Motivation in an Environment of Uncertainty

Imagine you are considering a new job.  One of the key performance objectives of the job is to motivate the staff that will be working for you.  You are told that there is no money in the budget for bonuses and in fact some salary reduction will likely take place.  There is a chance of [...]

More Interaction, More Change

Most current perspectives on the future of organizations will begin with comments on the accelerating pace of change.  The consequential generation of ideas for dealing with these phenomena focuses on leadership, management, technology, character, relationship and just about any other topic of interest. I think it is very important to make sure we scratch hard at the [...]

The Normalcy of Uniqueness

If you listen to pretty much any discussion on organizational challenges or read virtually any book on organizational change, leadership, management or whatever, somewhere it is bound to mention the ‘unprecedented’ pace of change, or the presence of challenges ‘never before encountered’ or some other term to describe how our specific time is unique in [...]

Conversations in a Climate of Fear

What are the types of conversations that are the most valuable in organizations when a thread of fear seems to be wrapping itself around us and makes us feel like we don’t want to talk to anyone? It feels like many of us are in this position right now, a climate of fear permeates so [...]

Every Interaction Matters

Perhaps one of the most important things that the complexity sciences have taught us is that very small disturbances can, at times, create dramatic, significant and unforeseen changes.  Perhaps an even more significant lesson that unfortunately doesn’t get nearly as much air time is that it is not predictable which small disturbances might create what [...]

Busyness, Feeling and Value

I was recently talking to a person who works in Organization Development in a large multinational organization who was considering becoming accredited to use our products.  He was looking at our schedule of public workshops and indicated he likely would be able to attend the June 2011 session since he was booked up until May. [...]

The Tyranny of Certainty

Certainty is a brutal tyrant.  We strive with great effort to meet its demands and most often fail.  We have learned to live our lives under its oppression and because it is an idea rather than a thing we hardly even recognize its presence, let alone the havoc it creates. It is time to rebel. [...]

Kids, Parents, Organizations, Models and Understanding

My youngest son (well not all that young at 20) is an elite hockey player.  He plays junior ‘A’ hockey which is the highest level of amateur hockey you can play here in Canada.  Just this week he left for his last year of playing at this level as next year he will be too [...]

The Pressure to ‘Figure Everything Out’

The more I work with organizations the more I see people in pain, stress, angst and shame over not being able to ‘figure out’ what’s going on in their roles, their work relationships and their organizations.  Adding to this is the constant messaging that we should be able to figure everything out if we are [...]

The Hero With A Thousand Deaths

Earlier this September, Network Member Steve Boehlke http://www.sfbassociates.com/ was in Johannesburg, South Africa working with a group of young African entrepreneurs in conjunction with the African Leadership Academy http://www.africanleadershipacademy.org/site .  On one of the days there he tweeted that the group was testing the hero’s journey and linked us to an article by Candace Allen [...]