When does the switch from aiming to succeed to aiming not to fail occur? Has any company ever avoided it? NASA, Microsoft… and next up? Apple? Dan Ariely asks this question on his blog. Why did NASA go from the ambitious 1960’s to 1980’s era moon missions to the conservative, blame-finding, cover-your-arse culture of the … Read more
70% of organisation change efforts fail. John Kotter has an 8 step process that can reduce the likelihood that your project of organisational change (and all leadership projects mean some form of change the the existing status quo). A big source of failure is starting action before you have put together a solid base of … Read more
I just watched Thomas Hyunh speak about his lifetime obsession with Sun-Tzu, the 2,500 year old Chinese General, at Authors@Google (video at the bottom of this post). Sun-Tzu was only 30 years old when he led the smallest region of China to victory over the largest region. This victory made him famous, and made … Read more
Leadership: You Have to Go First. I love this little Dilbert storyline from Scott Adams: Employee: “I find it rather demotivating that you never praise me for a job well done.” Boss: “You’ve never done a job well.” Employee: “That’s because I’m demotivated.” Boss: “You have to go first.” Employee: “Wouldn’t that make me the … Read more
“But, is this normal?” Why am I so fixated by normal? What about optimal? Wouldn’t optimal be a better aim? Is my life normal? Some of it, yes. Some of it, no. But it adds no direction to my journey to the future me. Is my life optimal? Is my running posture optimal? Is my … Read more
At the end of every course I teach at IESE Business School, all participants give extensive feedback on their experience of the course, the facilities… and on my role as a teacher. When the summarized feedback reaches me a couple of weeks later, I open the pdf in a state of nervous tension. I am preparing … Read more
I am in Kona, on the west coast of the big island of the Hawaiian islands. I am in Hawaii for a workshop later this week. 10 entrepreneurs who are part of the global leadership of Entrepreneurs’ Organisation are meeting to pull together our ideas on how we can accelerate and deeper the teaching of … Read more
How to Give a Killer Presentation Chris Anderson, Owner of TED Presentations rise or fall on the quality of the idea, the narrative, and the passion of the speaker. It’s about substance, not speaking style or multimedia pyrotechnics. It’s fairly easy to “coach out” the problems in a talk, but there’s no way to “coach … Read more
I am sitting in the auditorium at IESE Business School listening to Margaret Heffernan speak about her book “Willful Blindness”. She is a wonderful speaker, sharing both clear framework of ideas and specific personal experiences. I have scribbled about 5 pages of notes on her material, but will limit this blog post to discuss two … Read more
My friend Bill Treasurer’s fourth book “Leaders Open Doors” is now available. In 90 easy to read pages, Bill cuts layers of confusion out of the term “Leadership”. Bill had an “Aha!” moment about a year ago. (I mean Aha as in the story of Archimedes in the bath). Bill has been teaching, coaching and … Read more