Eclectic Change

Sometimes you really need peanut butter in the house.

My mother used to say:  "If you make your bed, then you have to lie in it."  As a result of this upbringing, I am a bit of a product of "Calvinism". I tend to think that good things won't last and I always wait for the other shoe to drop.   Friends would say I am a glass half empty kind of person.  (Am I using to many metaphors?) My great fortune in life is that my better half lives life with such optimism and positivity it is almost sickening.  (OK, enough with the metaphors except fo...

Rethinking Teams

I am beginning to think that the whole concept of teams is passé.  Don't get me wrong.  I think that my work with team building will be around for the rest of my career and will remain a major source of my income.  However, that said, as I focus more on collaboration I am beginning to wonder if the way we look at working groups is archaic for the new world of work. What brought me to this conclusion?  It was a number of factors.  As I was writing this series on the basic principles for high p...

Favourite Quotes

Have you noticed that each week I post a new quote?  You can find it in the upper right hand column.  I also record the old quotes under the "Quote" tab above if you are interested. I am also looking for short quotes related to the theme of this blog.  Please feel free to add them below.

Rethinking Leadership

The first follower is an underestimated leader. To be a leader - you may have to be the first follower. The populous believes that you can't be a leader without having followers.  I hate this premise - even if I don't have a good argument to dismiss it. While watching people trying to figure out how to get home in spite of all the airplanes not flying due to volcanic ash, it was clear there was no leader of the pack. Nor was it any individual frenzy.  Everyone took personal responsibility f...

Are your a futurist?

I was very fortunate to be be able to attend the Lift10 Conference for the past three days.   Lift is a series of events built around a community of pioneers who get together in Europe and Asia to explore the social implications of new technologies. Each conference is a chance to turn innovation into opportunities by anticipating the major shifts ahead, and meet the people who drive them. It was extremely eclectic in topic choices and workshops.  What was exciting for me was not to listen...

Rethinking Collaboration

What happens when the objective is clear but the resources and time frames keep shifting?  That is exactly what many of us experienced when we ended up in one location and due to the volcanic ash hovering over most of Europe, we could not travel home or to our next meeting. The news kept reporting how calm everyone was.  I know this to be true.  When I first arrived at the airport early Thursday morning - it was so eerie how quiet it was.  Everyone stood at the departure sign expecting the ca...