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The business world is changing as we speak. Some business leaders don't know which way to turn. Our goal is to help business leaders successfully negotiate the challenges that lie ahead, turning the challenge of change into a positive force for your business.
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The Kanon Clarity Blog
Imaginative Gridlock
What is your thinking chained to?
Mull on this for a while:
“When any relationship system is imaginatively gridlocked, it cannot get free simply through more thinking about the problem. Conceptually stuck systems cannot become unstuck simply by trying harder. For a fundamental reorientation to occur, that spirit of adventure which optimizes serendipity and which enables new perceptions beyond the control of our thinking processes must happen first. This is equally true regarding families, institutions, whole nations, and entire civilizations.
“But for that type of change to occur, the system in turn must produce leaders who can both take the first step and maintain the follow through in the face of predictable resistance and sabotage. Any renaissance, anywhere, whether in marriage or a business, depends primarily not only on new data and techniques, but on the capacity of leaders to separate themselves from the surrounding emotional climate so that they can break through the barriers that are keeping everyone from going the other way”
Edwin Friedman, A Failure of Nerve.
Friedman knew that without appropriate separation (or distance) from things we can’t unlock our imagination and move beyond where we are stuck. Read the rest of this entry »
Current Reading List
So where is my mind dwelling?
Here are a few of the books I have been allowing my mind to dwell on lately:
The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry. (recommended by Nik Baltatzis)
(CURRENT READ)
This series of agrarian essays by Wendell Berry is fascinating to me. Berry is a writer, farmer and cultural voice from Kentucky. The book challenges the assumptions on which we base our modern way of life. Berry’s theme is that getting away from an agrarian, community based society will damage and eventually destroy our society.
A Failure of Nerve by Edwin H. Friedman (recommended by Mike Donohue)
(CURRENT READ) Read the rest of this entry »
When you look at your people what do you see?
The People Challenge
For every organization systems are key and we’ve talked about how to deal with problems as they come up. But nothing really happens in the world without people. People run the systems. People interact with clients and other stakeholders. People set plans into action and execute the organizations objectives and accomplish the organizations goals.
So here is a funny paradox for you: there is usually nothing that causes more stress for a leader or owner than people problems. People are the “get it done” force behind organizations and yet leaders often are plagued with how to deal with various people issues. Why the tension?
My first leader boss
My first professional mentor was a boss I had at Erickson Retirement Communities. He was the former CFO of a Fortune 100 company and had studied leadership extensively. He said to me, Read the rest of this entry »
Implementing Systems That Work
It’s the System Stupid
A lot of people are wondering how we went from booming ‘06 & ‘07 to busting ‘08 and presumably ‘09. It seems so sudden. It seemed like just yesterday business was flowing like the chocolate river on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
So What’s the ‘09 Challenge
5 Step Process for Changing Specific Problems
Patterns that Drive Performance
Ever feel like a hamster on a wheel doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same results? Usually this issue comes from not addressing a problem, frustration or negative pattern that exists in your organization or in your life. Some of you are thinking of that issue right now. You could try this technique:
What keeps us in the cycle?
Usually the culprit is lack of attention. You don’t need unlimited time, money or energy to solve most of your problems. Too much of these resources often masks what the true issues are. What you do need is short, focused attention and then a plan to move forward that deals with the issue. Read the rest of this entry »
5 Strategies for Starting the Year
Goals are good, a clear picture is better
Happy New Year! Many individuals and organizations take time to set goals and make resolutions around the New Year. However, most people and many organizations scrap their goals within weeks of making them.
So how is it going with those resolutions so far?
What happens to our high aspirations? Why don’t we follow through with the things we say we want to change?
The reason we don’t keep our New Year’s resolutions is simple: we usually don’t develop resolutions that really resonate with what we want the most. It might have seemed like something you wanted. But you didn’t really intend to carry it out in the first place. You said you would, you worked hard for a few weeks, but in the end the way you were living was more comfortable or important to you than what you thought you wanted to change. Read the rest of this entry »
What Does Your Next Step Forward Look Like?
Cyclers & Resolvers
There are two types of people that I have seen over and over again in my practice during the past 20+ years: Cyclers & Resolvers. Cyclers move through life repeating the same behaviors and experiencing the same outcomes month after month, year after year. They avoid ownership of their experiences and blame externals for the negative outcomes in their lives. Resolvers on the other hand take ownership of their experiences and the related feelings, thoughts and behaviors. They don’t settle for the same results they have always gotten.