Monthly Archives: January 2008

Jan 28, 2008

New Champions – The Story of Emerging Markets

The lessons of newly emerging champions in the global economy from a Davos CEO forum: • You have to have a mission. A mission of creating a better world for your children. • Make impossible things happen. • Be bold and persevere. • Be a bridge. • Rethink cultural biases. • Rethink where talent is – create talent. • Empower women. • Rethink where innovation...

Jan 27, 2008

Collaborative Innovation – The Serendipity Effect

Here are Central themes in the conversation of the Davos CEO Forum about Collaborative Innovation. What happens when you bring people together and they learn to understand and trust each other? How do you connect with different viewpoints to capture disruptive and innovative opportunities? What collective intelligence and brain power can be unleashed in a collaborative environment? How do organizations operate in a “meshed up”...

Jan 24, 2008

What Is Your Power?

These are snapshots of Mount Rainier as my plane was taking off from SeaTac airport. I usually prefer to sit by the aisle but on the flight to Houston last week I sat in the left window seat and took my digital camera. Mount Rainier makes me wonder about latent power… Power that has not been applied and is being contained has a greater impact...

What is a Coaching Conversation?

The Coaching Conversation is dedicated to improving your ability to succeed, and helping you to move forward and take action. It may feature and include any number of the 32 natures and characters listed below. Coaching conversation is… 1. Strengths based and 2. Opportunities focused The conversation is… 3. Challenge embracing 4. Possibilities assessing and creating 5. Observations framing 6. Insights seeking and articulating 7....

Jan 19, 2008

How Will You Astound Yourself?

Here are Thomas Edison’s words of wisdom: “If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves….” Part of the mission of this blog is to bring transformational value to you. The Edison challenge for you is the following: Imagine what you are really capable of doing… No, for real… Take 10 minutes today to imagine what you...

Jan 15, 2008

How Do You Find A Destiny – When Readiness Meets A Need, Actualization Follows: FDR And John Paul The Second

(Excerpt from the third Emerald Key: The Roots Nourish and Grow the Fruit) FDR struggled immensely with polio away from the public eye. Unbeknown to him and to the American people, he was being made ready as he fought to get through his personal despair and depression. Roosevelt’s resolved determination and will power, which was fashioned during his painful ordeal with polio, is what America...

The Ten Commandments ala Will Smith

This is a great 60 Minutes piece. It’s so good I had to find an excuse to post it here. I therefore made up the Ten Commandments ala Will Smith in the spirit of this interview. 1. You shall view yourself as only slightly above the average talent. 2. You shall have a ridiculously sickening work ethic. When other guys are sleepin’, you shall be...

Jan 12, 2008

The KEY: It’s Not What You Do

This Key is about a subtle blind spot that sabotaged Jim and many other high performers. Unlock this insight and set yourself free to discover your leadership path. Jim has been successful at launching his career and it’s gone well. He quickly became known for his ability to get things done and for taking on one responsibility after another. Jim became one of his company’s...

Adizes Insights

The theme of this Blog is “Thoughts for Times of Change.” Recently I spent a few hours reading and thinking about the recent Insights from the Adizes Institute. Ichak Adizes is a pioneer, one of the most important thinkers alive today. He is a “Change Doctor.” Ichak has been a teacher in 32 countries and is a consultant to top managers and heads of states...

Jan 7, 2008

Innovation Requires “Whole-Brain” Not Just “Right-Brain”

The Economist writes intriguingly about Evan Williams the founder of Blogger and Twitter: “Williams accidentally stumbled upon three insights. First, that genuinely new ideas are, well, accidentally stumbled upon rather than sought out; second, that new ideas are by definition hard to explain to others, because words can express only what is already known; and third, that good ideas seem obvious in retrospect.” The Economist...