Category Social Smarts
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Peer Powered Board Meetings
February 29, 2016
Affective Leadership, Association Insights, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Social Smarts, Spirit at Work, Topics, Training 
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The biggest threat to nonprofits is not declining membership, meeting attendance or sponsorship.
It is not limitations in volunteers, time or money, but a shortage of “Creative Democracy”.
There are few things more daunting than trying to run a CREATIVE board meeting. Partisan politics, positioning, personal priorities and the occasional ego often bring progress to a standstill. It is easy to get caught up in the illusion that these are people problems.These are not problems of ill int...
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The Science of Self Control
February 11, 2016
Affective Leadership, Association Insights, Customer Service, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance, Social Smarts, Spirit at Work, Topics, Training -
Imagine a team not controlled by controversy, stressed by situations or distracted by discontent.
1-We are all overwhelmed by too much to do and too little time to think but what if being aware of why we think the way we think could change all that?
2-What if understanding our chemistry could truly set-us-free? Free from anger, resentment, guilt, and shame. Free from manipulation, indignation and utter stagnation.
3-What would it be like to work in an environment free of fear...
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Managing Malignancies
May 26, 2015
Affective Leadership, Customer Service, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance, Social Smarts, Spirit at Work, Topics, Training -
The story is true, the setting is healthcare but the emotional intelligence, communication expertise and service delivery systems can (and should) be lessons for anyone.
I appreciate the kind concerns that have been expressed by so many but the purpose of this article is to provide a platform for evaluating your own service delivery systems. Real Lessons, Real Science, Real Solutions. It is easy to talk in the abstract...
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Illusory Superiority: The Lake Wobegon Effect
January 23, 2015
Association Insights, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Social Smarts -
Prompted by the article from NonProfit Times When Board Members Just Don’t Get It my wife shared (she is the brains) I was inspired to add my own thoughts for the purpose of understanding the power of humor in revealing our illusions. Who better to fill our hearts with laughter while challenging our minds to wonder than Garrison Keillor.
Most of us can imagine his melodic voice as he lovingly describes his mythical hometown as a place “where all the women are strong, all the men are good look...
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Historic Wonder & Organizational Blunder
November 11, 2014
Affective Leadership, Association Insights, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance, Social Smarts, Spirit at Work -
If I were a physician I would prescribe a sedative for the hierarchically inclined before reading Gary Hamel’s prelude to Reinventing Management at the Mashup: Architecture & Ideology starting a week from now in NY.
Gary’s insightful article attacks the spurious half-steps of incremental improvement characterizing current bureaucracies as breeding grounds for “sycophants” perpetuating the past while discouraging innovation and experimentation...
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