This week I happened to catch an interesting story in the New York Times by columnist Tara Parker-Pope. She compiled a story about a multi-media project sponsored by her paper that asked readers to submit photos and stories about Life After Cancer. “What cancer made me do in my own professional life is pedal faster,” shared breast cancer survivor Susan Schwalb, an artist featured in “New Meaning and Drive in Life After Cancer.” (New York Times, 12/4/12 D5) Reading it I couldn’t help but think about pedaling but it was direction not speed that had my attention.
A forest not trees….
More than 20 years ago I staged a personal albeit modest ‘conscientious objector‘ moment. I was a first year graduate student at the Harvard Business School facing a two-week break at the Christmas holidays. Since Labor Day we’d been assigned about 100 pages of reading per night. Our holiday assignment was to read a roughly 300 page book. So goes the concept of a break…. Knowing full well the risk of being asked to summarize the book publicly upon my return I ignored the assignment. Much to the horror of my classmates I might add. Continue reading…
Transition Suspended?
Turkeys Suspended On The Climbing Structure
I ran into a friend’s mother the other day. I’ve known this woman and her daughter for more than thirty years. A side benefit of living within fifty miles of where I grew up. “We are going to The Grill Room for Thanksgiving,” she responded after I queried about her plans for the upcoming holiday. “My daughter used to do it but ever since her father died she hasn’t been able to. You know how close they were…” Continue reading…
What are your 100 precincts?
Have you figured out the ten teams that matter? I asked naively during a meeting earlier this week. If the looks on the faces opposite to me were any indication, the answer was no. My meeting comrades had been charged with a change management effort at their company. They had lengthy color-coded spreadsheets. Action plans and timelines. They hoped to train everyone. Win hearts and minds. And accrue victory one step at a time….. Continue reading…
Winning Segments…
“We view the game as a series of 3 to 4 minute segments,” said Kevin Eastman, assistant coach of the Boston Celtics. “We want our guys to win every 3 to 4 minute segment.” It was Sunday afternoon, a pre– season open practice for the Boston Celtics at the TD Garden. The coaching staff doesn’t look at a 48 minute game nor does it look at 4 12 minute quarters. Segments. Each one stands alone. Win or lose. It got me thinking about transition. Could transition benefit from this lens? Take it one segment at a time. Reach? Experiment? Win each one? Continue reading…
The self we project….
‘Nice. Happy. Fun.’ So read my picture’s caption on my 3rd grader’s All About Me poster. She is VIP in her class this week. Amidst the photo cut outs of birthday parties, funny antics and family vacations there were silhouettes of each member of our family. The words caught my eye as glue sticks and scrap paper swirled across the kitchen table Sunday evening in a mad dash for Monday readiness. The words made me pause. Continue reading…
Advice: When to embrace vs. ignore?
Last week a dynamic entrepreneur presented her pitch deck to me and a few other advisors. Her company is a new online service that is sure to up-end a staid fragmented industry. All through the conversation I hung on the edge of my seat waiting to catch pieces of her original concept. With virtually no money the company had acquired a few customers (hooray!) and talked with many prospects. But based on a small sample size of feedback she morphed her plan, radically. Finally I asked, “why have you stepped away from your original concept?” Continue reading…
Career and Life Blockers…
Ever heard of blockers? I picked up on the phrase during my tenure as head of HR and Administration at a large S&P 500 corporation. A blocker in that context was a person who stood in the way of another’s progression. For those outside the corporate world this may seem odd so here’s the scoop. Every year the CEO, the head of HR (yours truly), and all business unit presidents would discuss the ‘talent’ (read: employees) who held the title director or higher. In our world that numbered more than 400 people. Continue reading…
Transition Interrupted….
“Take out your application and reread it,” urged an endearing professor to our section of first year students at the Harvard Business School. We were less than a month into a two-year residence there. To a one we were humbled by the scope and pace required of us. At that moment we stood bleary-eyed and dejected. Her recommendation was intended to rekindle some sense of personal self-worth amidst a sea of upheaval. Did it work? Not sure any of us headed for our file cabinets but the sentiment was an elixir in its own right. Continue reading…
Transition Requirements: Deftness Inside and Out
Do you remember Lawrence Summers’ gaffe regarding women and the sciences? He referenced a “different availability of aptitude,” in 2005 while addressing an audience as president of Harvard University. It cost him his job. Would it surprise you that he might have unknowingly referred to a pervasive cultural bias that most likely affects women in every field, not just the sciences? Why stop at the fields…this bias is likely present in every transition over the arc of our lives. Continue reading…