Resources

Mark Daniel (Dan) is a continuous improvement expert. He knows how the brain works—why it sometimes doesn’t—and how applying it to the workplace can lead to organizational success, from mergers and acquisitions to resolving conflict, implementing strategies, and cutting costs. Dan spent 20 years as a newspaper editor and new-media executive before focusing on his passion and studying the relationship between brain science and effective decision making. He is the founder of the Excellence Fund for Public Education, a member of the Savannah Chatham Citizen Advocacy, the Michael J. Fox Foundation, and the Corporation Council for the Episcopal Church in Georgia. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Delaware.

Recently, in three vastly different venues, three CEOs tried to make the case for using technology to create “happy employees:” The CEO of Wells Fargo described in Fortune magazine how he uses an app to create a daily “happy-or-grumpy” index of employee mood. The founder of Upworthy argued employees have the right to be happy […]

“We had a new chief executive officer, a new chief financial officer, and some really big decisions to make.” How the commitment to employee engagement helped PeoplesBank prosper during turbulent times. It took PeoplesBank 123 years to reach one billion dollars in assets. That was 2007 and things were going well. But when the financial crisis hit, […]

Lee, the “Reluctant CEO’s” trusted lieutenant, had contacted me six weeks earlier to defend his boss and object to my conclusion that their company’s poor performance was directly related to the organization’s poor employee engagement scores. I asked, “If you dramatically cut the salaries of your employees—or even stopped paying them altogether—would any of them […]

The call was from one of the “Reluctant CEO’s” trusted lieutenants who had been asked by his boss to contact me. “I don’t get it, Dan,” he said. “Our CEO is a great guy. I know dozens of people here who would walk on hot coals for him. Sure, he can be loud and demanding. […]