Emergent Success - Collaborative Solutions for Stategic Success

Metacognition: Thinking about our thinking

2010-02-09T21:36:08-05:00

"The most challenging part of being in a relationship is coming to realize the other person is not you." Kevin Buck

Why gather the folks?

2010-01-21T20:21:44-05:00

If your folks are at a meeting with you and you are not engaging with them in dialogue, then you are not being the best steward of your people.

Bullying - It Takes a Village

2009-07-10T13:52:08-05:00

... If you are to talk about bullying in the workplace, you are talking about the same thing – it is something that happens in a different community, a business organization. One can’t imagine an organization in which this behavior is consistent with its stated values.

Trusting the Folks

2009-06-02T17:09:03-05:00

What seems like common sense isn’t really so common. It takes a change in behavior for leadership to actually inquire of and listen to the folks. And it requires workers to trust their leaders’ intentions – not as easy as one might imagine since it is so different from prevalent management philosophy.

Go Far - Together

2009-05-22T13:50:12-05:00

“If you want to go quickly – go alone. If you want to go far – go together." African Proverb

I just heard this quote in Al Gore’s recent TED talk. It speaks to the distinction between quick results and long term results. “If you want to go quickly -go alone.” It is a seductive thought sometimes for those in leadership. To get things done quickly, they sometimes go it alone. However, if you want long range sustainable change in your life, in your organization, in your family, then you best go together.

Collaborating Through Technology

2008-12-09T17:14:34-05:00

We have been increasing working with organizations and groups that seek to maximize the use of technology to facilitate their collaborations, both internal and with external partners. In the same way that there is enormous value in gathering people together for in-person dialogues, there is also significant value to “virtual” dialogues.

HEP ? Just love them!

2008-07-22T14:55:40-05:00

The following exchange was prompted by an email from a friend and colleague, Margaret M. Toth, MD, who is the Chief Quality Officer for the Delmarva Foundation. It speaks to the simplicity of caring for and loving others in the complex world of healthcare.

Reacting may get you off the platform, responding will allow you to fly.

2008-03-14T00:00:00-05:00

So, you are on the platform of life and you are deciding whether to jump into the now. If you insert a moment, a pause, to reflect on what it is that you desire once you leap, then your response to HEP is full of intention.

Simplifying the ?complexifying? of life ? HEP

2008-03-07T00:00:00-05:00

I believe that part of the conscious path is to see how we have “complexified” our lives and to reclaim the elegant simplicity of love. Complexifying is a term I use to refer to the process of making anything more complicated, complex and ultimately, more difficult than it needs to be. In my experience, it is fear that drives the complexifying of our lives.

Are your feelings stuck? HEP!

2008-02-29T16:53:00-05:00

A few years back (just a tad of denial) when my now twenty-three year old daughter was in first grade, I was asked to speak to her class about feelings. So, I decided to keep it simple and have a dialogue and not get into anything resembling a heady presentation. We discussed different feelings

Historical impasses ? More of the ritual of when___, then.

2008-02-22T00:00:00-05:00

We seem to have listened to so many experts on what it is that we need to do or process before we can really live in the moment. Psychologically, it might be your family of origin issues, former relationships, addictions, etc…

HEP?proofing, or the ritual of when ___, then.

2008-02-15T13:51:35-05:00

I now believe that one of the most effective strategies for insuring yourself from living in the moment is to practice the ancient ritual of when___, then.

HEP! ? Jump Into Now

2008-02-10T11:01:27-05:00

I recently attended a conference amongst the rolling hills outside of Austin, TX where we had the opportunity to do the trapeze. About ten brave souls of ages 11-70 wandered out to the trapeze rig to spend the afternoon learning some of the fundamentals of the art of flying. Peter Gold, our facilitator/instructor, took us through enough of the basics of the trapeze that in a little over an hour we were all outfitted with the proper safety gear and ready to go. We then lined up, in order of our personal courage

Distinct but not Separate ? Connecting Silos

2007-11-10T00:00:00-05:00

We have discreetly disassembled organizations into intended and unintended silos, by isolating functions, processes and connections in the desire for focus and efficiency. To use the image of a machine, we have so separated the parts of an organization that it is almost unrecognizable as the whole that it used to be.

Fixing the "Corpus"

2007-09-27T22:16:00-05:00

“There is a danger in chasing individual measures and not fixing the corpus.” This is a quote from Rosemary Gibson, Senior Program Officer of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). I had the opportunity to speak with her the other day about the Positive Deviance MRSA work we have been involved with through a RWJF grant. She was speaking about health care, and in some ways, she could have been speaking about any industry.

The Soul of Learning ? Where Reflection and Dialogue Come to Play

2007-09-10T00:00:00-05:00

I am currently participating in an online study and dialogue about the book, The System – Seeking the Soul of Commerce by Rick Stephens and Elane V. Scott from the organization, Birth2Work. I agree with the authors that the current education system and our current culture of learning fall short in preparing students for the workforce. And it is a larger “system” that has come to influence the culture of learning in our society, not just education.