Last week I had a quick turnaround between arriving home from Costa Rica and departing again to deliver a keynote and two workshops on adaptability in Calgary, Alberta. I won’t bore you with the details, but I can assure you that a series of travel glitches put my own adaptability skills to the test. I arrived to deliver the keynote with 15 minutes to spare (rather than 24 hours ahead as originally scheduled), wearing an airline-issued men’s XL white T-shirt and working on two hours of sleep. I told the group that it’s reassuring to know the speaker has experience in that of which she speaks!
Continue reading “Adapt or Adopt?”What are you waiting for?
I am just back from hosting my first international retreat in Costa Rica. It went [mostly] great until a snowstorm in Toronto wreaked havoc on our trip home and we spent a lot of time waiting. A two-hour departure delay, extra time in the air while they plowed the runway, two hours on the tarmac while they found us a gate, two hours awaiting our luggage…resulting in some of us crawling into bed at 4:30 a.m. and others resting on the airport carpet for a couple of hours before their next flight!
Continue reading “What are you waiting for?”Rookie Traveller
When was the last time you did something you’ve never done before or are not very good at?
As kids, trying new things was our full-time job. As adults, we gravitate to things we know how to do and focus on getting increasingly good at them. We’re rarely rewarded for seeking out the utter awkwardness and discomfort of being a rookie, and when we do, we’re surprised by how terrible we are at the new thing. We’ve lost the ‘muscle memory’ of what it feels like to learn something brand new.
Continue reading “Rookie Traveller”Filter not Inventory
Last week, I wrote about one reason not everyone in your organization will be able to see themselves clearly in your strategy. Today, we’ll explore a second reason.
Sometimes, in an effort to make a strategic plan thorough and inclusive, we see it as an inventory of everything we currently do.
A strategy is not an inventory—it’s a filter.
Continue reading “Filter not Inventory”A Flattering Mirror
I often hear clients talk about the importance of all staff being able to “see themselves in the new strategy.”
It’s an appeal for relevance and inclusion, and I get it. But it’s the role of strategic leaders to help each person see themselves in the strategy—it’s not the role of the strategy itself to reflect everybody’s work.
Continue reading “A Flattering Mirror”