Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Blog

  • Listen In -> Decision-Making #1: Battling Unfortunate Patterns

    When making decisions do you rashly shoot from the hip, or analyze data forever?

    This week we begin a new series on decision-making. Instead of searching for the perfect decision, we need to develop a posture oriented toward being able to assess and decide in an intentional, timely and poised manner.

    1. Battling Unfortunate Patterns
    2. Becoming More Intentional
    3. Becoming More Timely
    4. Becoming More Poised
    5. Practical Challenges We Face

    We begin the series with a discussion of the decision-making traps many of us fall into that don’t serve us well.

    Listen in.

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    New No Excuses Leadership Course
    This series on Decision-Making is the first of three series that will comprise our No Excuses Leadership Course. Watch for opportunities to participate in this online coaching experience toward the conclusion of these series.

  • 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.

  • Lessons from Eliot Spitzer

    You have to read this post from Ellen Weber on how our own choices can sabotage our efforts. Even if the fall-out from our choices isn’t as dramatic as Eliot Spitzer’s, we all find ourselves doing things that work against our goals.

    Click over to her Brain-Based Business site and check out her insightful list of ten ways we shoot ourselves in the foot. These include: avoiding risk, dodging reflection, procrastinating, and choosing insincerity among others.

    While not exactly thrilled to see some of my choices on the list, understanding the how and why behind how those choices affect (read damage) my capacity to choose as I’d like in the future, was a real eye-opener. I gained a new motivation to choose differently.

    Who’s side are you on? Not always your own, it seems.

    I say we change that today.

  • Question of the Week

    What criteria do you use to measure the impact your work has on your quality of life?

  • 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?

  • Are You Blogging… Yet?

    “Yet” being the key word, because in one form or another, we are all developing content,
    holding conversations, sharing ideas, and collaborating all of the time already.

    It is now becoming easier, faster and cheaper on an exponential scale. Check out Chris Cree’s comparison to the revolution (I would say cultural transformation) caused by the Gutenberg Press. His insights on speed, price, distribution and participation are cause for pause.

    More than a fashionable trend or a badge of technological prowess, online interaction is transforming content, communication, community, and collaboration.

    Watch for coming announcements at Bold Enterprises.com expanding your online learning and collaborating options! (Do you have a Goals Journal yet?)

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • 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?

  • When the Means Have Become Ends

    If you have a focused, hard-driving working style, it can be difficult to see alternatives that merit consideration.

    In this week’s discussion of our 4th podcast on recovering from bad New Year’s resolutions, we’re looking at those who are disciplined and intentional to the point of rigidity. They’re getting amazing things done, but have become slaves to their methodology.

    What we’re looking for are ways to turn the equation around and get back in touch with the original attraction that motivated the New Year’s resolution in the first place. The “means” have become the “ends,” and we want to recover our ability to identify and stay in touch with the goal (i.e. the original “ends”) we’re shooting for.

    The tendency to switch attention to our means and methods can blind us to the impact our actions are having on others. Our heightened focus comes at the expense or our peripheral vision.

    To focus on the means is like trying to drive straight by looking at the lines on the road. There is a limit to what you can observe by doing that. To focus on the ends is to direct your eyes down the road to where you want to end up. The steering takes care of itself and your peripheral vision is freed up to notice exponentially more.

    Enhancing your peripheral vision doesn’t necessitate becoming less focused, but more. The difference is whether your focus is on the means or the ends.

    Catch up on the entire series on Bad Resolution Recovery.

  • Question of the Week

    What is involved in helping your team adjust to the loss or addition of key members?

  • Listen In -> Bad Resolution Recovery #4: The Rigid Disciplinarian

    Are you so focused on the implementation of your New Year’s resolution that you’re not enjoying its benefits anymore?

    Our final podcast conversation in this series addresses the strengths and weaknesses of the Rigid Disciplinarian.

    To give this person credit, he or she can make things happen. Of strong will, they can make difficult choices and implement new patterns, behaviors and/or practices.

    On the down side, though, this person often becomes the unwitting slave to the methodology. The plan has taken over. They lose their ability to use discretion and nuance complex situations. Their intense commitment can blind them to their impact on others.

    Is this you? Listen in.

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