On Organizational Anger

There is a form of organizational anger that all leaders need to understand. It is not the hostile outburst of an aggrieved staff member, though this may be a symptom just as a shooter in a public place can be a symptom of a broader social despair. It is not the same as dealing with […]

March 30, 2021 – 3:07 pm | By Dan Oestreich | Posted in Conflict, Love, Self-Knowledge, Trust | Comments (0)

Don’t try to change your organization; change the underlying forces that make it what it is

In the nineteenth century, Charles Lyell, a Scottish geologist, professed the radical view that the same forces that shaped the Earth in the past were still operating in the present moment. His theory challenged the more palatable theory at the time that geological epochs ended in major, catastrophic events, such as species being wiped out […]

March 5, 2021 – 4:02 pm | By Dan Oestreich | Posted in Choices, Conflict, Consciousness, Power | Comments (1)

How you do one thing is how you do everything

The other day I happened to read a blog post on fractals and human behavior, one that includes this provocative title line — a line that seems at first glance too simple for the complexity of our lives but also somehow holds an intuitive truth. Our self-awareness is built on a sense that we are […]

March 3, 2021 – 2:34 pm | By Dan Oestreich | Posted in Self-Knowledge, Transformation | Comments (0)

A Few Grains of Sand

It is often said that as leaders we ought to devote ourselves to something larger than our individual interests or passions, something larger than ourselves. This would seem to create a near spiritual dimension to leading, something that keeps us tethered to a strong sense of service to the world as well as a sense […]