Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
We – you and me – sometimes draw a hard line in the sand.
Most of them, like what waves at the beach do to sandcastles, end up being washed away.
It’s a smarter practice to draw a soft line with a qualifiers – words like “unlikely,” “maybe,” and “probably” unless you’re willing to go to the mat for something.… Read the rest
“The young man knows the rules but the old man knows the exceptions” suggested Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Holmes, one of the 20th century’s most influential public figures, was on to something.
While youth (and fresh eyes) serve well with certain types of situations – think Emperor’s New Clothes, quant analysis, or the brilliance behind the Apple’s designs – wisdom from elders is something that you can’t find anyplace else.… Read the rest
I’ll be working with the staff of my favorite preschool (also the school my son attended, and on whose Board of Trustees I sat for four years), the Little School in San Francisco this evening as part of their ongoing staff development program.
While my work is mostly helping senior execs and start-up and leadership teams raise the level of their performance, the same ingredients which imbed that work – efficiency and effectiveness – inform the work of teachers in a preschool.… Read the rest
My twitter friend Hutch Carpenter noted (tweeted actually) that “Quora is the new black” – always a signal that something may become popular – the website provides an interesting mix of questions and answers in a quasi-curated format. Co-founders Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever and the rest of the team have created for the moment a site what provides a rich collection of questions and answers on a host of topics.… Read the rest
Albert Einstein noted “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
So what’s up with the craving for the sweet smell of success people that people are determined to avoid the taint of failure?
Biotech CEO Robert Johnson told me that when he did business development at Lilly he was paid to bring deals forward for the firm to consider.… Read the rest
As I suspect it’s been for a number of other people, the last 12 months have been choppy, marked by some high highs and low lows and any number of very bumpy bumps – economic and otherwise – in between. Paradoxically, those lows in our lives may let us experience the exhilaration of the highs.
My thoughts for the future, though, have stayed somehow optimistic.… Read the rest