What I see depends (at least partly) on what I have learned to see; what you see depends (at least partly) on what you have learned to see.

Many (if not most) of our communication, relationship, influence and collaboration challenges emerge through errors of omission rather than errors of commission. Back around 2007, when I created this graphic for a program on interpersonal influence that I developed for the Japanese subsidiary of a global investment bank, social neuroscience had not yet become that […]

You know more than you know that you know. How do you access all that knowledge waiting for you to peer just below the surface?

In a recent interview on Hidden Brain, University of Missouri psychologist Ken Sheldon explores how intuition (i.e. accessing information that gets processed beyond the awareness of day-to-day consciousness) is often the doorway to problem solving. (link at bottom of this post) The interview focuses on how you can build a life that incorporates more of […]

To lead a transformation, you ALSO need to pay attention to the transactional needs of your potential followers

Why do people follow you? To gain rewards and avoid punishments? To maintain a mutually-positive and useful relationship? Or do they follow you because they want to help you create a future they believe in? Transformation involves transactions. It’s not possible or even desirable to ignore transactional forms of leadership. Likewise, not all transformational visions […]

The story of transformation is mostly one of trying, failing, reflecting, learning and trying again

I recently read an editorial by clinical psychologist Jenny Taitz in which she suggested chain analysis as a key pillar of a strategy for making successful transformations. As I was reading her article, I immediately recalled that Andrea Konuma and I had integrated many of the elements she recommends into the performance and well-being programs […]

Your RAFT can help keep you flowing toward TOMORROW by helping you to remember to take action TODAY

We all know that if we don’t take new actions, we cannot get new results and if we don’t create new habits, we can’t sustain those results. RAFT makes it easier to do both. In our experiments helping clients drive personal and organizational change Andrea Konuma and I noticed that there didn’t seem to be […]

Make ongoing exploration a part of your success story

EDIT: Explore – Define – Iterate – Transform/Transfer/Transition/Translate/Thrive EDIT is a formula you can use to put learning at the center of life and work, enabling you to convert change (変化) into transformation (変革) by writing stories of agency, purpose, growth, connection, contribution and meaning. Andrea Konuma and I came up with the Community Action […]