Pat Lynch

Are You Enabling Organizational Insanity?

It is impossible to “square a circle,” which makes this phrase an apt metaphor for what many organizations are trying to do now. That is, they continue to conduct business the way they’ve done it in the past in spite of the fact that the environment has c... Read >

Framing: What Does Your Elephant Look Like?

The way that we see the world is critical: it shapes our beliefs, thoughts, and actions. While we often don’t think consciously about how we view things, perhaps we should. More importantly, we should examine closely how other people, particularly our lea... Read >

2 Simple Steps to Organizational Alignment

A few years ago I was in Santa Barbara, CA visiting a client on Halloween. The students at the University of California, Santa Barbara have a tradition of dressing up in costumes and parading informally throughout the downtown area on Halloween night, so ... Read >

How to Accelerate Success: Create an Appreciative Culture

Would you like to accelerate your organization’s success? It’s as simple as making appreciation an integral part of your daily practices and culture. More than a dozen years ago a friend introduced me to a relatively new concept called appreciative in... Read >

The Gift of Your Talents

In the classic holiday movie It’s a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart played the role of a small town young man whose greatest ambition was to leave for the big city at his earliest opportunity to seek his fortune. When fate seemed to have other plans for him... Read >

What You Don’t Know about the NLRB Could Hurt You

It is safe to say that relatively few employers and even fewer employees can accurately identify the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and describe its role. Yet this five-member panel is about to transform the nature of the workplace. Here are seven ... Read >

8 Obstacles to Public Sector Success

In my experience, public sector agencies and government entities (i.e., cities, counties, states) face eight common obstacles to their success. See how many of these issues you have experienced, either as a provider or a user of public services. 1. Lac... Read >

Budget Cuts: Why Fire Departments and Police Departments Need to Change the Question

As city, county, and state budgets are being discussed and finalized around the country, one thing is clear: those who allocate resources are asking the wrong questions. As a result, recipients of government services are being short-changed because resour... Read >

Why “Fixing the Problem” IS the Problem

Dramatic increases in public sector pension liabilities at a time when state and local governments have seen their revenues shrink drastically have resulted in an explosive backlash against public sector unions and the workers they represent. At the very ... Read >

Succession planning myths and realities

Succession planning is a concept that often is misunderstood, to the detriment of all concerned. People tend to use the term incorrectly, thinking it means one thing when actually it means something quite different. For example, people often confuse the s... Read >

Wanted: Courageous Leaders

Organizations across the U.S., especially those in the public (government) sector, are struggling to overcome the obstacles and identify the opportunities presented in the aftermath of slashed budgets, plummeting revenues, and forced layoffs and furloughs... Read >

What Do We Do Now?: Options for Allocating Scarce Resources When You Haven’t Planned Ahead

Although advance planning for resource allocation is the ideal scenario, many organizations found themselves caught short by the severe constraints imposed by the economic downturn. What are the alternatives when organizations are operating in crisis mode... Read >

Guidelines for Allocating Scarce Resources

Scarce resources are a fact of business life. In the wake of devastating budget cuts, furloughs, and/or layoffs, however, "normal" levels of scarcity have been exacerbated. The question for many organizations has become, "How do we move forward from here ... Read >

From Chaos to Calm: The Experts’ Guide to Setting Priorities

One set of skills that is critical in any organization is that of setting, aligning, and implementing priorities. These skills are particularly important in times such as those we have experienced recently, when management has to find effective ways to "r... Read >

Candid Conversations: How to Drive the Political Correctness “Elephant� Out of Your Workplace

Note: "The elephant in the living room" is a common metaphor for situations in which people refuse to confront or even acknowledge a major issue even though everyone knows about it and it is causing serious problems. Individuals who are faced with diff... Read >