For those of you who are wont to read a good business book from time to time, you might want to check out this little gem from Fast Company on how to read them. The essence: distill the central idea and create your own toolbox. Good advice that, especially when combined with another recently seen (but forgot where) idea that there is no such thing as the perfect business theory. A good consultant holds good theories and their opposites in mind at all times. Which is why we need decent holistic frameworks for working in organizations. That way we can …
The Globe and Mail published an obituary today for my father in law, Peter Frost. The obit focuses on his work with emtional toxicity in organizations, work of which he was so proud. He was the co-author and editor of dozens of books, but Toxic Emotions At Work was his first solo effort and I think it was the one of which he was the most proud. It followed on the heels of his first articles in the Harvard Business Review, starting in 1999. After a career of plowing away on the margins of organizational theory, he had finally cracked …
Received my invitation today for the 23rd International Symposium on Organizational Transformation (OT23). This year, friends Susan Kerr and Sheila Isakson among other are hosting the gathering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. This year’s theme is “Welcoming Spirit”: We invite conversations at all levels of experience from persons who have heard about Open Space but not had an opportunity to participate to persons who have been practicing Open Space since Harrison Owen introduced it in the early 1980�s. These meetings are designed to be flexible and are intended for anyone who wishes to begin or continue learning about the practice of …
Ten items of linkage focusing on conversation, transformative leadership, presencing and creativity: Hugh McLeod’s beautiful treatise on how to be creative. The conversations guide from the Christian Science Monitor called Across the Red-Blue Divide. Contains a series of articles and a public conversations guide to help people listen to one another. A one page guide for facilitating conversations across the political divide, from the Public Conversations Project. Both of the above courtesy of Happenings Fieldnotes: the newsletter of the Shambhala Institute. If you can afford it, this year’s Shambhala Authentic Leadership Summer Program will be very worthwhile, featuring Harrison Owen, …
In Presence, one of the core pieces of clarifying purpose and moving to action is basing your work in deep seeing and sensing skills. I have been experimenting with various strategies to deepen seeing and find the core truths that form powerful purposes and visions. This is the first of a few posts on this topic. It recapitulates a story I posted last week to the OSLIST about working in Open Space with a client and friend of mine, and sometime commenter on this blog. Last week Dave facilitated his first open space (he did great) and this gave us …