It’s officially a pattern now that I'm inspired to create a blogpost after a meeting with my Undoing Racism friends/colleagues. After our last meeting, I posted “Masks – as PPE and Metaphor”, that included poetry (Paul Lawrence “We Wear the Mask”) and a video of Maya Angelou reciting the poem. Our meeting last night involved a poem and a [...]
I have a client who shares (with pride) that he’s “Type A ADHD.” He’s also Harvard educated and former military. His energy level is super-high. After our coaching sessions I feel like working-out and breaking all my previous personal records. Yesterday he said, “COVID has kicked in the #@$&*^ door for new possibilities.” Actually, that’s [...]
BTW -- "Confronting the Brutal Facts" and "Unwavering Faith" comes from Jim Collins Good-to-Great -- the Stockdale Paradox, which is discussed in a previous post.
“The safest place in a bad storm is the hard truth”. Admiral Stockdale Stockdale's Paradox/Polarity of Reality and Faith is wisdom for our times. Hopefully, the piece below taken from Good-to-Great (plus some additional resources is useful for you. COLLINS: I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?” STOCKDALE: “Oh, that’s easy, the optimists.” COLLINS: “The [...]
"Mask" is a metaphor that's familiar to an "Undoing Racism" group I've been meeting with going on 4 years now. We have a good time together, but our work isn't always fun or easy. Becoming aware of our individual and collective masks requires creating a trusting space for courage and vulnerability. From that container emerges learning, healing, and growth -- [...]
Here’s a quick-take for leading in crisis. These may be a BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) for most leaders, but perhaps helpful amid chaos. (NOTE: Also effective in non-crisis situations.): Address what problems can be solved AND Leverage the unsolvable polarities in the best ways you can (And, navigate problems and polarities without blame [...]
It’s been described that we’re at war to fight the corona virus. However, this is a two-virus war and the viruses attack from different fronts -- one the body and the other the mindset. The corona virus attacks the body and there's no cure yet. The other virus attacks the mindset and for that a vaccine [...]
“The safest place in a bad storm is the hard truth”. Admiral Stockdale (NOTE: A second Polarity Map from our Public Library of Polarity Maps, appears at the end of this Cliff'sNOTE. It's based on the Stockdale Paradox from Jim Collins, book Good-to-Great.) I was inspired to create the Polarity Map below after a fantastic [...]
In this time of coronavirus quarantine we're navigating the polarity tension of being simultaneously/paradoxically: Socially/physically more distanced from the collective AND Socially/physically more connected with self/a few others As we navigate this tension, it's quite possible we'll find ourselves coming into a deeper awareness of connection to other parts of individual selves we may have [...]
In my lifetime, I've not seen 7 billion people come together to leverage the key polarities such as the ones below (among others): Self Care AND Care for Others Care for Parts AND Care for the Collective Information Accuracy AND Response Implementation Science Focus AND Social Focus Physical/Social Distance AND Emotional Connection Being socially/physically distanced from the [...]