micromanaging becomes the default management

Which people in history inspire you the most? Why? John F. Kennedy, while not being perfect, was able to mobilize the world with inspirational messages of hope, personal responsibility, and care

While most leaders know what the change is that they want to accomplish, few understand how to make those changes happen, especially when there is pressure for massive change in a relatively short period

by Mark Samuel When your team just isn’t stepping up to produce the results you desperately need, months can be wasted in assessment to determine the cause and how to