culture tagged posts

Change belongs not to the catalyst but the community December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance

“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

Contrary to popular belief this phrase popularized by Mathew Henry in his commentary on the Whole Bible (1708) is not a quote from the bible. This kind of misattribution, as I am learning from winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Daniel Kahneman in Thinking Fast and Slow, is not at all uncommon. We are all thoroughly convinced of many, many connections that are not true.

One such misbelief that is shared by most p...

Change Drains, Innovation Ignites December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, Peer Powered Performance No comments

Change Drains

The need for change implies we were not only doing something wrong, but that we were wrong. The feeling of being wrong has an incredibly powerful influence. In the midst of having a great day we can make one mistake and that is all we think about on our way home. We are hard wired to notice and remember anything that feels like a threat. The feeling of being wrong is tremendously threatening and that picture pulls us towards failure.

70% of organizational change initiat...

Fearless Conversations or Fearful Conciliation’s? December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Association Insights, Emotional Intelligence, Keynote Keys, Peer Powered Performance, Training

Using Unrelated Stories to Overcome
Unreasonable Defensiveness

I was recently asked to come up with an approach to safety concerns at one of the largest concrete structures in our country.

The request, as usual, was to be funny, fix the problem, and get out. You have 45 minutes. An impossible objective, but it is entirely my own fault. I am a victim of my own creation. For two decades I have been most widely known as a keynote humorist...

Historic Wonder & Organizational Blunder December 15, 2021 Affective Leadership, Association Insights, Peer Powered Performance, Positive Deviance, Social Smarts, Spirit at Work No comments

top down authority incompatible with engagement

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...