I Don't Have Time for This

It was February of 1990. I’d just walked into my office after a long drive from a meeting in Connecticut. Picked up the phone to check voice mail. There were three messages from Jim’s office manager, Karen: “Please call me as soon as possible.” “Please call as soon as possible.” “Call me immediately!” This was years ago, before everyone carried cell phones and was instantly reachable.

Creating a Compelling Case for Change

Imagine this:  Your team has designed an organizational change that will have significant operational impact.  It’s a complex process and you’ve worked for months to get all the moving parts aligned.  The deadline for rollout is fast approaching, you’ve run out of time, and you’ve pinned down the last details just under the wire.  You all leave the final meeting exhausted but proud of your accomplishment. 

Addiction: A Systemic Perspective

Sometimes, a piece of writing presents a view that is both so obvious yet so refreshing that it changes the way you think about an entire phenomena.  Johann Hari’s recent article, The Likely Cause of Addiction, and It is Not What You Think, had that effect on me. Connection is a theme that has longstanding meaning in my life, yet I never considered addiction to be a disease of disconnection.

Self-Control: Limited but Renewable

Susan looked up at me with panic in her eyes when I walked into her office. “Oh, no!” she said dramatically. I thought she’d just heard about a major disaster. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “It’s 10:00, time for our appointment. I got in at 7:00 and I haven’t gotten anything done! I’m so overwhelmed, I can’t think straight. I was supposed to prepare for our session and I don’t even know what I want to talk about.”

“Why don’t we talk about this?” I said.

Altruistic Manipulation?

Before the holiday season is over, I'd like to share a video that left me with mixed feelings. I've always been a big fan of the work of Joseph Grenny and David Maxfield of Vital Smarts, the organization that has given us Crucial Conversations, Crucial Confrontations, Influencer and Change Anything. Their work has provided a myriad of powerful tools to improve communication and bring about behavioral change.

Leverage

Here’s a quiz:

It’s Monday morning and your current to do list is two columns long. Do you…

…knock off the 5 things you know you can get done before your conference call in an hour (What my colleague Christine calls low hanging fruit) or

…create a plan to address the big challenge you’ve been putting off because it seems so daunting?

Of course, the answer isn’t clear cut.

Your Brain on Purpose

Here’s an interesting fact: At least 11 million bits of information enter our brain through our senses each second. Our conscious mind, however, only seems able to process 50 bits of information per second. Most of what enters our brain happens outside our awareness. Rock and Schwartz note that in a world with so many distractions, a big challenge is our ability to focus sufficient attention on any one idea.

Three Dreaded Words

I recently had an interaction with someone close to me that resulted in some deep reflection. In order to protect the innocent, I’ve created a hypothetical scenario that captures the gist of the interaction.

You’re in the kitchen at work, eating your lunch, minding your own business. A colleague with whom you are close hurries into the kitchen and rushes over to you. In a loud voice, he says the three dreaded words: “Why did you…”