The Library
The Library
What Do Women Really Want From Men?
Men, if you want to be with a woman these days, you need to be a partner, and not a project. And not for their sake, but for your own. Here’s why. And how. This post is also available as a YouTube video (click here). Or jump to the audio version. MANY YOUNGER men today find themselves single and without a partner. A commonly heard explanation is that is due in large part to women’s increasing [...]
Unhelpful Assumptions (for Leading Through Uncertainty) #4 | “Something’s Wrong”
If a problem is not happening to you, then is it really a problem? We may not like the answer to this philosophical-sounding question, but it has very real and practical implications. There is that philosophical question that if a tree falls down in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, did it make a sound? One answer is that it would have caused some vibrations through the air, but the perception of sound requires an ear [...]
Unhelpful Assumptions (for Leading Through Uncertainty) #3 | “We’re in Control”
As some people would have it, even a plane can’t fly without them in it. How disappointing for them when they discover autopilot. If you’ve been a regular reader, you might have noticed a theme emerging about how we can’t throw ourselves like a missile at reality and expect things to all go our way. And that metaphor is not mine but was lifted from this excellent TED talk by the poet and philosopher David Whyte. It’s called Life [...]
Unhelpful Assumptions (for Leading Through Uncertainty) #2 | “Our Plan is Right”
Just as rules are meant to be broken (sometimes), we could say that plans are meant to go awry—and they do (very often). How, then, should you respond when things aren’t going to plan? In the 2023 Rugby World Cup semi-final against England, South Africa’s Springboks found themselves struggling in unexpected wet weather against a determined opposition playing to a slightly different pattern from what they had played before. South Africa’s coach Jaques Nienaber—no doubt prompted by his boss [...]
Unhelpful Assumptions (for Leading Through Uncertainty) #1 | “We Know Best”
We strongly believe that we know what’s best, even when the evidence is against us. There’s a more helpful assumption for leading though uncertainty, and it’s not what you’d think. Here is a quote that I use to kick off many of my workshops. It’s relevant to the theme of trust and psychological safety, and equally to the theme of uncertainty. It’s by Chris Argyris and Peter Senge, two giants of organizational and leadership development. “Teams and organizations trap [...]
The Key to Leading in an Emergent Order System
Are your people equipped to operate freely and smartly in an emergent order system? Here’s how you can tell, and what you can do. In past editions, we’ve seen illustrations of the inherent order that lies within an apparently chaotic system. We saw that the inherent order may seem to disappear, but it eventually reemerges—showing that it was always there, just not visible for a while. Watching the recent Euro 2024 football and some international rugby, I saw this [...]
What to Do When There’s No Button to Press
In times of change, instead of looking for which button to press, look for the seed of what wants to happen. This brief dive into oriental thinking shows the way. The Occidental—that’s a fancy word for Western—style of thinking is not well suited to dealing with uncertainty. It is a linear style of thinking which holds that everything happens in a straight line, from cause to effect. Flowing from that is the assumption that every mishap can be explained [...]
Learn How to Test for Order Within Chaos
In complex systems, processes are never without exceptions. Is that even a problem? Here’s how to test for inherent order within phases of apparent chaos. Last year I attended a business school class alongside some MBA students. One of them had a law background. He adamantly asserted the view that what he likes about the law is the certainty and clarity that it provides. When the law is written down, he posited, it is clear and unambiguous. A therapist [...]
Curiosity is Your Swiss Army Knife for Leading Through Uncertainty
Curiosity is your Swiss Army knife for leading through uncertainty. Because leading in the style of a general commanding his troops from atop a horse on a battlefield just doesn’t cut it anymore. We need something new. We need to not feel the pressure of having to have all the answers. Articles about uncertainty and change usually start with overused old clichés, followed by some brain-twisting acronyms, and then end with a call to action. This one is different: [...]
