Strategy

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 […]

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 […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is the essay “I’m Thinking.  Please.  Be Quiet.”  which appeared in the August 24, 2013 issue of The New York Times.  George Prochink, the essay’s author, is also author of the forthcoming book, “The Impossible Exile.” Around 1850, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, who felt that he had been tortured by noise all his life, […]

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   […]

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 […]

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  

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 […]

Justin Rhodes, associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, tells us that excercise can be the answer.  The essay appeared in the Scientific American. Rhodes says that there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that we think and learn better after we exercise.  Part of the reason that cognition […]

A key theme of the 2013 MOR IT Leaders Conference was that we are entering a time when disruptive change is the norm. Given that change will happen whether one participates or not, those who actively resist it will hinder their organizations’ progress and imperil their careers.  For the conference participants, the message was clear: […]

It is a fundamental principle that leadership in today’s higher education environment must be collective, concurrent, and collaborative.  To make that happen, campuses need to create, nurture, and sustain communities in which leaders at all levels can be successful. On day three of the 2013 MOR IT Leaders conference, the morning session focused on building […]