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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.

Another View on Sustainable Business

In my final post in this series exploring the question of sustainability – of our organizations and the larger world in which those organizations exist – I’ll examine the notion of “constructive capitalism”, a way in which companies can create enduring, meaningful and sustainable advantage that also benefits society.

Challenges

Planting in the Fall

Yesterday my granddaughter and I planted bulbs. Lots of them. 229 to be exact. Tulips and daffodils and hardy little purple crocuses. Today it strikes me that planting bulbs in the fall is perhaps one of the greatest acts of faith that a gardener takes. It causes me to wonder how often, when things appear to be in decline, do we continue to plant in what seems like hard ground?

Creating Agile Organizations

Continuing my series of posts exploring the topic of sustainability – of our organizations and the larger world in which those organizations exist, today’s post examines the internal factors that enable an organization to be sustainable over time. Something that, over the last ten years, over 50% of the companies on the Fortune 500 list have failed to do.

Leadership

The Triple Bottom Line and Sustainable Organizations

In my next few posts I am going to explore the question of sustainability – of our organizations and the larger world in which those organizations exist. The topic is big – and this will only be a brush. But I hope that these posts might give you pause to ponder – what should we be doing to create vibrant organizations that are sustainable over time – not via brute force or domination but through the synergy of being in tune with their external environment, honoring that environment (both social and environmental) and existing in a harmonious ecosystem of give and take, change and adaptation, growth, decline, and rebirth.

Today’s post is about a way to measure sustainability using a framework called the Triple Bottom Line. Subsequent posts will examine the internal factors that enable an organization to be sustainable over time, and then the notion of “constructive capitalism”, a way in which companies can create enduring, meaningful and sustainable advantage that also benefits society.

So… about that Triple Bottom Line…

Dynamics

5 Clues to Identifying Your Strengths

Over the weekend I temporarily moved the contents of my office in order to paint the walls. Even I was amazed at what got pulled from the space. I’ve included a photo of SOME of the books that I extricated – and that photo does not include books in my family room, on my night stand, or tucked in various other places in my home.

I had to chuckle, as this was such a visible reminder of one of my strengths – which is input. So why is knowing your strengths important, and how can you identify yours? Read on to find out.

Evergreen Leadership Blog

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

Another View on Sustainable Business

Planting in the Fall

Creating Agile Organizations

The Triple Bottom Line and Sustainable Organizations

5 Clues to Identifying Your Strengths

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