Does your organization hold meetings as a proxy for meaningful human interaction?

Do you find yourself in meetings in which, just as you’re all about to reach a decision, someone raises another objection or reason for further investigation? Now ask yourself if you spend more time in these meetings that you do speaking to people one-on-one. If you answered yes to both, your organization may be culturally [...]

I’ve been reading and rereading Difficult Conversations by Stone, Patton and Heen. I find it particularly useful because it identifies the thing that has always baffled me about “those” conversations: they’re not about facts and logic. Even though we spend inordinate amounts of teeth-grinding time on “But you said…” and “I don’t remember saying that, [...]

What would Atticus Do?

I just read a great blog from Harvard Business Review based on the work of Rafe Esquith, the author of Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire. It’s all about morals.  Morals in Management.  Ring any bells?  HBR has gone to an award-winning 5th grade teacher in Los Angeles for help. According to the blog, Esquith [...]

Quitting to succeed

Seth Godin, author of Tribes and Small is the New Big, has another book out – The Dip. An important and audacious premise of The Dip is that quitting is sometimes the very best action to take to get what we want. Godin says, “we fail when we get distracted by tasks we don’t have [...]

Perspectives and Emotions

Changing perspectives is a great way to open doors to new understanding.  After all, our perspective is what creates our reality. “Pretend” was the biggest perspective-changer in my life.  A great coach and friend, Michele McCarthy, told me, “Pretend that everything that happens to you happens because you want it to happen and you always [...]

The Adaptive Coaching Framework

I have observed the following skills of people who successfully adjust in a highly volatile environment: Knowing what matters Noticing what matters Knowing when and with whom to connect Taking action to connect Knowing when and how to respond Taking action to respond Learning and adapting to the results of their action Committing to repeating [...]

The Adaptive Coaching model – Step 1: Notice

The first step in my coaching model is Notice. Noticing things gives us subjects to connect to others about, and respond to, thus ultimately learning from.  We tend to notice things that disturb us, just as the rest of the living world does.  Disturb doesn’t necessarily mean something negative, but has the connotation of a [...]

A coaching model for adaptive behaviour

Adaptive behaviour: Any behaviour that enables an organism to adjust to a particular situation or environment.   A simple model for adaptive behaviour: Notice Connect with others Learn and adapt Respond Repeat    How I, as a coach, use this model with you, as a client: In my work with teams as a coach, instructor [...]