The Common Good
A few years ago I attended a formal dinner. David McCullough, the famous biographer spoke. He told two stories. The […]
leadership
Discovering the Underlying Template
As people pay the steep price for acquiring the positive perspective, they become more and more masterful. Eventually they gain a theory of influence that allows them to inspire positive change in any situation. They may make mistakes, like Harbaugh did in asking about George Halas, but they tend to recover. If we look for them, even in strange places, like a TV show, we can choose to learn from them and we can accelerate our own efforts to become masters of positive influence.
An Evolving Network of Accelerated Learning
At a conference I met a woman from Australia. She is an organizational consultant who relies heavily on positive psychology. […]
The Vulnerability of Positive Culture
Often people speak of how hard it is to change a culture. I listened to a man suggest the opposite […]
Selflessness, Listening and the Increasing Probability of Success
In the conventional perspective an executive is an expert who informs. In the positive perspective an executive is a leader […]
The Caring of Real Leaders
For a wide range of reasons, people like me can feel left out. We will then define others as problems. Usually we are not sophisticated enough to free ourselves of our own broken assumptions.
The $110,000 Slide
They explain to me that people in organizations make assumptions and their behavior follows their assumptions. So, if you cannot change the assumptions they make, that is, their mental maps, then their behavior will not change and any proposed innovation will fail.
Leadership
Leadership begins with the transcendence of the conventional mental map. Leadership is not a job, it is a calling. It […]
If you Hear the Music, you can Change the Dance
The music of positive organizing originates from the human conscience. It is the music of leadership and change. When we align with it, we begin to pursue the highest good. As our bodies move in new ways, others begin to move with us and soon the organization is dancing to a new tune.
Way Finding: Learning from Maori Traditions
One of the things she studies is how Polynesians were able to navigate the ocean without any of the Western technologies. She speaks of the Maori navigator as the “way finder.” The way finder assumes that the canoe is stationary and the world is moving past. The challenge is to be “still” and ponder the various signals in the natural context. The island is “pulled” forward to the canoe.