Blog - Page 20 of 39 - Evergreen Leadership

Challenges

Ambiguity Abounds – A Simple Model to Deal with it

There are bucket-loads of reasons we are faced with more ambiguity than ever before. Here is a short list:

Change is accelerating. What is new is ambiguous by its nature.
How to work effectively across cultures has no clear answer.
New knowledge. Information is doubling every few years in technical fields.
Startups, shutdowns, mergers and new partnerships. And with it the accompanying strategic, cultural and leadership upheavals.

Add to that the more mundane causes of ambiguity, such as lack of clear direction from the top, changing priorities, and difficult and complex situations – and your natural tendency may be to do one of these things:

Wait for direction
Stall and hope clarity emerges
Complain a bit
Carry on as usual

I hate to break it to you – but all four approaches are doomed. Which leaves us in a bit of a conundrum: we need to DO something, but WHAT? The EAA process (my term – named after the vocal sounds I tend to make when challenged with ambiguity) may help you sort things out.

Leadership

10 Ways to Flex and Grow Your Innovation Potential

Are you an innovator? Chances are, you’ll reply NO quickly and emphatically. Innovators, you think, invent complicated things – like iPhones or driverless cars or drones. Or they toil for years to find that next big breakthrough in science, finding that previously unknown virus or a cure for a disease. Or you think innovation is about inventing things – rather than ideas, processes, and social advancement. And you probably think big: Madame Curie, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Jeff Bezos, and the like.

But I think each of us, as a member of the human species, has the potential to innovate. To find novel solutions to current problems. To find new ways to skin a cat (although I have no earthly idea why anyone would want to skin a cat).

It’s Contest Time!

Blogging can be a lonely endeavor… write, post, get a few comments. It’s hard for me to tell what posts resonated, which ones caused you to pause and consider, or which ones spoke to you.

I want to know what you liked – and what areas I should spend more focus on in the coming year – and need your help. I’m conducting a simple contest. Weigh in on these top 10 posts based on web stats, and tell me which post is your favorite. If you’re feeling prolific, you might add why, but that is not required.

The poll will be open until Friday, January 23rd – so vote now! I’ll randomly select three people from all those who respond – and they’ll get a signed copy of my book, The Leader’s Guide to Turbulent Times.

Intention

Can you Spot the Differences… and Should You?

What bonds might be created, what dialogs might open if we sought to find what is similar between ourselves and others – especially those others who we paint in colors that are different than ours? What compassion might flow? What relationships might emerge? What might we do differently if we looked for similarities rather than opposites?

Evergreen Leadership

My Gift to You

Two gifts for you this holiday season:

GIFT NUMBER ONE – A big discount on big ideas!

GIFT NUMBER TWO – A fun and a powerful idea!

Dynamics

Skeptics vs. Cynics

Skeptics and cynics share some things – both question, both challenge, both share doubt openly. As such, we tend to cast folks that raise objections, challenge our plans or thinking or ask difficult questions in a negative light. We avoid them. Un-invite them to meetings. Find ways to silence them. Avert eye contact. Roll our eyes. Sigh deeply. Run the other way when we see the coming.

Today, I challenge you to refine your approach. To discern if those that are asking questions are skeptics or cynics. For while both will challenge and question, past that – the similarities wane and diverge in significant ways.

Leadership

5 Things You Can Do to Become a More Agile Learner

Learning and learning fast is imperative today. Your ability to push past your comfort zone, acquire new skills, explore different ways of thinking – a willingness to learn from the old and move on to the new will define your success.

But how does one do that? Today I’ll share five strategies you can use to increase your learning agility.

Change

The way you were taught to learn may not work anymore

Make no doubt about it – the need to learn new things and learn them quickly has never been greater. As of a year ago, close to 90% of the North American population was connected to the internet. Globally the number is 40%. Growing at a pace of 676% – it will not be long until most of the world is able to connect, communicate, create, collaborate and innovate. Add to that the increase in computing power (doubling every 18 months), the ability to transmit that data faster and faster (doubling every 9 months) and a dramatic decline in the cost to store massive data – we are experiencing more information, more innovation, more new knowledge and more diversity than imaginable – even 10 years ago.

Yet, it is compelling to note that class valedictorians and acing the SAT are not indicators of successful learners in today’s business world. I’ll talk about what are.

Intention

14 Important Reasons to Keep Giving Thanks

I’m an advocate of Thanksgiving 365 days a year. Not the wonderful meal. Not the football games or parades or dog shows on TV. But the practice of gratitude.

So one week later – I encourage you to keep it up. And for good reasons – exactly 14 of them. Learn what they are, here…

Leadership

Learning Agility

In my past three posts, I explored organizational agility and sustainability. Today’s post turns that exploration inward, to something each and every one of us can do. In fact, I would say needs to do. Which is to learn. Learn quickly. Learn all the time. To never stop learning.

Evergreen Leadership Blog

Ambiguity Abounds – A Simple Model to Deal with it

10 Ways to Flex and Grow Your Innovation Potential

It’s Contest Time!

Can you Spot the Differences… and Should You?

My Gift to You

Skeptics vs. Cynics

5 Things You Can Do to Become a More Agile Learner

The way you were taught to learn may not work anymore

14 Important Reasons to Keep Giving Thanks

Learning Agility

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