Whenever I get some time to think deeply about things related to the workplace, like how do we make work better, or what is leadership, or what is management, then I end up inescapably coming to the conclusion that is the title of this post: We have no idea what we’re doing. Sorry to be [...]
Continue ReadingIndividual Development
So here’s something fairly deep to think about. Nilofer Merchant wrote an interesting blog post last week that told a story about when she was at a rather high-powered networking event a few years ago and was “between opportunities” at the time. It sparked an interesting reflection about the meaning of a title, and why [...]
Continue ReadingTony Schwartz wrote a fantastic post on HBR today on Ten principles to live by in today’s complex world. All of them are spot on, so read the whole thing, but I’ll focus on one of them that jumped out at me: Emotions are contagious, so it pays to know what you’re feeling. I’ve been [...]
Continue ReadingI am not a fan of the idea of control. I actually hadn’t given it too much thought prior to a few years ago when the theme of “clarity over control” emerged as a part of the social media revolution. My post back in February 2008 on the “myth of control” probably set a record [...]
Continue ReadingThe economic news these days does not induce a lot of smiles. I was at a presentation last night given to members of one of the associations I manage about economic indicators, and the analyst joked at the beginning of his presentation that there was an 85% chance that people would cry during the presentation [...]
Continue ReadingI am a big fan of Robert Kegan. He is a specialist at Harvard in adult development, and I first started following his work during my graduate program in Organization Development at Georgetown back in 2001. One of the main points that he and his colleagues make is actually simple: Our brains continue to develop [...]
Continue ReadingI had the great misfortune to be doing my own presentation at Great Ideas while the Ignite sessions were going on, which is too bad, because I heard they were awesome. Fortunately, they were recorded on video so I've been able to watch some, most notably the presentation on flying your freak flag by my [...]
Continue ReadingJim Collins is probably best known for his Good to Great book, but I remember seeing a video of him speaking years ago talking about career development. He drew a classic three-circle venn diagram. Two of the circles were "what you love to do" and "what people will pay you to do." Obviously you want [...]
Continue ReadingThe opening round of ASAE recap blog posts have been a bit of a downer. This does not surprise me given the conversations I was having with friends of colleagues towards the end. For one reason or another, the meeting just wasn't as good as the last several years. Acronym has a central link to [...]
Continue ReadingPermit me to sound like a keynote speaker for a minute… If there's ONE THING you remember from this blog post it's this: (dramatic pause…) the reason your organization sucks, is fear. I write about a lot of things. I talk about truth, conflict, leadership, strategy, etc. And of course I think it's all important, [...]
Continue Reading
Jamie is a Vice President at MSP where he leads the consulting division. 
