Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Blog

  • Question of the Week

    What has been sitting on your desk so long, that you may as well throw it away and recover the space?

  • Focus In On That Fog

    Many people cannot “see the forest for the trees.” Not me. I have trouble seeing the forest because I also see the meadow and the skyline and the distant skyscrapers and all the people rushing to work and the implications of global warming and the hope of world peace… You get the idea.

    Learning to focus has been a personal goal of mine for longer than I care to admit. I hope to experience it at least once before moving on to experience the infinite. I’ve even tried tying my ankles to the chair in order to see a project through to completion. But then I just made a mess when I hobbled over, chair in tow, to refill my coffee mug.

    Focus is hard because the world is a busy place. How do people know exactly what deserves (more…)

  • Everyone a Lifelong Learner

    Humans are changing, developing beings. This fact applies to the professional journey as much as to any other area of life. In order to have everyone on the team stay engaged, challenged, and committed, their positions, roles and responsibilities need to grow and develop as they do.

    If you’re feeling bored, stuck or like there’s no where to advance in your firm, you are experiencing the growing pains of “growing up” in your field. You need to learn new things, deepen your skills, expand your responsibilities.

    Very few of us are content with doing the same thing year in and year out. What are you learning this year? Who on your team is displaying symptoms of needing change? How might you interpret such hankerings as a positive opportunity for the firm?

  • PodcastPost! “Enterprising Teams 4: Learning to Learn”

    The final characteristic of enterprising teams that we explore is lifelong learning. Enterprising teams are always learning. Competence isn’t marked by the end of learning, but the beginning.

    powered by ODEO

    A learning stance removes the need for posturing. It’s a waste of energy to pretend to possess a level of knowledge that you don’t have in order to impress or substantiate your rank.

  • Question of the Week

    How can you create three opportunities to redeem a recent failure?

  • Passion Finder and Focus Pads

    Passion Finder CoverThe Passion Finder and Focus Pads are, of course, still for sale. Get them here temporarily, and thanks in advance!

  • PodcastPost “Enterprising Teams 3: Communicating Seemlessly”

    Communication, or the lack of it, is a use (or abuse) of power. The sharing or withholding of information, decisions, and/or recent developments will make the difference between a team that merely works in proximity to each other and one who vibrantly collaborates to win the day.

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    Not just talk, but interaction that connects, shares and coordinates.

  • The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

    Fifth Discipline CoverI am back into this classic with a vengeance. I am working with one client’s executive team on a reading program and am being renewed in my passion for lifelong learning.
    I believe systems thinking is crucial to agile leadership, but is often dismissed as just so much consultant-speak. Peter Senge brings the theory down to specific habits one can practice and hone over time. These are not one-size-fits-all gimics that you have to squeeze yourself into. Senge offers insightful thinking, organizing and relational tools to enhance who you are as a leader.

  • Question of the Week

    What are the potential risks and rewards of helping key employees achieve personal career goals?

  • Profit for Life: Case Studies in Living Asset Stewardship

    Profit for Life CoverJoseph H. Bragdon, Society for Organizational Learning, Cambridge, MA, 2006.
    If you’ve been feeling that the traditional political and economic categories fail to explain or enhance work and life as I have, this book is for you. Joseph Bragdon offers a revolutionary perspective on thriving and surviving in a capitalistic context. He calls it Living Asset Stewardship and not only delivers a helpful thinking framework, but works through the practical implications as well. For those of us weary of the idealists and extremists preaching at us from the sidelines.