Insights

Feb 10

Hunger

  John Isaacson lives in Boston, Massachusetts. I have never met him, yet he has influenced both the work I do with clients and my personal life. A friend of mine who continues to influence me introduced me to John’s way of thinking: Tom Gilmore. More on Tom in another... read more →
Jan 19

Quitter’s Day Surrenders to Small Wins

“The primary reason we do not work at areas in which we know we need to improve is that the rewards (and pleasures) are in the future; the disruption, discomfort and discipline needed to get there are immediate.”  David Maister Change This I’m a bike rider. I attempt to ride 100... read more →
Dec 23

The Courage to Exercise Leadership

A scene from the movie 3 Kings starring George Clooney: “You’re scared, right?”“Maybe.”“The way it works is, you do the thing you’re scared s***less of, and you get the courage AFTER you do it, not before you do it.”“That’s a dumbass way to work. It should be the other way around.”“I know. That’s... read more →
Dec 05

Technique Trumps Scheme

Sonny Rollins is probably the greatest tenor saxophone player in all of jazz. His journey from a novice eight-year-old player to today owes as much to effort as to talent.  When it comes to building leadership capacity, his life illustrates how technique trumps scheme. But what is technique and what is scheme? The Oxford dictionary defines them this... read more →
Nov 15

Are You Significant?

Peter Block says “In organizations, the opposite of love is not hate, it’s efficiency.” Efficiency often means moving so fast to get work done that we lose connection with people as people. Since work in organizations gets done through teams, this is a problem. Google was experiencing this issue with their... read more →
Nov 05