I wrote the next two paragraphs in a blog post last year — we have met the enemy. A long time ago — pre-pandemic and pre-9/11 — I was flying on a commercial passenger aircraft. The flight was over-booked and as I was wearing my Army uniform, I was offered to sit in the jump… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Leadership
leadership in broken systems
Over the past year I have given a lot of consideration on the role of leaders in our organizations and how some of the core assumptions about leadership need to change. Surviving in broken systems and moving beyond them Many of our systems and institutions are broken. So how can we survive in these? The… Read more »
exit left authoritarian father figure
John Batelle notes that many of the thousands of people who were fired from or have left Twitter after Musk’s purchase of the company were women. He provides links to the profiles of 17 of these women. “Twitter was probably the most intentionally open, accommodating, and thoughtful work culture the Valley has ever produced at… Read more »
revisiting self-determination theory
Self-determination theory states that there are three universal human drivers — autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We need some control over our lives, we want to be good at something, and we want to feel that we can relate to other people. These three drivers are what make us do what we do. Skills are just… Read more »
an agile sensemaking framework
Agile sensemaking could be described as how we make sense of complex challenges by interacting with others and sharing knowledge. More diverse and open knowledge flows enable more rapid sensemaking. I discussed the idea of agile sensemaking in 2018 and later created a sensemaking model (framework). This week on Twitter [yes, it’s still there], Ismael… Read more »
leadership in chaos
In our wake up call I wrote in mid-2020 that complexity and chaos are the new normal as climate change drives more crises our way — pandemics, refugees, environmental disasters, and the overall degradation of our environment. To prepare for chaos, we need people who can act. Identify these people and give them experiments or… Read more »
set an example or leave the building
Leadership by example has been a continuous theme here. 2008 — Wrong Medium, No Message — You have to understand what it’s like to be a node in a social network and that there is almost nothing like it in the industrial workplace or school system to prepare you for this. The basic premise is… Read more »
managing to lead in complexity
The military is beginning to understand that some of its leadership practices need to change as its challenges increase in complexity. Future warfare will increasingly move toward the complex domain. “Complex contexts cannot be solved; they can only be managed. In a context with variables and relationships that are constantly shifting, leaders are unable to… Read more »
dare to un-lead
In Dare to Un-lead: The art of relational leadership in a fragmented world Céline Schillinger shares her personal experiences in several work environments and connects this to a framework of liberté, égalité, and fraternité. For example, Céline discusses her time as the Head of Quality Innovation & Engagement at Sanofi Pasteur and the creation of the… Read more »
“a profound failure of ethical action”
Jon Parsons has researched the ethical implications of the pandemic since it was declared by the WHO. I initially thought that the pandemic, while obviously a serious crisis and heralding an era of disruption, was an opportunity for positive change, a moment people would step up, come together, and enact values of collective care …… Read more »
Our Community of Practice
e-book series
Recent Conversations