Challenging and Supporting People to do the Most Important Work of their Lives
I was in the coffee bar at IESE Business school some weeks ago. I overheard the conversation: “I’ll join the public speaking club in the 2nd year, it will be less crazy and I will have more time”. I was reminded yesterday by a great speech from Jaume about the overwhelming flows of data of the world in which I … Continue reading “Feeling overwhelmed? What does Jim Collins do?”
Why do some employees earn massively more money than others? Does Leo Messi or Christiano Ronaldo work harder than Bob Smith or John Doe? More hours? Better formatted CV? The 5 Forces of More Money In this post I do a quick thought experiment – using a tool from MBA Business Strategy 101 to look … Continue reading “How to earn more money”
“Suffering exists; it has a cause; it has an end; and it has a cause to bring about its end.” The Four Noble Truths of the Buddhist philosophy Suffering is a human universal. M Scott Peck begins his book The Road Less Travelled with the words “Life is hard.” Victor Frankl wrote a powerful book … Continue reading “Victor Frankl and Man’s Search for Meaning”
Ira Glass, presenter of This American Life, tells us that there are three basic building blocks of the story – the anecdote, “bait” and moments of reflection (video here). We improve a story by building up the central conflict, ensuring that the listeners can relate to one of the central characters and by adding surprise. … Continue reading “How to tell great stories”
A friend of mine, Roger, asked me “Why do you call the blog The Rhetorical Journey?”. I am a fan of U2. I have been since I was 10 years old. On the album “Rattle and Hum” there is a recording of an interview between a journalist and Bono and The Edge of U2. The … Continue reading “Why the Rhetorical Journey?”
A short note inspired by a post from Verne Harnish of Gazelles. He wrote about a keynote speech by Dr. William Horton, author of Mind Control. After showing various debate clips featuring Presidents Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Obama, Horton outlined five techniques for winning over (manipulating) the masses: Encourage their dreams Justify their failures Allay … Continue reading “5 Techniques to Win Over the Masses”
I just watched Michael Feiner, a professor at Columbia Business school, on Authors@Google. He talked about leadership. Jack Stack, author of the great game of business says that there are two disciplines needed in a company: optimization and innovation. I think that these overlap with the skills of management and leadership. Management is about predictability … Continue reading “How do you lead people to excel?”
Mr Matz. He taught biology. I was 14. I was living in Chicago having moved from Dublin and going to New Trier Township High school up in the northern suburbs. Mr Matz started the first class by holding up the biology textbook and asking how much it was worth? $30. He told us that if we learnt everything … Continue reading “The best teacher I had in school”
On Friday I heard a story about values and the importance of not just accepting other’s value systems without ensuring they are right for me. I remember reading a book on psychotherapy and the “pathological critic” (Self-Esteem by McKay and Fanning) that described four criteria to evaluate my personal values that allow me to check … Continue reading “Are your values a danger to your health and happiness?”
This is another blog post inspired by a TED video. This one on the world of online games by Jane McGonigle. Humans spend 3 billion hours a week spent playing online games. This is a lot. Many American teenagers will have accumulated more hours playing online games than school hours by the age of 18. … Continue reading “Why do some people find games more fulfilling than real life?”
