Is it possible that the words we use prevent us from seeing the world and the people in it as they really are? Our words directly shape how we see the world and how we engage with others. Benjamin Lee Whorf, a linguist, suggests that “by altering our use of language, we also revise how…
READ MOREIn our interactions with others, it is all too common to get frustrated with what people aren’t. Rather than celebrating and leveraging the strengths of those we work with, we can easily end up communicating an expectation that everyone must be good at everything. Have you ever tried putting a saddle on a duck? How…
READ MOREInnovation is serious business, and yet sometimes we are just too serious about innovation. Throughout history, we can see that play actually has served as a reliable gateway to innovation. In Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World, Steven Johnson illustrates how playfulness has fueled a remarkable amount of innovation and new discovery. Consider Charles Babbage,…
READ MOREIn a recent New York Times article, Laszlo Bock, former senior vice president of people operations at Google, reveals what some might refer to as surprising. After synthesizing 10,000 data points including performance reviews done on managers, employee engagement surveys and even nomination forms for top-manager awards, the Google analysts found that technical expertise paled…
READ MOREHow many of us spend too much time, day in and day out, attending to the “7 fires of the day”? Many of my clients bemoan the fact that the big projects never seem to get the attention they require for meaningful accomplishment. Other newsletters and time-management gurus offer tons of advice, including: Don’t start…
READ MOREWhen it comes to predicting who will succeed in life and business, we often are “distracted by talent”. We tend to place way too much faith in SAT scores, GPAs and other measures of aptitude, even when these standard metrics have been shown to fail as guarantors of achievement. Whether it’s who will survive Beast…
READ MORERecently, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, published a letter to shareholders, in which he shared a number of lessons for those seeking to achieve organizational excellence. One piece of advice contained in the letter can best be distilled into three impactful words: “Disagree and commit.” Here’s what Jeff Bezos had to say about these…
READ MOREDuring the past couple of weeks, I found myself, for a second time, working my way through Thomas L. Friedman’s Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. Friedman, also author of The World is Flat, uses his latest book to analyze the dizzying pace of change and…
READ MOREHow do you respond when you’re dissatisfied? Organizations today increasingly sponsor annual surveys to measure the level of employee engagement and satisfaction/dissatisfaction to better understand opportunities for improving culture and communication. Back in 1970, Albert Hirschman wrote a book called Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Many employee engagement…
READ MOREYou probably remember learning to ride your first bicycle when you were just a little kid. There were undoubtedly some fearful moments, and even some minor crashes, as you worked to balance yourself on two wheels. Before long, you mastered the art of bicycling and you never had to look back again. The adults around…
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