Change

04.29.2014
“Practice, Practice, Practice”
This week’s Tuesday Reading, “Practice, Practice, Practice” was written by Lucrecia Kim-Boswell as a leadership reflection earlier this year in one of the IT Leaders Programs. Lucrecia is an IT Capacity Manager at Stanford University. “I had a session with my boxing coach some weeks ago where we made a key discovery. For weeks, […]

04.22.2014
Lessons in Leadership: How Lincoln Became America’s Greatest President
The Tuesday Reading this week is Lessons in Leadership: How Lincoln Became America’s Greatest President, an essay by Hitendra Wadhwa, Professor of Professional Practice in the Faculty of Business at Columbia University. This essay appeared on Inc.com earlier this year. In his essay Professor Wadhwa examines how Lincoln developed the self-discipline to take one of his […]

04.08.2014
The Laws of Simplicity
Today’s Tuesday Reading, The Laws of Simplicity, is drawn from John Maeda’s book by the same title, and the associated website. Maeda is President of the Rhode Island School of Design. He is an artist, designer, and technologist. Before going to RISD in 2008, he was a professor and associate director of research at MIT’s Media […]

03.18.2014
Four Keys to Thinking About the Future
The Tuesday Reading this week is “Four Keys to Thinking About the Future”, an essay by Jeffrey Gedmin that appeared on the Harvard Business School blogs. Gedmin is President and CEO of the Legatum Institute in London. Prior to joining the Legatum Institute in 2011, he spent four years as President and CEO of Radio […]

03.04.2014
Strategy Without Execution Is Hallucination!
The Tuesday Reading today, “Strategy Without Execution Is Hallucination!” has a title that comes from a presentation to a McGill MBA class by Mike Roach, the CEO of CGI, a 31,000 person IT firm. The essay first appeared in Karl Moore’s Forbes column on Leadership. The author is Rebecca Black, a McGill graduate and now a […]

02.04.2014
Doing Less, Leading More
Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay, “Doing Less, Leading More” by Ed Batista. The essay recently appeared in the Harvard Business Review’s Blog Network. Batista is an executive coach and an Instructor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He writes regularly on issues related to coaching and professional development at <edbatista.com>. This essay was recently […]

01.28.2014
Your IT Project is Toast – 11 Early Indicators To Watch For
Today’s Tuesday Reading, “Your IT Project is Toast – 11 Early Indicators To Watch For”, is a slide deck that I recently found in InfoWorld. The author is Roger Grimes, contributing editor of the InfoWorld Test Center. The IT world and every other world, for that matter, is not immune to projects going down in flames. Many times when projects […]

01.14.2014
After Action Reviews
Peter Senge has written that After Action Reviews (AAR), the subject of today’s Tuesday Reading, are “one of the most successful organizational learning methods yet devised.” AARs were designed by the Army as a tool to be used after a project or major activity has been completed. It allows employees and leaders to learn what […]
12.10.2013
A Leadership Reflection: Nelson Mandela
As we reflect on the impact of Nelson Mandela’s life and his ability to change the world: for the better: “It always seems impossible until it is done.” Nelson Mandela. Additionally, from BusinessWeek, “The Leadership Lessons of Nelson Mandela” http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/172548-the-leadership-lessons-of-nelson-mandela Leadership is behavioral, not positional Choose collaboration over retaliation Never give up on […]

12.10.2013
Real Influence – Part 2
This week’s Tuesday Reading “Real Influence,” from the title of Mark Goulston and John Ullmen’s book “Real Influence: Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In,” is a continuation of the reading begun last week. Goulston is a business psychiatrist, executive coach and cofounder of Heartfelt Leadership. Ullmen oversees the website MotivationRules.com and teaches at […]

12.03.2013
Real Influence – Part 1
I’ve titled this week’s Tuesday Reading “Real Influence” from the title of Mark Goulston and John Ullmen’s book “Real Influence: Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In.” Goulston is a business psychiatrist, executive coach and cofounder of Heartfelt Leadership. Ullmen oversees the website MotivationRules.com and teaches at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. This reading is […]

11.01.2013
World Series MVP David Ortiz's Big, Bold, On-the-fly Leadership Lessons
Leadership lessons continue to flow from the recent worst-to-first Red Sox season. Here is a great article from Fast Company on David Ortiz and leadership, “World Series MVP David Ortiz’s Big, Bold, On-the-fly Leadership Lessons“. It’s lessons: 1. Borrow from other industries. I.e., the huddle. Video of Papi rallies his teammates in dugout […]

10.31.2013
3 Things We Can Learn From The 2013 Red Sox
If there are two things we are passionate about here at MOR its Leadership and the Red Sox. Congratulations to the Red Sox, the Boston area and to all of Red Sox Nation on our World Series victory! Thomas Kochan, the George Maverick Bunker Professor of Management and co-director of the Institute for Work & Employment Research at MIT’s Sloan School […]

10.29.2013
Surprises Are the New Normal; Resilience Is the New Skill
Today’s Tuesday Reading is “Surprises Are the New Normal; Resilience Is the New Skill,” an essay by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor at the Harvard Business School where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. The essay appeared in July 2013 in the HBR blog. Kantor introduces the essay with the […]
10.08.2013
Keeping Things Simple
Great reminder from Harry Kraemer, professor at Kellogg School of Management, on keeping things simple, shared at MOR’s 2012 conference. Video of Keeping Things Simple

09.24.2013
Bringing in the Lions
We have all had experiences when we’ve been trying to sell a new idea of strategizing as to whether to invite the critics, the naysayers, the we’ve-tried-that-before colleagues, etc. to discussions we are having to explain and explore our idea or whether we should manage attendance at these discussions to only include individuals who are […]

09.10.2013
Prepare Your Brain for Change
A tired and stressed out brain hates change. Change means learning, something new, creating new connections that lead to a new neural network. And, this doesn’t go well if the brain isn’t ready. Too often our work lives make it hard for our brain to learn – demands of our jobs and our unhealthy sleeping and eating habits. […]
09.03.2013
To Strengthen Your Confidence, Look To Your Past
Among the attributes that all leaders need is confidence – not too much so as to be blinded by benign overly confidence and not too little to feel inadequate. This week’s Tuesday Reading, “To Strengthen Your Confidence, Look To Your Past” <http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/04/to_strengthen_your_confidence.html>, comes from the pens of Amy Jen Su and Muriel Maignan Wilkins. Su and […]
08.16.2013
Quote of the Week
“Your life doesn’t get better by chance. It gets better by choice.” – Author Unknown Do you hold resentments from your past? Do you tend to blame others for positions that you […]