A “working out loud” credo

I love the “working out loud” approach.  It’s highly social, which now, after years of personal work, runs through me like a stick of rock.  In that (ongoing) personal journey, I have learnt not only the benefits and indescribable joys (and sometimes, the excruciating pain) of joining the rest of the human race, but also…

What is systems thinking? (Part III)

Part III (Going Further) In Part II of this article, I suggested that if we remain wedded to a mis-placed set of thoughts and beliefs about business, we will end up asking the wrong questions.  We cleverly ask these questions from within our  old intellectual bubble, coming up with “new-and-improved” solutions to problems, however we…

Stop de-motivating people

Fresh from running a workshop on responsible leadership, I’m feeling buoyant that the participants entered into the conversation with gusto and were open to the idea that humans engage in their work because they seek out meaning, mastery and autonomy.  To a large extent, I was not only preaching to the converted but taking the…

Theory X? Why?

I speak with managers who describe their frustrations at dealing with people they call “stupid”.  They get angry at people who are clumsy and fail to learn from mistakes, who don’t share their passion for the work, who are slow and indifferent, who try to get away with the barest minimum of effort, who exhibit…

Manage from strength, not deficit

Carbon is intensely heated and pressurised beneath the surface of the Earth to create a diamond; essentially it’s a lump of coal that has been pressure cooked for thousands of years.  Dust, smoke and ash scatter evening sunlight and we see a stunning red sunset; so it’s basically air pollution.  An oyster takes a piece…

The pricelessness of reflection

W. Edwards Deming is quoted as saying, “Experience by itself teaches nothing.”  In a fast-paced world where we are bombarded with more and more stimuli and we are called upon to carry out multiple tasks, this is truer now than ever before.  Our lives are filled with more and varied experiences which, by themselves, leave…

..so now do something about it

“More important than science is its results; one answer invokes a hundred questions.  More important than poetry is its results; one poem invokes a hundred heroic acts.” J.L. Moreno Some years ago, one of my teachers said, “It’s not so important what you do; it’s more important what you do NEXT.”  What he meant was…

If it’s broken, don’t fix it

“Moreno declared that instead of looking at mankind as a fallen being, everyone is a potential genius and like the Supreme Being, co-responsible for all of mankind.  It is the genius we should emphasize, not the failings.”  So spake Zerka Moreno, Jakob’s widow and co-developer of Morenian action methods. All too often in our world and…

What exactly does strengths-based MEAN?

Reflecting on a Guts of Leadership programme we have just completed, I have been going through a range of thoughts and feelings.  Immediately after was a sense of a job well done and satisfaction derived from participants’ comments that they had made some really significant shifts in themselves.  It is always good to know that…

How can I free up my creative genius?

Most of us have had moments in our working lives when we don’t live up to our own expectations. *Think of the manager who is unnecessarily harsh in a performance appraisal when she intended to be encouraging and motivating.  *Think of how we prematurely reject new ideas from others when we intend to be inclusive…