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leadership & management

We Aren’t Machines

I like this tweet from Jan de Man Lapidoth:  It would seem that leading politicians and executives still think humans can be “changed” or directed like machines. Fascinating. It reminds me of a piece I read some time ago by Margaret Wheatley where she highlighted how much of our language is mechanistic. Here is one example: […]

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change leadership & management

Incomplete Invitations and New Forms of Leadership

Loving Chris Corrigan’s post on Interior Transformation. These two excerpts in particular (emphasis mine)…. I once had a very good friend and teacher, Bob Wing, point this out to me.  We were together in a small Open Space, and we were in different conversations.  In my conversation a small group of us cracked a vexing problem […]

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leadership & management

Finding Shifts: The Work in Amsterdam

I’m thrilled to share news about the Work of Byron Katie (a powerful tool for working with limiting beliefs, and opening mind and heart in leadership, organization and change). Katie is hosting a first ever intensive in The Work for leaders and people in business in Amsterdam from February 8th to 11th, 2012. The very amazing […]

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leadership & management

Starbucks and Their Story of the Stormy Seas

I stopped in for two grande chai tea lattés this morning and it reminded me I had this post brewing (groan! groan!). After reading Pour Your Heart Into It a few years ago I’ve appreciated the story behind the ubiquitous white and green coffee shop and am thankful for the European experience we can find […]

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leadership & management

HBR Jazz: Attention and Hosting

Did you see John Hagel III and John Seely Brown’s HBR article Five Ways to Hold the Right Kind of Attention? The main question was “what are effective ways to attract and retain the kind of attention that helps us to address the challenges we face”. My thoughts turned to the approach of leader as […]

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leadership & management

The Spark of Cirque

In March I went to Cirque du Soleil. Bucket list item crossed off! In the days that led up to performance night I reflected: why this was worthy of my bucket list? My fascination with Cirque began not from an entertainment perspective but from the talent lens. I recall reading an article about retirement in […]

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leadership & management

Nourishment for Leaders

A friend of mine emailed recently. She was looking for some blog feeds that would expose her leadership team to thought provoking leadership ideas, rants and provocative questions. She already had Seth Godin, Fistful of Talent, and Corner Office and wanted to add some other options. I peeked at my current feeds and here were […]

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leadership & management

Death by Reorganization

Clark Quinn wrote something back in November about the epidemic of continual reorganizations and what might be behind it: Really, if an organization is restructuring regularly, it’s probably a sign that it’s trying to adapt structurally to an environment that is increasingly chaotic.  And that approach just isn’t going to work anymore. Organizations have to […]

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leadership & management

Giving Small Talk a Facelift

Many years ago I read about retiring the standard small talk question “What do you do?” You know the scene: you meet someone at an event, introduce yourselves and within moments one of you will ask that question. And while it does promote social civility, it doesn’t do much for helping the conversation progress into […]

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leadership & management

Do You Know Your Purpose?

Last week a group of managers and I chartered the territory of Dan Pink’s TED talk on the surprising science of motivation. I’m always a little nervous about what their reaction is going to be (so far there hasn’t been a mutiny against me!). In the discussion after the video we end up at the […]