Newsletters & Published Articles

Published Articles

Beyond the Handshake: Practical Strategies for Building Successful Associate Relationships
Practical strategies that have been found to be effective in creating consulting alliances that work. Click here for more.

Building Organizational Courage in Your Company
Fostering organizational courage is difficult -- but the key lies in being true to vision and values while at the same time embracing current reality, despair, and fears.
Click here for more.

Whole Systems Change 
A case study in the use of large group interventions and OD methodologies to effect change in a local school district. Click here for more.

Yikes!! Valuable and Humbling Lessons about Future Search
Cathy Perme shares her experience with Future Search facilitation.
Click here for more.
 

Newsletter Archive

8 Basic Rules of Improvisation (October 1995)
Because few jobs come with a script, these rules can be handy for the organization.

Are You Trapped? (August 1994)
Self-test to determine if you, as a professional, are trapped by your own success.

Becoming a Team Player (October 1995)
A course in improvisational comedy (improv) can teach a lot about being a good team player.

Boundaries: Defining the Playing Field (October 1992)
Continuing the discussion of empowerment with the importance of managing personal and organizational boundaries.

Building Trust (June 1995)
Eight key elements to building trust for yourself and your organization.

Can You Keep Your Most Talented People? (March 2010)
As the economy improves and jobs start opening up, employees will be asking themselves about working for you and your company.

Coaching and Counseling: The Leader as Guide (December 1994)
Coaching and counseling play a necessary role in organizational leadership.

Coaching and Counseling Tips (December 1994)
The "sandwich" approach to coaching and counseling preparation tip.

Creating Your Future (April 1993)
How to use "creative tension" to realize your vision – drawn from work by Robert Fritz and Peter Senge.

Dos and Don’ts for Building Team Relationships (January 1994)
Not everyone thinks like you. Celebrate!

Empowering Others (July 1992)
What does it take to be an empowering leader?

Flying Chaos Factory (October 1993)
This article recounts a workshop experience demonstrating how different types of organizations respond to unpredictable and changing environments.

Future Search: A New Way of Planning Together (March 1995)
Future Search is an effective method for large group action planning.

Go Forth and Grow (October 1993)
In an age of continuous change, the successful leader needs to go beyond managing change to building changeability into the organization.

How Do Empowering Leaders Behave? (July 1992)
Common phrases and patterns of speech signal whether a leader is empowering.

How Can You Create Effectively? (April 1993)
Six steps to effectively creating your future.

How Can You Manage Change? (January 1993)
Dos and don’ts for managing change on a personal level.

King, an Example of Personal Empowerment (April 1992)
Moving empowerment from a buzzword to reality in the organization.

Leadership Case Study (October 1991)
Delegate or die! This case study covers an entrepreneur who discovered unknown talents among his staff, when he learned team management and delegation skills.

Leading and Following (August 1996)
Dance is used to illustrate the responsibilities of leader and follower.

Leading in Turbulent Times (June 2009)
You are expected to strengthen your products, services, and client relationships, and to come out ready to compete and win. As a manager, what do you do?

Leading Your Organization Through Chaos (May 1994)
Here are the steps used by one executive to bring a large organization through rapid change brought about by external forces.

Managing Change in a Changing Culture (January 1993)
Every organization has an "invisible web of values and expectation that bonds the group together." An organization may experience rapid and disorienting culture change. How do we manage through such a change?

Notes from the Trenches (July 1991)
In times of recession and war, when things seem most turbulent, the technique of making strategic choices based on the core vision and values is effective for corporations. 

Open Space Ground Rules (February 1996)
The ground rules are simple, but may challenge our notions of how meetings "should be."

Open Space: Unleashing Passion and Responsibility (February 1996)
Open Space is a meeting method based on the principle that people who are passionate about something will naturally focus, manage, and hold themselves accountable for progress.

Organizational Courage (January 1992)
Courage is necessary to make organizational vision and values real. This article spells out the elements of organizational courage.

Real Time Strategic Change (May 1996)
This is a method for very large group interaction, from 40 to 4000 participants.

Reflections on Being Too Tired to Smile (October 1991)
Cathy learns the difference between customer service and "people pleasing."

Reflections on One Year in Business (July 1991)
Cathy reflects on the lessons learned in the first year of C.M. Perme & Assoc.

Simple Rules: Why They Help in Turbulent Times (June 2009)
One of the most useful concepts to come out of complex systems theory is the
concept of “simple rules.” “Simple rules” must be short, direct, and few.

Survival Tips (July 1993)
Six tips to help you adjust to the "information age."

Surviving the Information Age (July 1993)
Leadership does not mean having to know it all. In the information age, leadership is about using the information available in your organization and the knowledge of your people.

Teaching Leaders How to Lead (August 1996)
The five steps of expert leadership.

Teams – Can We or Can’t We (January 1994)
There is more to creating self-directed work teams than telling your workers that they are now a team.

Thoughts on Trust (June 1995)
What does it take to trust yourself and those that you work with?

Time to Think! (December 2009)
At year end, I offer this short piece on how to regain your think time, as I have watched many a client and colleague struggle with getting enough of that this year. Have you found that to be true yourself?

Tips for Better Planning Sessions (August 1998)
Four tips for better planning sessions.  

Tips for Coping with Change (January 1997)
Five tips for the individual coping with super-charged change.  

Whatever Happened to Cathy Perme? (February 2006)
Cathy has taken a sabbatical from C. M. Perme to pursue other interests and reports what she has learned from the experience.

When Should You Consider a Future Search? (March 1995)
The Future Search method is not for every situation. Here are indicators for whether your situation is right for the method.

When to Consider Real Time Strategic Change (May 1996)
Here is a list of good indicators for whether this approach will be effective for your organizational challenge.