Featured Posts
Your scary future, Part 1
We are moving from a world of problems, which demand speed, analysis, and elimination of uncertainty to solve – to a world of dilemmas which demand patience, sense-making, and an engagement with uncertainty, said transformative[...]
Is busy the new lazy?
I haven't posted here in months. I’ve been busy. Sound familiar? “I’ve been busy” or “I’m too busy.” A few months ago a good friend, let’s call him Max, said, “I think busy is the[...]
Please, no more grandiose plans or ideas
I can hear you thinking (those of you who know me), "What about BHAGs (big, hairy, audacious goals) and 'big thinking' and even 'big ideas' – you believe in those things?" True enough. Now, please[...]
How to use context for better decision making
A dear friend and mentor once told me, “Being a manager is easy: you make decisions. If you make a bad decision, you correct it with another one. If you make too many bad decisions,[...]
A good argument is a good thing
Are not. Am too. Are not! Am too! That's an argument no one wants to have. With good reason. It's going nowhere. Good arguments, or passionate debates, are necessary for great relationships to grow. Look into[...]
Why you can’t have everything
Picture a small boy in a candy store with a $20 bill in his pocket. As he looks around the store at all the wonderful delights, he knows he can have anything he wants! Fast[...]
The curse of charisma
Charisma is to leadership as external stimulants are to getting in shape or winning. A leader's charisma can make the leader – and their followers – feel like things are going great. Sometimes performance IS[...]
Now is no time to be ignorant
Earlier this week I was reflecting on Dr. Martin Luther King's quote, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity” and if it might apply to my world as an advisor[...]
Weak and detached executives and their emotional bullsh*t
Sometimes executives, and other managers, exhibit bad behavior. It happens. Managers are people, too. Occasionally, however, executives are abusive, in the same way that a few people are “abusive personality types.” As I said, managers[...]
Focus – just say no
Steve Jobs' biographer, Walter Issacson, tells how when Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 the company was producing a "random array of computers computers and peripherals, including a dozen different versions of the Macintosh." After[...]
Are you passionate or reasonable?
"There is great tension in the world, tension toward a breaking point, and men are unhappy and confused. At such a time it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What[...]
One question you should ask about next year
Have you noticed that things take time? Great things seem to take even longer. Nine months to get a child. Four years (+/-) to get a college education. Almost forever to gain wisdom. Our Western[...]