#12 – Never Be Afraid to Reinvent Yourself

This is #12 in the series, “50 Ideas Worth Fighting For.” I took a new job last fall. I call it a “real” job because after the wonderful variety of  consulting work I’ve done for the last 7 years, as compelling and rewarding as that has been, it feels great to come to an office

The Consolation of Completion (Redux)

Some further thoughts on yesterday’s post, The Consolation of Completion: Many of our workplaces create an ethos of task completion and goal achievement at any cost. This habituation to the measurable allows us to feel good about ourselves at the end of the day but it fails to take into account the fact that most of

Culture

Culture is not mission, vision, values. It is not architecture, design, product or snacks. It is also not the lighting, furniture, games, attire, or flextime. Mistaking any of these things for culture is to confuse the map with the territory. Culture is how you and your colleagues come together to solve problems under the pressure

The Side Hustle

My side hustle is teaching a class each semester in the College of Business at Cal State San Marcos. I teach a course in organizational behavior for non-management majors. I do it because I love to teach. I do it because the energy of working with aspirational students is addictive and fulfilling. I do it

Whole People / Whole Lives

The Uses of Sorrow | Mary Oliver (In my sleep I dreamed this poem) Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift. One of the gifts of a long relationship, in this case I am thinking of my 24 years of

What About the Other 19?

Yesterday, I wrote about the Business Roundtable’s newly released Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, a declaration signed by 181 of its 200 member CEOs. Nineteen corporations decided not to sign on to a statement that broadens the purpose of a corporation from “shareholder primacy” to a “fundamental commitment” to all of their stakeholders.

Is it still the best?

Everyone says it’s the best restaurant in town but when you finally go, you have an “ok” meal. Or, you have decent service but not the stellar dining experience everyone has described. Is it still the best restaurant in town? Everyone says it’s the best company to work for. They are reputed to pay well,

Truth bomb? Not so much.

In a recent Inc.com article, Mark Cuban “drops a major truth bomb.” He says, “Now the onus is on employers to keep their best employees happy.” He is right, of course. Employers need to take great care of their best employees. But that’s not much of a “truth bomb.” It’s just common sense. What’s not common sense is how

Elements of Systemic Health

An organization is a living system. Within that system exists the dynamics that live within each individual as well as the dynamics that exist when each individual interacts with the other individuals, in whatever number of combinations is possible. It’s a lot, probably too much to keep track of. It’s definitely too much to “manage”

Is this still right for us?

Is what you have created still appropriate for the conditions you face? It makes sense, at least periodically, to take a step back and ask, is this still right for us? Does this still allow us to be our very best and do our very best? Are we working against our environment or is environment working