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The Synergist; Valuing All the Roles

In his most recent book Les McKeown mentioned that work teams needed to include the three different roles of visionary, operator, and processor. I was struck by this set of definitions and how useful they are. In my own experience of working with teams, it seems that almost everyone values the role of visionary when [...]

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The Checklist for Changing the World

Most people think that ideas change the world. That’s not true. Ideas in our head do not create change. Ideas, co-created with others, fueled by the conviction of our hearts to do better, and then manifested in the real world – that is what creates change. We all have innumerable ideas. Some, of course are [...]

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3 Books Well Worth-Reading

The Synergist A business book meant for the real-working leader, Les McKeown gives an intuitive model to allow anyone to lead. The notion is that every team needs a blend of visionary, an operator, and a processor. And the often invisible but crucial role that blends all these 3 is a synergist, able to find [...]

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Quiet: Understanding & Celebrating Introverts

The last few weeks I’ve been as limp as a lettuce leaf that had stayed a few weeks too long in the fridge. This is not unusual. It is what happens if / when I do back to back events / workshops/ etc. I end up putting so much energy into the world to be [...]

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Meetings are SuperTax of Work

We create a huge tax on everything we do when we insist on meeting more, later. Send stuff out that is best read so we don’t have to spend time slowly processing, together. Expect people to do that work on their own. They’ll thank you when they get 50% of their calendar back after you [...]

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TED Bookstore Curation

This year, I got asked to co-create the TEDbookstore with fellow TEDsters. I mentioned in an earlier post, it was a bit of a “sophie’s choice” moment because I felt like I could have done another theme and direction and chosen another 10 amazing body of work. There are two threads that unites these.  Certainly [...]

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Social Means Freedom, For Better or Worse

This is part II of a series on how the social era affects every business model, from how we organize, what we produce, and what we sell.  (Part I, the foundational rules of the social era can be found here.) Do let me know what you think.. and especially what you want to see addressed [...]

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Without a Clear Vision

Vision is crucial. It is utterly irreplaceable. No amount of execution or financial success can replace vision. Why? Because, vision can lead the creative work of an entire tribe. (Not just of a few people who think about it all the time, but for everyone.) Vision is the art of seeing things invisible, Jonathan Swift [...]

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Yahoo’s ShakeUp Demands Fearlessness

Four longtime Yahoo board members, including the chairman, are leaving the company. In this one move, Yahoo is trying to make a clean break from the past — signaling that they are primed to reboot. It’s a much-needed and long-overdue step on the path to shifting trajectories. The Pattern of Failing Organizations Larger organizations follow [...]

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What Barack Obama Could Learn from Vivek Wadhwa

Ever since the presidential election of 2008, I’ve been getting progressively mad about something. I got enthralled with an administration that wanted to connect with people in the social era to create change. Perhaps unrealistically, I had this hope it would carry beyond the election cycle. I knew it wouldn’t be easy but I thought [...]

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