It's time to look for a coach when success is more elusive than you hoped, when stress and frustration are sapping your energy and making you more prickly than you know you should be, or when the supporters you need to mobilize are getting stuck in risk-averse traps and aren't stepping up with the urgency, initiative and inventive thinking you [...]
In teams with initiative, creativity, and inventive thinking, things look a little chaotic. And a bit heated, as key issues get wrestled down and people challenge each other's best thinking. Sharp direct questions jab - as teammates with diverse perspectives offer their best critical thinking to sharpen up team decisions and critique actions while there's still room to pivot. The [...]
The Financial Times reports that workers are resigning from McDonald's - because new menus, new choices and frequent changes require too much thinking and learning, and creates too much stress for employees. In the "good old days," menu choices were limited. Buttons told McDonald's workers exactly what to do. It was the ultimate non-VUCA work environment, tailored for entry workers [...]
Too bad for gravid.ca - whose troubles were featured in the Financial Post. Even with a hot product and an huge unmet market need, they’re not a great investment. By the time they get their supply chain problems sorted out, competitors will meet the need they’ve discovered and will cash in on all they’ve done to educate customers. They'll lose their [...]
One famous Shimon Peres quote - that didn't make it into his autobiography - declared that nagging dissatisfaction is Israel's greatest natural resource. People would chuckle when Shimon made this declaration, speaking about innovation leadership at an international conferences like BioMed. Anyone who's lived in Israel knows that we're a country of chronic critics. We're always looking for a better way, a better deal, [...]
We're a risk-averse culture. We may want want to change that, to promote innovation, but we need to do it in a risk-averse safe way. How can you help us with that?" That's what we heard from a Talent Management Director a few weeks ago - in a large American company that's been under fire, that replaced its CEO and [...]
Wow, John McCain. As expert advisors who show leaders how diverse strong interests can debate and generate the best solutions to complex challenges and drive value-creation, we’re impressed. You called out the “win/lose victory-at-all-costs” defensive thinking trap and appealed to your colleagues to use diverse perspectives and creative tension and come up with something better. You knew that some zealots [...]
According to a recent Financial Post report, “The most common reason people quit their US$200,000 tech jobs” isn’t because they were offered more money or better perks elsewhere. It’s because the job they are leaving isn’t fun - or because it’s unpleasant to see coworkers pushed hard, ridiculed or treated unfairly when difficulties or complications arise, as they inevitably do [...]
Ouch! You've probably felt the sting - when someone talks over you, dismisses your best recommendations or mutters a sarcastic quip about your accent, profession, age, professional experience or gender. Double ouch - if your antagonist has the authority to scuttle a deal you are putting together or red-line your career. At Ouch! or Double-Ouch! moments of truth, it's tempting [...]
The NY Times reported on “Jerks and the Startups they ruin.” Jerks often are oblivious to the seeds of damage they are sowing, creating a fraternity of "bro-culture" adherents, who see things the same way and egg each other on - rubbing each other the right way. Charging-buffalo innovation leaders seem invincible. They don't suffer fools gladly. They set a [...]
