January 3, 2012 by Sarah Agan to Leadership
Perhaps our greatest learning and growth comes from when things don't go well - and yet, we want things to go well and we organize our life so things will go well. If growth comes from learning from failure then the experience of failure is required for growth. That statement is totally counter to our western view of success and achievement. Failure is not a word we associate with success and in fact, most of us are afraid to fail. It creates quite a dilemma, doesn't it? I want to learn yet I'm afraid to do anything I don't know how to do because I might fail and look bad. If I fail and look bad people won’t like me and I won’t be successful. If people don’t like me and I’m not successful I’ll be lonely and I won’t be able to get a job and pay my bills. If I’m lonely and can’t pay my bills I will be sad and I will not have a home to shelter me. If I am sad and don’t have a home to shelter me I will eventually want to die or I will die on the street. Wow! No wonder we don’t want to fail; if we fail we will die (or so we think).
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December 12, 2011 by Sarah Agan to Program Management
I’ve been working with a client for months on an organizational realignment initiative where the leader engaged his senior team in looking at a new organizational model better aligned to their recently expanded mission. My client has made changes to the organizational model based on the team’s input and, as a result of using a collaborative process, has created a broad sense of ownership among the senior team. During a staff meeting with the entire office, my client shared a graphical depiction of the organizational model that looked a bit different than what the leadership team had last seen. In fact, ninety-eight percent of the information was the same as what the senior team co-created. The leader added what he thought were minor, clarifying details. After the leader shared the graphic during the staff meeting, I was talking with a member of the leadership team who was agitated over the additions the leader made to the model. In fact, she crumpled up the handout of the model and threw it in the trash. This is not behavior I have seen from this person and it left me with a big question about what was really at the root of her reaction?
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November 24, 2011 by Katy Milani to Government
I admit I log onto Facebook everyday. By the minute new updates and photos feed onto my screen that give me a quick glimpse into my friends’ and family members’ lives, and because of this I feel a little more connected than I would be otherwise. However, I couldn’t have imagined how connected we really are until I stumbled upon some fascinating stats in this recent Washington Post article.
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November 3, 2011 by Alan Pentz to Uncategorized
I am an extrovert, which means that as soon as an idea pops into my head, my mouth is already expressing it. As a result, I am often interrupting conversations and find silence uncomfortable. Doesn’t everyone? The answer I’ve found is no.
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October 10, 2011 by Alan Pentz to Government
We’ve done some work in the public safety broadband space and I’ve talked with public safety leaders, technologists and others about what the future of a public safety broadband network might hold. Based on those conversations, I think we’ve really only scratched the surface of the possibilities. Right now we are focused on whether or how to build a network. What’s the best architecture? What’s the best governance model? How much spectrum does it need? etc. These are all essential questions to answer but I believe we’ve barely glimpsed the future of the capabilities that a public safety broadband network will create.
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