I’ve had the opportunity to garden in three different parts of Australia . . . Sydney, Darwin and Brisbane. Each of these areas has their own unique conditions that have helped or hindered my ability to garden. One of the most valuable lessons I learnt early on is to work with the conditions you have [...]
Tags: employee engagement, Karen Schmidt, Organisational culture, Productivity, Purpose
When I think of a potted plant one of the main advantages that comes to mind is portability. You can move them around to suit your needs, filling a gap temporarily and they are great in spaces where it is just not possible to plant anything in the ground. A lot of people see potted [...]
Tags: employee engagement, Karen Schmidt, Productivity, Staff turnover
The Times published an article a while back that proves the Prince of Wales was right all along. Plants really do like it if you talk to them. What he did not know is that they prefer to hear a woman’s voice. These are the conclusions of a month long study by the Royal Horticultural [...]
Tags: Communication, employee engagement, engaging leaders, Karen Schmidt, Productivity
In my last post I talked about preparing for a storm when you know it is coming. Unfortunately, not all storms can be anticipated. In most states of Australia there are examples of freak weather events that no one saw coming. These anomalies can involve rain, hail or fire. The results can be devastating and [...]
Tags: crisis management, employee engagement, engaging leaders, Karen Schmidt, role of leaders
Living in South East Queensland during summer means dealing with storm season. You can expect strong winds, lots of rain, occasional minor flooding and even power loss. It’s all part of the natural cycle of life and whilst it can be annoying at times, the lighting shows are often spectacular.
Smart gardeners know they need to [...]
Tags: Being proactive, Change management, crisis management, Karen Schmidt
When I look around at the gardens in my suburb the ones that catch my eye all have one thing in common. They have a clear purpose. You can see that the gardener who designed them thought about what they wanted to achieve and carefully selected the right components for that purpose. Those gardens that [...]
Tags: Job role definition, Karen Schmidt, Purpose, skill sets
Just read a really interesting piece in the Sunday paper by Kathleen Noonan who quotes Craig Chalquist, a lecturer at John J Kennedy University in San Francisco, on the reasons why we are all getting so stressed. He is one of a growing group (pardon the pun) of psychologists who believe that many of our [...]
Don Burke*, an icon of Australian gardening, believes that you need to think of some cheap plants as disposable. When they die you shouldn’t get upset about it. It’s a fact of life. Simply put it down to experience and throw them onto the compost heap. There is no point in attempting to bring them [...]
Tags: employee engagement, engaging leaders, Karen Schmidt, Staff turnover
Having recently moved house and gone from a medium sized garden to a small garden, I have learnt something valuable. Size doesn’t matter. The basic gardening principles apply no matter how much space I have to deal with. I still have to prepare the soil, select the right plants, give them nutrients, maintain them, etc, [...]
Tags: employee engagement, engaging leaders, Karen Schmidt, Small business
The concept of growing a team instead of building a team has been around a long time. It seems to have started with Frederick P Brooks in his book “The mythical man-month” written over 30 years ago. He believed that the “building metaphor has outlived its usefulness” and that “the conceptual structures we construct today [...]
Tags: employee engagement, engaging leaders, Karen Schmidt, Technical managers
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