<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[The Wisdom Orchard]]></title><description><![CDATA[We help leaders turn insight into meaningful action—even when work gets messy, demanding, and unpredictable.]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Sun, 13 Sep 2026 07:28:15 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.wisdomorchard.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Part Two: When Expertise Suddenly Doesn't Count]]></title><description><![CDATA[What leaders owe people when change alters the value of hard-earned knowledge Michael T. Neiss | The Wisdom Orchard One of the easiest ways to lose good people during a change is to treat their experience as an obstacle. A new system arrives. A new strategy is announced. Artificial intelligence begins doing in seconds what once took hours. The organization is excited about speed, efficiency and possibility. Then someone who has spent twenty years learning the work asks a hard question. Too...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/part-two-when-expertise-suddenly-doesn-t-count</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aa5403890d30ec4fd623f49</guid><pubDate>Sat, 12 Sep 2026 12:26:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/28b6bf_ef1fc7f23ac74112a5f9ee1431e755ba~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael Neiss</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Before You Call Them Resistant]]></title><description><![CDATA[WISDOM ORCHARD Resistance may be the sound of roots being disturbed A practical reflection on leading change with honesty, participation, and care A leader announces a new technology, a new structure, or a new way of working. The presentation is polished. The timeline is ambitious. The benefits sound obvious. Then the questions begin. Some employees hesitate. Others ask what the change will mean for their roles, their workload, or the expertise they have spent years building. A few become...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/before-you-call-them-resistant</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aa42879f448a9cd17b39d91</guid><pubDate>Fri, 11 Sep 2026 16:13:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/28b6bf_eec2f7decd784ae78357ee853b2184fb~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael Neiss</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What a Honeycrisp Apple Knows About Leadership]]></title><description><![CDATA[Part One: Start with the Soil A Honeycrisp apple looks simple enough. Red skin. A little green. That unmistakable crack when you bite into it. Sweet, but not too sweet. Then I began reading about what it takes to grow one. The apple may be crisp. The process is anything but. Honeycrisp became enormously popular after its release by the University of Minnesota in 1991. People loved eating it. Growers had a more complicated relationship with it. The trees can be temperamental. The fruit does...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/what-a-honeycrisp-apple-knows-about-leadership</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6aa1f4a265014d409c1735da</guid><pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2026 00:17:00 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/28b6bf_c130dcbcbe8846018fea66d0b9dcda70~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael Neiss</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Before the World Starts]]></title><description><![CDATA[Most mornings, if I'm home, I make coffee and take it outside before I open anything. ​ There's a particular quality to early light on the water — Lake Michigan in the distance, the yard still in shadow — that I've come to think of as the most honest part of the day. Nothing is performing yet. The email hasn't started its demands. The calendar hasn't staked its claims. The world is briefly, mercifully, itself. ​ I didn't always do this. For most of my career, mornings were logistics. Get up,...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/before-the-world-starts</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6a2bb1cecb33cd5ae83ba3</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:35:20 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/65671d_b6d786f811544e56a66448221d0151bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_887,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael N</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[You Can't Install an Orchard]]></title><description><![CDATA[I've watched a lot of leaders try to install a culture. They bring in a framework. They run the workshop. They post the values on the wall — sometimes literally — and then wait for something to change. When it doesn't, they bring in another framework. Run another workshop. And the cycle continues, each pass leaving the organization slightly more cynical than the one before. What they're missing isn't a better system. It's an understanding of what they're actually tending. You can't install an...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/you-can-t-install-an-orchard</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6a2b4fcd8d822ee179ca7b</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:34:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/65671d_b6d786f811544e56a66448221d0151bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_887,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael N</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Day I Became the Boss I Swore I Would Never Be]]></title><description><![CDATA[And what a man named Don Karns taught me about the difference between leading and bossing By Michael | The Wisdom Orchard I still remember the morning it happened. I showed up to work at UPS and everything looked the same — the package cars, the routes, the faces I'd worked alongside for years. But something fundamental had shifted overnight. My browns were traded in for a white shirt and a dark tie. I was the boss now. UPS was a private company in those days, and they had a strict...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/the-day-i-became-the-boss-i-swore-i-would-never-be</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6a29bcfc8daac1bb1a752a</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:29:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_581f5394952a45dc96e75d411e89e482~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael N</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Embracing Daily Leadership Opportunities Are You Ready to Answer the Call]]></title><description><![CDATA[By The Wisdom Orchard | Leadership development · Morning practice · Gratitude There is a moment, early in the morning, before the calendar fills the room and the messages begin to arrive, when the day is still entirely yours. Most leaders blow right past it. They reach for the phone. They scan the inbox. They begin — almost involuntarily — to manage. And in doing so, they give away something precious: the chance to choose how they will lead today, rather than simply react to whatever comes...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/embracing-daily-leadership-opportunities-are-you-ready-to-answer-the-call</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6a28a5fc8daac1bb1a71d2</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:23:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/65671d_b6d786f811544e56a66448221d0151bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_887,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael N</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Matters Most...]]></title><description><![CDATA[Wisdom from the Source: Why It’s Still All About People (and How to Get There) In my decades walking the rows of organizational life—observing what grows, what withers, and what truly thrives—I have come back to one immutable truth. It is a truth that seems painfully obvious yet is routinely ignored in boardrooms obsessed with quarterly earnings and efficiency algorithms. The truth is this: Business is a human endeavor. It always has been. It is all about attracting, retaining, and unleashing...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/what-matters-most</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6a28697ef449b92cf806d8</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:21:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/65671d_f626b38acaf74b30837e09332d148644~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_476,h_476,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael N</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Power of Connection: My Journey to Understanding the Importance of People in Life and Career]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sharing stories around a campfire, a moment of connection From early on, I believed success was a solo journey. I thought hard work and personal talent alone would carry me through life and career. Over time, I discovered that the people around me—friends, mentors, colleagues, family—were not just background characters but the very foundation of my growth and happiness. This post shares the moments that shifted my perspective, the lessons I learned, and why nurturing relationships matters...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/the-power-of-connection-my-journey-to-understanding-the-importance-of-people-in-life-and-career</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6a27d6328f65b106571c11</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:19:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/65671d_bb50fb5b1e91409aa2e531c0445df1c1~mv2.avif/v1/fit/w_604,h_345,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael N</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Four minutes of Me: How I got here...so far]]></title><description><![CDATA[In a career that began as a grocery bagger and led to diverse roles at United Parcel Service, community colleges, utility companies, the automotive industry, and management consulting, I have gathered valuable insights that shape my perspective on leadership. As a leadership consultant, I bring a unique blend of expertise, enriched by collaborations with renowned professionals and partnerships with great organizations, Here are some of the key lessons from my journey that have differentiated...]]></description><link>https://www.wisdomorchard.com/post/four-minutes-of-me-how-i-got-here-so-far</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6a26f3328f65b10657192b</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 16:16:25 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/65671d_b6d786f811544e56a66448221d0151bc~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_887,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Michael N</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>