Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Category: Musings

  • Education for What?

    EducationI’ve been thinking about the value of formal education since returning from a college tour with my daughter.

    Granted there’s an expectation in the culture that necessitates degree work for appropriate professional credentialing. But in addition to that, there is the importance of being able to think clearly, comprehensively and complexly in order to meet the challenges of 21st century planet Earth.

    I’m not a big fan of the job-focused approach to education. While being able to secure a job is vital in this money-based world, we need more than the capacity to impress to result from our education.

    Try asking yourself, “Whose world is this?”

    If your answer is, “Theirs” then your focus becomes figuring out what “they” expect and making sure you have it. Once you learn their rules, your education becomes a means to comply and compete. To get the job and to keep the job.

    If your answer is, “Mine” then your focus becomes figuring out what “you” want and making sure you are taking steps to make it happen. You become a participator in making the rules, and your education becomes a means to think and act more creatively, more systematically, more resourcefully. To show up fully and make a difference.

    If you have teens like I do, whose world are you preparing them to inhabit?

  • Permission Granted to Enjoy Spring Break

    VacationThe kids are on Spring break. I am not.

    But I work for myself. So theoretically I can stop working any time I choose.

    But then life does not happen “theoretically,” does it?

    And so I look through my to-do list, my project list and my contact list, and I think, “I’ll never breath again, much less enjoy Spring break!”

    Those of you who know me, know that I am anything but driven. So finding an excuse for a diversion in not my particular difficulty.

    Allowing myself to enjoy the diversion, though, is.

    So here’s what I’m doing. I’ve planned a few activities with the family over Spring break. They are on the calendar. Anything else can take place around those fixed points of light.

    Instead of Spring break slipping through my fingers, for example, I’ll be visiting colleges with my daughter for several days. It’s been on the calendar. Set aside before anything else had a chance to compete for the time. And, believe me, now that we are getting ready to depart, you wouldn’t believe the number of things competing for the time.

    Let me know what you do to set aside time without being haunted by everything else that you are not doing.

  • Complex Simplicity

    butterflyTo take all the complexities of a situation into account is overwhelming. To insist on simplicity is naive.

    Keeping processes and structures as simple as possible while keeping one’s awareness of the complicating issues as high as possible might be the constructive tension that would serve best.

    How do you manage the tension between the value of simplicity and the reality of the complex?

  • Choosing to Focus

    FocusTo focus on any one thing is not to focus on everything else.

    For those of us trying to focus on several trajectories of effort, this can be a maddening dynamic. Concerns for all that crowds our peripheral vision overwhelm our attention.

    Much can be addressed with thoughtful scheduling. I not only choose on what I will focus, but when and for how long as well. I, in effect, give myself permission to let everything else go out of focus.

    Since I have reserved a place in the schedule for my other priorities, my current focus is not compromised with concerns about all that I cannot see. I am free to pour myself into the chosen task at hand.

    How do you stay focused in your busy life?

  • Mixed Feelings About Monday Morning

    As the weekend winds down, I’m thinking about the variety of feelings we’re all having about going back to work.

    Mixed feelings for me this week. I love the approaching people encounters—some I’ve known for years and a few others I’ll be meeting for the first time. I have certain tasks and deadlines hanging over my head that I’m experiencing as heavy weights for some reason.

    Some projects draw me forward, and my energy increases as I get increasingly involved. Some projects nag and accuse, and I resist with childish dread.

    How are you feeling about getting back to work this week?

  • New Line Cinema: How Greedy Can You Get? Writers Take Heed!

    So the big news today is the lawsuit being filed by the estate of JRR Tolkien against New Line Cinema and its parent company, Time Warner. Of an agreed 7.5% of the gross earnings of the Lord of the Rings triology they are due, the estate has been paid… you guessed it… nothing!

    How greedy can you be? Not only have the movies and ancillary products earned over $6 billion, the lost interest/earnings related to the delay alone are worth a mounting fortune.

    How greedy can you be? The entertainment industry seems to glory in its shame. I’m sure they’re all patting themselves on the back for being able to postpone payment for as long as they have.

    Ironically enough, the writers are on strike for a share of the earnings related to what their works are earning on the internet. The studios may as well go ahead and promise whatever percent they like. The writers will never see it. They’ll never be able to audit or gain access to audits of the studio’s earnings. Who are the fools here? Seriously.

    I‘m sure New Line Cinema is preparing an articulate set of words (read excuses) to sooth, reinterpret reality, and extend the entire process.

    Whatever the legality, it’s an abuse of power. That’s my take. What’s yours?

  • Tired of Watching From the Sidelines?

    Hands DrawingThe extent to which we show up is the extent to which we can contribute.

    If we wait at the edge of the room for someone to invite us to the proverbial table, we have only ourselves to blame when no one seems to notice all our talent standing there unused.

    We don’t ask if there is a seat for us. We take a seat… our seat. We wear ourselves comfortably and without second thoughts. And in the process of participating, we become co-authors of the unfolding story.

    If you’re tired of the picture others seem to have of you, then draw one yourself. Don’t leave either the artwork or the interpretation to others without finding a way to participate yourself.

    I think you’d be surprised by how much you will accomplish my merely choosing to show up yourself.

  • People or Positions?

    Team PlanesWhen you look at someone on your team, do you see a person or their position?

    Are the unique characteristics of each employee the secret treasures that enhance or the troubling booby-traps that derail the effective performance of any given job description?

    Whether you get excited or annoyed when someone doesn’t fill their role as you defined it is an important clue to whether you believe the value comes from who is on the team, or from how you organize the team.

    It is not a simple either/or. Both are obviously significant. But in this age of professional empowerment, I’d err on the side of over-valuing my team members and letting their individual make-ups inform my organizational structure rather than the other way around.

    What do you think?

  • Navigating Leadership Fog

    Foggy NightShivering in the night fog, I find myself at the crossroads of decision and…

    I can’t bring myself to say the other word. Too many internal messages suggesting only the weak use it… or admit to it.

    Is the word, “fear?” Is it, “failure?” Or possibly, “doubt?”

    As many leaders do, I could choose to disconnect with myself. Plow ahead. Ignore this noise. Pretend what I want into existence.

    Or I could risk challenging the negative slant associated with this leadership unmentionable. I might choose to view it as a source of information. A potential clue to my way forward.

    Maybe curiosity is a more effective way through the fog than bluster. Could it be I’m looking for a better question more than a better answer?

    How do you navigate the fog?

  • Christmas Eve Leadership Lesson

    It was the night before Christmas, when all through the house
    Not a creature was stirring, except that I was lying awake thinking about my unmet goals for the year.

    Tomorrow morning, the kids will revel in the gifts and delights of the a holiday key to our family’s faith. I will muster my focus to participate fully and set aside the concerns that I did not accomplish all I set out to in 2007.

    What does the coming of the Christ Child represent if not the abrupt intrusion of the unexpected gift we need most?  We learn that we are not alone and because we are not alone there is always hope.

    And so, I do not beat myself up over missed targets. I learn. I get help. I look forward. I keep moving forward.

    There is always a way forward. Even if it is not the path I had originally planned.  I adjust. I try again. I stay in the game.

    I find my energies and efforts renewed by knowing that I am not alone and that there is always hope.

    I think I will have no problem being fully present with my family tomorrow morning. I hope you will learn from your 2007 as well, so we can all show up for a more vital 2008.

    Merry Christmas.