Blog

At the end of January, Tosan will be presenting and co-chairing a session at this years Energy, Utility and Environment Conference in Arizona. This conference attracts utilities, government energy entities, emissions monitoring organizations and more. At its core, EUEC is an energy community focused on Renewable energy issues; these include technology, regulation, process, and marketing. So why would an organizational effectiveness firm with a majority of our experience in Nuclear, Fossil and T&D be speaking, much less co-chairing? Well, the first connection is the overarching industry of Energy. As our traditional resources are challenged, and regulations progress, all aspects of the Energy industry are evaluating how renewables will fit into their product...

Your office environment reflects your culture We talk a lot about corporate cultures and how humans are the driving force that shape, bend, twist and form them. We also know that people are the single greatest contributing factor in achieving and sustaining the success of an organizations performance.  Human-centered, cultural and behavioral focused efforts drive innovation, collaboration and promote personal and team development within organizational culture. Yet a key and often-overlooked aspect of such efforts is the actual, physical environments in which we work. Companies with insufficient work environments tend to find their cultures struggling to move forward. Poor environments simply do not motivate employees. Perhaps a change in environment is what’s...

What would it be like to have your employees advocate for and support your organizational changes the way they do for their favorite brands?   Would you consider BMW owners to be passionate about driving? Are Apple users open to new products and ideas that come from the Cupertino headquarters? Is your friend that supports the New York Yankees, or only uses their Dyson willing to tell you why they think their team or vacuum are great? The answer to all of these is obviously yes. The reason why, is because of strong brands. The thing to consider, for the purpose of this post, is that all of these people, at some point, changed – and now support the new norm. The BMW driver might have always had Hondas, the Apple user might have had a PC or a Sony Walkman, and...

We’ve recently been blogging about accountability in the workplace. To follow up with all the positive feedback we have received,  our Accountability Factors White Paper focuses on why high levels of accountability help organizations outperform those who do not promote accountability. To take a futher look into this topic we’ve made our white paper available for download. Lets us know what you think by leaving a comment.  

“Responsibility” and “Accountability.” We hear and use the words interchangeably, unaware that there may be subtle differences between them. When Tosan approaches our work with clients it is to invoke specific meaning of the word accountability as this aids them in understanding how to coach employees while establishing ground rules for delegating and producing tasks. Tosan distinguishes meaning between responsibility and accountability in the following way: Responsibility can be seen as A being given a task to perform by B. A accepts the task, making an often unspoken agreement to provide their best work to accomplish a given set of outcomes and goals by B. Accountability has the same definition with one important addition: Accountability can be seen as...

High Reliability Organizations (HRO) are institutions that “exist in such hazardous environments where the consequences of errors are high, but the occurrence of error is extremely low.” Operational environments are inherently dangerous, typically unpredictable and success is measured upon the strict management and conventional systemization of elements that are both external and unexpected. For example: How does Tokyo Electric Power Company hedge the threat and impact of natural disasters on coastal nuclear power plants while learning and classifying those results into standard operational procedures? Is it reasonable to assume that EMS first responders in New York City are now trained specifically for the coordination and deployment of emergency services, in...