This picture represents a typical scene in any wine growing area . . . orderly rows of grapes. When I see them it always reminds me of offices full of neat cubicles in a row. Both might appeal to our sense of neatness and order but they are not natural.
Plants don’t choose to grow in [...]

Tags: employee engagement, Employee retention, flexible working hours, Office cubicles, Organisational culture, Productivity

Meet my newest houseplant. I couldn’t resist picking up this Anthurium the other day. It must have been the unusual orangeish flowers. Most of the varieties available are red and I do like orange! Of course it came in the usual ugly black plastic pot so I had to repot it into something to match [...]

Tags: Change management, Employee Communication, employee engagement, Leadership and management, Staff turnover

Is a lack of noise in your workplace decreasing employee engagement?

Tags: Employee morale, Karen Schmidt, Leadership and management, Organisational culture, www.letsgrow.com.au

Over the holidays I created a micro climate in a small container. It’s called a terrarium. It is promoted as the ultimate, low-maintenance garden in a jar. The development of the terrarium is credited to Englishman Dr Nathaniel Ward, who invented a glass case – known now as the Wardian case – around the mid [...]

Tags: Karen Schmidt, Leadership skills, Organisational culture, Staff turnover

My recent trip to Dubai reminded me that what we often think of as harsh conditions aren’t so bad when you compare them to a really difficult environment. I’m talking, of course, about the difficulty of working in the Arab world. Running a workshop with people who speak Arabic as their first language not only [...]

Tags: Employee retention, Karen Schmidt, Leadership and management, working in difficult conditions