It hit me yesterday as I was fielding a call from a former colleague who happens to be in transition. She was reeling from what sounded to me as a normal twist in a job pursuit cycle. Maybe you’ve seen this movie too. You finally find a target company or role that is perfect for you but the cavernous void created by online recruiting puts obstacles in your way. My friend’s plight was amplified by a heaping tablespoon of self-criticism. Even if it wasn’t Valentine’s Day one might suggest that there were two answers for her; networking and chocolate. Continue reading…
Barriers: Real or Imagined? (Take 2…)
“There was no money,” said my mother in response to a question I’d asked her last week about my grandfather. “He was pre-med at St. Bonaventure‘s,” she said. My grandfather was a 1st generation American whose Italian immigrant family had settled in upstate New York close to the turn of the 20th century. His father died when he was very young leaving a family of 6 children. His mother remarried. Tony – as my grandfather was lovingly known – never went on to med school. Continue reading…
Conversations: A critical transition tool
I was reading the New Yorker this week and was struck by an article by Jonah Lehrer called, Groupthink: the brainstorming myth (The New Yorker, January 30, 2012 pg 22+). The article was interesting in that it completely upended the notion of brainstorming as a productive tool for creative problem solving. Brainstorming? My kids, 1st and 2nd graders, even know the approach. Continue reading…
Little known transition attributes: courage & silence
“I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on,” said Steve Jobs in his much-quoted commencement address to Stanford University in June 2005. He was speaking about dropping out of college and then hanging around campus to explore courses that appeared interesting to him but Continue reading…
Trials, experiments and transition
This week a conversation from almost a decade ago popped into my mind. In it I was speaking with a brainy friend of mine who was a coder at Microsoft. He and I were talking about how small teams of coders were independent but highly linked. For example, one team might be given the challenge to build the “slide show” function for Powerpoint; another might be given the “inserting pictures” function. Each group would work on their own piece. Every night they would run a routine to integrate all of the code written that day by the various teams. Sound groundbreaking?
Risk & Transition
Transition has changed my relationship with risk. I understand it now at a whole new level. The only parallel I can liken it to is my understanding of men now that I’ve parented a son. An entirely new level of comprehension… Continue reading…
Voices of Transition #2: An ode to networking
“I couldn’t believe it. No one had ever done that for me before. I was having a conversation with a venture capitalist who said ‘you have to meet so-and-so’. He immediately turned and picked up the phone to call the person while I was sitting in his office,” said Karen, a food industry executive and dear friend from HBS. “I didn’t really know this guy. His wife and I connected one day during pick-up at our children’s school. She said ‘you have to talk to my husband’ once she understood my status.” Karen was sharing the positives – the surprises if you will – of transition after having navigated two unexpected transitions within five years. Continue reading…
Guilt & tractors
“He’s on the lamb?” said my army-veteran cousin – half laughing, half shocked – after I shared a surprising tale about a distant cousin. We were having dinner earlier this week at a quaint eatery in the North End of Boston. My cousin’s sister was in town for a conference. The law enforcement reference was in response to a story I told about our parents’ cousin who had relocated to Australia in his early twenties. Everyone at the table had heard countless reverential stories about “David,” who would by now be in his early eighties. David had a wonderful joie de vivre. Continue reading…
Transition Triumphs?
“I’ve been reading your blog and thinking ‘ugh’ all this transition stuff,” said Victoria Taylor, CEO and founder of Victoria Gourmet, lamenting that transition would be ahead of her again sometime. Victoria’s remarks made me wonder, ‘Can we ever triumph over transition?’ Continue reading…
Analogy: a powerful transition tool
Last weekend I attended a training session for volunteers for a local youth group. A wide cross-section of folks attended. One gentleman, a youth minister from a local church named Sal, spoke at length. Sal shared — as only you can share on folding chairs in the basement of a school on a Sunday morning — a story that I found surprisingly powerful. Continue reading…