As noted in the post Individualism is also a relationship, I have long been curious about whether our common sense understanding of the individual as something fundamentally set apart from the rest of the world provides an accurate sense of our actual existence. Does the sense of being a separate entity cloak a more fundamental […]
Dana
Flow: a wellspring of engagement, productivity, wellness, and resilience
I was sad to hear about the recent passing of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He was gracious enough to make time to chat with me about his research on flow when I made a visit to Claremont, CA in the late 2000s. At the time I was working on a suite of cultural transformation initiatives at a major IT […]
Individualism is also a relationship
What does it mean to be an individual? The answer to this question may seem fairly straightforward. We tend to assume that to be an individual is to be one person (in some sense) set apart from the rest of the world. Starting from this assumption, we then consider how that one person set apart […]
Remote but not alone
The endless hours I’ve spent sitting in front of my computer over the past 18 months have afforded me an opportunity to reflect on the nature of human connection. Working remotely is not a new thing for me. Like many of my collaborators, I have been working remotely from my home and other locations for […]
Hard at work? Relax, you’ll get more done:)
Do you regularly log 10 to 12 hours of work per day? How about weekends and holidays? “Of course,” you say, “Who doesn’t?” And vacation, what is that? For several decades, professionals have been caught up in a trend toward ever-increasing performance pressure accompanied by ever-lengthening work days. But if you think all of that […]
Wicked problems call for less time in the training room and more learning in the real world
In the real world, the problems we face can be roughly divided into two categories. Some are tame. Tame problems are simple and easy to analyze and categorize. Figuring out how to use an Excel function to perform a calculation is a tame problem. It may look hard, but it is actually pretty straightforward. Overcoming tame […]
Make behavioral automation work for you instead of on you
You do a lot of what you do without ever thinking about it. With a little reflection you’ll notice that you are not always sure what leads you to do some of the things that you do. Most of us have unconscious habits like a nervous laugh or finger tapping. Then there are those extra […]
Who controls employee experience?
What did you experience at work today? Was it satisfying? Frustrating? Exciting? Boring? Energizing? Tiring? Does what you experienced really matter? Evidently, it matters to your employer. Companies invest a lot of money in trying to improve the way employees evaluate their work experience. They conduct climate surveys to learn more about how you feel […]
For deep learning start with real priorities
Collegial Action Learning uses learner-centric design principles to enable professional knowledge workers to thrive in a world of wicked problems. This article describes the flow of a kick-off session of a Collegial Action Learning initiative. We reframe the learning process by starting with the real interests and priorities of the learners. We then come back […]
Leverage Autonomy, Purpose and Connection to Drive Transformation
The following is a rough overview of factors I have considered in the design of initiatives using an action research methodology called Collegial Action Learning. Collegial Action Learning combines individual reflection, ideation and experimentation with collaborative reflection, learning and ideation to spur additional individual action. In an CAL initiative, professionals refine and test their own […]