April 2, 2012 by Sarah Agan to
By realizing the extent to which I wasn't listening.
I came to terms with the idea that my husband likes to play XBOX 360. I resisted this for a long time and finally accepted that it’s something he enjoys. He often tries to tell me about a game he played and the assorted details - and I listen. Well, actually, I really don’t listen.
We were having dinner at our favorite restaurant last week and my husband was talking to me about a game he played earlier that day. His enthusiasm was palpable and I was, to be truthful, totally uninterested in what he was saying. I sat there, sipping my wine and pretending to listen. You know, an occasional head nod and “um-hum” that we seem to think passes as listening. As I’m pretending to listen the voices in my head are saying, “You are a hypocrite…you preach that if you are really listening to another and being curious there isn’t any topic you won’t find interesting.” So, I said, “Honey, I want to apologize to you. I’m not really listening to you and I’m sorry.” He said, “It’s no big deal, it’s not like it’s an important topic, it’s just about a game.” I said, “That may very well be. And, I love you and this is something you enjoy and so it’s not who I want to be to disregard something that brings you enjoyment.” In that moment, I committed myself to listening with intention to what he had to say and that is when things got really fascinating.
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March 12, 2012 by Alan Pentz to Creativity & Innovation, Leadership
I’ve been working with clients on strategy for many years now and I’ve been through the defining vision, mission, goals, objectives, action planning, and key performance indicators drill so many times I can recite it in my sleep. Not that any of that is a bad thing. Strategy has its place, and I’ve seen it turn into shelfware too many times. Many times that is because there is a lack of leadership as strategies move into the implementation stage. In many other cases, though, a strategy fails because the conditions under which it was created no longer hold.
As the great military strategist General von Moltke pointed out, “No plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy's main strength.” Or more commonly, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” Conditions change and objectives and often goals change with them. Most elements of a strategy are dependent on external factors and players that we cannot control or at times even influence.
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March 8, 2012 by Alan Pentz to Leadership, Program Management
Whenever I go to my Pilates class, it is me and about 30 women in the room. I have never seen another man in there. Although some people would tell me not to complain, it got me thinking about why I’m the only man in my Pilates class. One reason is that most men simply aren’t very good at it. I can personally attest to a lack of aptitude. It’s hard; it takes patience and lots of practice to be good. It actually takes a while just to get to the point where your form is good enough to reap the benefits. Most men were reared on lifting weights and running. It’s all about heaving the biggest weight, sprinting extra fast, and generally using brute force and determination to get to your goal. Pilates requires precision. It tones and strengthens rather than bulks. So why is this post on my business blog?
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February 2, 2012 by Alan Pentz to Creativity & Innovation, Leadership, Performance Measurement
We live in a time when many people have little faith in large institutions. Congress’s approval ratings hover in the low teens. Wall Street seems plagued by corruption and a lack of remorse for their wrongdoings. The recent Penn State scandal showed yet another example of trusted leaders failing to act to protect the vulnerable. This list goes on. Trust in institutions seems at an all time low. Politically we’ve seen leaderless, self-organized movements such as the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street that are distrustful of institutions rise to vent frustration. It all seems a little dark and angry.
It got me thinking that at the heart of this problem is a culture obsessed with success and in particular monetary success to the exclusion of all other achievements and values. You don’t report child molestation because the football program pulls in all the big alumni money. Wall Street’s only real metric is quarterly profit. The professions are also subject to this trend. Law firms and lawyers themselves have become focused increasingly on profits per partner rather than taking into account a broader group of factors. Most public corporations emphasize short-term shareholder value and quarterly profits over long-term investment or non-monetary goals. In reducing every aspect of our professional lives to one number, we’ve reduced our own humanity and damaged our culture.
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January 24, 2012 by Mark Micheli to Uncategorized
Having moved to Washington five months ago, I've learned to expect the unexpected working at Corner Alliance and that (nerdy) celebrity sightings aren't uncommon. Whether it was the time I stood in line behind Justice Kagan at the Union Station Chipotle or when our own Kris Pettie saw comedian Tracey Ullman at Chop't in Chinatown, everyone has a prized, weird little story.
But as I stood outside the Treasury Department around noon last Tuesday following an event I’d helped put on for our client, I felt like things got particularly strange.
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