As a couple of new management classes come together, I have loads of great ideas.
That is not always good.
I now have to screen them so they fit in with the pacing and so the workshop doesn't become too rich. Is it possible for a class to convey too many good ideas? I believe it can. People need time to mull over, discuss, and argue about certain points.
The process resembles the structure of a mystery or a thriller. Non-stop action wears out the reader. That's why writers will shift the scene to a cafe, a quiet park or any spot that removes the reader from the stress of what just happened.
Pacing can conflict with Content and sometimes it should win.
Friday, June 10, 2011
Quote of the Day
Just because you are following your bliss, it doesn't mean anybody's going to pay you for it.
- Joe Calloway
- Joe Calloway
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Leadership Lessons from George C. Marshall
Wally Bock has an excellent review of the qualities of one of the greatest leaders in the history of the world.
CEOs and History
At Chief Executive, Bob Donnelly wonders, "Do CEOs read history?"
[I've seen places where anything that took place five years ago may just as well have taken place in the 1700s. It is seldom remembered or heeded.]
[I've seen places where anything that took place five years ago may just as well have taken place in the 1700s. It is seldom remembered or heeded.]
Talkative Audiences
I've heard people say, "Oh, it's a small audience at that workshop. People will be very talkative."
Not in my experience. I've found that large audiences encourage more discussion because audience members are less conspicuous; they can hide in the forest. Say something in a small group and you may as well be on stage.
Large groups are less inhibited. They are ready to rock and roll. They're away from the office drinking coffee, checking out one another, and planning lunch.
Small groups that have worked together can be similarly uninhibited but small groups of strangers are about as wild as a church social.
Consider those factors when preparing a presentation. It's not that you cannot get a small group to open up. It's just that it will take more work.
Not in my experience. I've found that large audiences encourage more discussion because audience members are less conspicuous; they can hide in the forest. Say something in a small group and you may as well be on stage.
Large groups are less inhibited. They are ready to rock and roll. They're away from the office drinking coffee, checking out one another, and planning lunch.
Small groups that have worked together can be similarly uninhibited but small groups of strangers are about as wild as a church social.
Consider those factors when preparing a presentation. It's not that you cannot get a small group to open up. It's just that it will take more work.
Systems Systems Systems
I examined an organization that was inadvertently designed to be inefficient and ineffective. Many of the operating assumptions held by its management team were dependent upon the organization having a reasonable system instead of one that foiled progress. As a result, the management team members - at least those team members who wanted progress - were frustrated.
Their tendency was to blame some of the other members or upper management. All were trapped, however, in an intricate web that had been spun over the years. The organization, to use a famous line, was getting the results it was designed to get and the results were poor.
A major turning point arrived when we were able to identify the chokepoints. One in particular had a extremely negative impact on a large number of operations.
So what happened? I'll report back. The patient is still in the Intensive Care Unit.
Their tendency was to blame some of the other members or upper management. All were trapped, however, in an intricate web that had been spun over the years. The organization, to use a famous line, was getting the results it was designed to get and the results were poor.
A major turning point arrived when we were able to identify the chokepoints. One in particular had a extremely negative impact on a large number of operations.
So what happened? I'll report back. The patient is still in the Intensive Care Unit.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
Don't Be a Happiness Bully
Gretchen Rubin at The Happiness Project has "7 Tips for Minding My Own Business." An excerpt:
It's a Secret of Adulthood: Just because something makes me happy doesn’t mean that it will make someone else happy, and vice versa. I often fight the impulse to be a happiness bully, but what works for me might not work for someone else. I remind myself of the negative example of Thoreau: I almost can’t bear to read Thoreau's Walden, because he's so disdainful of other people’s tastes and values. When he writes about his own experience and views, I find his work very compelling, but he’s very judgmental and dismissive of any different vision of a happy life.
It's a Secret of Adulthood: Just because something makes me happy doesn’t mean that it will make someone else happy, and vice versa. I often fight the impulse to be a happiness bully, but what works for me might not work for someone else. I remind myself of the negative example of Thoreau: I almost can’t bear to read Thoreau's Walden, because he's so disdainful of other people’s tastes and values. When he writes about his own experience and views, I find his work very compelling, but he’s very judgmental and dismissive of any different vision of a happy life.
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