Control Is An Illusion

One of our greatest fears is the fear of losing control. Managers and executives at all levels are especially vulnerable to an obsession with getting and keeping control–of situations and other people. The truth is that control of situations or other people is purely an illusion.
The only thing any of us has any real control [...]

Shared Spirit: The Key to Shared Commitment

W. H. Murray, the twentieth century Scottish writer and environmentalist, said (and I paraphrase):
Until you are committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one Elementary Truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: That the moment you definitely commit [...]

Shared Spirit the Country Way

I can remember a warm summer day in the early 1950’s. My brother, who was 17, and I, four years younger, were doing some kind of field work on the south forty of our parents’ dairy farm. The south forty lay alongside a gravel-surfaced town road, and I saw a plume of gravel dust approaching [...]

Steeped in Learning

When you have recognized that your group spirit needs some work, there is a feeling of urgency to make some changes quickly, to FIX IT RIGHT NOW!!
It’s almost always a deadly mistake to just start fixing things. The first thing your group needs to do is steep themselves in shared learning and discovery about the [...]

We Work Better With Friends…

 
In his book, Management in Small Doses, Russell Ackoff says, “Friends are persons we know, like, and trust; we believe that they will act in ways that are in our best interests. Therefore, we are likely to take their advice more seriously than that of others.”
Then later he says, “Any manager who cannot count an [...]