Lessons in Snow

Late­ly, I’ve begun to think about the cul­ture of orga­ni­za­tions a lit­tle dif­fer­ent­ly than I used to. I once believed a medi­um or large size orga­ni­za­tion striv­ing to induce a major shift in the way things are done would have to do a great deal of ana­lyt­i­cal work, then set up and admin­is­ter rather large,… Con­tin­ue read­ing Lessons in Snow

Leadership Fault Lines

“Fault lines” are the places in rela­tion­ships and work­place cul­tures where mis­un­der­stand­ings most eas­i­ly sur­face. The term “fault” has two mean­ings here. A fault line, geo­log­i­cal­ly speak­ing, is a weak spot, a place where larg­er tec­ton­ic plates col­lide. In orga­ni­za­tions, the fault lines are often drawn between for­mal func­tions, depart­ments, or work units, between sep­a­rate… Con­tin­ue read­ing Lead­er­ship Fault Lines

Song of Childhood

We all have things that trig­ger mem­o­ries of child­hood. One of mine is the song of the Swain­son’s Thrush. It reminds me of the woods behind the house where I grew up, and espe­cial­ly of sum­mer evenings when the cool air filled with the scents of the for­est drift­ed out across our back­yard. High up,… Con­tin­ue read­ing Song of Childhood

Can You Forget Yourself?

Can you for­get your­self, even for a moment? As a leader, some­one respon­si­ble for accom­plish­ing some larg­er pur­pose, do you know how?  So many aspects of lead­er­ship seem to depend on it — true lis­ten­ing, for exam­ple, so that you can gen­uine­ly empathize, hear­ing with open­ness rather than closed expec­ta­tions of what anoth­er will say. Or… Con­tin­ue read­ing Can You For­get Yourself?