The Tribal Knowledge Paradigm: Creating the Culture of Innovation (The Tribal Knowledge Series) (Volume 3)

This book evolved from our 30 years of work as consultants. We learned a lot. We did field research about best business practices. We then used the insights from this research to create a “mash-up,” a hybrid of the best. We found out how you get everyone involved to change a culture. We also made some major discoveries that we will report in this book. And we found out something that surprised us. Quite frankly, it is obvious but we were not aware of how big it really was. It was this. All people love to help improve their work. They love it even more when they get good feedback for their successful actions. We found that people really like “earned respect.” This is the respect that you get from a leader and co-workers. The respect that we note here is a two way street. It comes from the leader down to the employee. And it goes up from the employee to the leader. It goes both ways. It is “earned respect.” This is best achieved from a successfully completed action that advances a shared sense of purpose. Publicly acknowledged, “earned respect” is by far the strongest motivator. It is the premium. The surprise here was how this came about. As you read this book, you will see that the basis of our work was the War on Waste. We will talk about that later in the book. Suffice it to say, it was an approach to change that puts people in teams. These were teams with a very strong purpose. They were charted to find problems and boy were they good at it. These teams made over 10,000 rock solid proposals to the CEOs and their executive teams. The result was we were able to observe major increases of profits in just about all of our 150 engagements. And we were able to see employees getting respect as they got involved in innovation. This was pretty exciting stuff. And we are describing a paradigm that will create the Innovation Culture that is the foundation of the success of any company in today's market.

Leonard Bertain, Ph.D. "This book provides the foundation that you need to know to make a corporation work. We learned what happens when you release the energy of employees who want to help. It is very profitable."
Leonard Bertain, PhD, Author, Speaker, Coach What Len's Clients say about him:
"Len Bertain brings all the focus of a cruise missile to his War on Waste process. We benefitted big time in our business."
Paul Rajewski, CEO, Microage Cerritos
"Our program gave us a clear view of our customers and suppliers. It also taught me to listen to employees-and great things happen when you listen to employees and revenue per employee, increased 40% and held."
Ken Cloyd, President, Cal Truss Co.
He has served as:

• Chairman, Founder & CEO, Consulting Firm Oakland, CA 25 years
• President and Founder of CEO University, San Francisco, CA, 1999 - today
• President and Founder, Unix Software Co., Oakland, CA 1980-1982

Len's Education Len has his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Nevada. He received his B.S. in Physics and Math from St. Mary's College of California.

George Sibbald, MBA
"Len and I have tried to create a simple concept of how you should manage a company to get the most from all your people. We have evolved the basic design of the book from our individual 30 years of consulting experience." George Sibbald, Author, Coach
Praise from one of his customers
"I have known George, since we were both management consultants with A.T.Kearney. I consider him one of the most creative general management consultants in the country..."
"When faced with an urgent turn around need at Roper Pump, I called upon George. He provided me with creative solutions with dramatic long-term impact. . .
Derick N. Key, Chairman of the Board Roper Industries
Industry and Functional Experience

• CEO, Microscopy Technology Company, Tempe, AZ 5 yrs. (an emerging technology scientific instruments division of an NYSE firm)
• "Arizona Innovator of the Year Award," Arizona Chamber of Commerce, (Medical Devices) 1999.
• President and Co-Founder, Consulting Firm, San Francisco 16 yrs.
• Director, Society Manufacturing Engineers, CASA (Computer Automated Systems Association)
• MBA Instructor, Royal Roads University, British Columbia, 2000