Non-profit boards (and senior management teams) often have problems addressing all of the important things that they could be doing. It’s usually easy for them to create very long lists of noble goals. But it is quite another to turn those lofty ideals into actions. 

Dr. David Williams, President, Great Southwest Council, Boy Scouts of America, credits the Energy Bar approach with enabling the growth experienced by their council's’ executive committee over the past year. 

An organization was facing a huge threat. They needed to make massive changes in order to survive. (Sound familiar?) I was asked to facilitate the planning process. Prior to that first meeting, the head person, I’ll call her Betty, assured me that she knew the answers to the first two questions. And, by the end of the meeting, she was able to say yes to the third one.

In Betty’s organization, people saw the challenge and wanted to address it now! But, it’s amazing how often leaders don’t know where the energy is.  And, the higher up you are, the worse it gets. No one wants to tell you the truth.

I was working with a group of very bright technical experts on their strategies for building support for change. Lots of big words and lots of concepts being thrown around. We were all getting confused - and I do this for a living.

I stopped them, and said,” Look, it’s just energy. It’s either moving this way (toward support) or that way (into resistance).”

United Airlines is in a whirlwind of change. Former CEO Jeff Smisek resigned last September. Oscar Munez, the new CEO suffered a heart attack, and now the company’s general counsel, Brett Hart, is acting CEO.

In the midst of this, Mr. Hart said in a Wall Street Journal article, “This is not a company that is standing still. We’re not paralyzed.” Hart went on to say that they would continue with a plan to put “a new emphasis on customers, employees, and operational reliability.”