Dive into the archives.
- On Culture: How E. Bowen Illuminates S. Beckett
Augie March was a Chicagoan, born and bred. But Saul Bellow was born in Canada. Looking at the world from a window on the Upper West Side, I think of my own little piece of globalization. Two generations through Brooklyn and then Manhattan, from the Russo-Polish Pale; and I was looking, last week, at real [...]
- Productive Hate
Some weeks back, I discussed the connection of flow—- as the integrative, passionate engagement of competence and skills toward a discrete task —- with an internal, late-life correlate to the mother-child relationship, now freed from external dependency on institutional facilitation or permission. That is, the freedom to demonstrate pleasurably one’s skills and competence. Certainly, from [...]
- On Twitter: Productive Narcissism
I am a late adaptor. A post-Luddite. Yesterday, I sent my first tweet. And my wife now claims that she is a “twidow”. There is some truth to this. I’m fascinated by the bricolage: the carnival and the possibility. This morning, having replied to a posting sent from an Irish academic, he and I exchanged [...]
- DayTrading & Managing Our Own Minds
Increasingly, clients have described their turn to trading in volatile and uncertain markets, as their corporate incomes have vanished and their assessments of possible return to their former workforce positions have darkened. Day trading. Paradoxically, they have embraced uncertainty as their former sense of loyalty to firm and task has been disappointed. Their “security”, they [...]
- The line is dead, but “If it ain’t broke…”
Friends have been e-mailing me, “are you all right, we’ve been calling and can’t get through”. Truth is, I’m fine; but with the phone down, I’m also unable to reset the pin number to retrieve my home voicemail— which must be accessed through the now incapacitated phone. Another minor example of customer dissatisfaction. But as [...]
- Thinking Out Loud: Making Explicit Individual & Organizational Similarity
An ongoing interest of mine is in linking the similarities across different psychological systems. Individual, group, and organizational systems share a number of common attributes. These include: a recognizable systemic identity; distinct rituals and practices; differences between the subject and other entities; specific intra-system roles and specializations; a capability to change; the fact that change [...]
- Executive Coaching, Greek Sovereign Debt, & Market Bubbles
This week’s mighty global market turbulence gripped both our attention and stomachs. Naturally, it entered consulting discussions as clients reflected on their relation to markets. Some thoughts: plentiful and current over-supplies of information, facilitated by technology, allow market participants to react more quickly (also helped by technology) than ever before while we react to momentary [...]
- Working Knowledge Initiative: Entrepreneurship is Making Use of Reciprocity
A question from a client who’d worked in the non-profit sector throughout her professional life got me to thinking. She was adamant that entrepreneurship meant exploitation. And committed to community building, she was concerned that personal gain meant diminution of the common good. On reflection, what she’d left out was reciprocity. The only way that [...]
- Working Knowledge Initiative: The Stories We Tell Ourselves as Others Hear Them
Here is a simple exercise: take a room of mature, urban professionals– highly educated & highly skilled. Ask each to reflect on a personal vignette, mirroring their sense of accomplishment and pride. Then contrast what capabilities they think are reflected in their own stories with the capabilities that others actually hear in their stories: the [...]
- Working Knowledge Initiative: Security and Temporary Organization
I woke up in the middle of the night with a singular dream image in my thoughts: it was an egg carton. Thinking about it, I started to chuckle. I recalled it exactly. It had been about 40 years ago— and the first time I’d travelled outside the United States. I had been investigating the [...]
