Permission to learn

 
Yesterday I mentioned how much I love Harvard Business Review, and I was reminded of how true that is today after reading Amy Edmonson’s article, The Competitive Imperative of Learning, in this month’s issue. Her article contrasts those organizations focused soley on executing business strategies and those that execute with a conscious desire to learn [...]

Better aisles

 

Happy Monday - I hope you had a blessed holiday weekend! I had a great one because it was thoroughly relaxing, and I even managed to read a book in-between hanging out with the wife and kids. I confess, though, it wasn’t a business book. Is it just me, or is reading business books slightly less fun than most [...]

Starting over

Most people I know have had to start their careers over at some point. Sometimes these moves are voluntary, like when someone wants to make a major career shift late in life, but often they aren’t. Living here in Michigan, where the job base is shifting away from manufacturing and unemployment is high, I know [...]

Modern-day Elijah & Elisha

 
When I moved from Grand Rapids to Chicago back in the late nineties, I was blessed to meet someone that changed the course of my career. Deb is a veteran salesperson, greatly respected for both her talents and her character. Over time, she began to mentor me (although I’m not sure I ever called her [...]

Modern-day Asa

 
“The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.” - H.L. Mencken
We continue this week’s look at Old Testament figures that can teach us a think or two about being a Christian in Corporate America with a look at Asa.  Before Asa became king of Israel, the nation had been [...]

Spiritual legitimacy

I love to read history, particularly about the formation of the U.S. during the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary years. I’ve been Reading a book about Hamilton by Ron Chernow that reminded me that winning the war against Britain was just the first step towards creating a legitimately independent country. The second step, which was nearly as [...]

You can quote me on this, part deux

A quick add-on to yesterdays post…
As powerful as quotes can be in terms of enlightening and persuading others, have you ever noticed how few people seem to be able to quote (or paraphrase) scripture naturally into conversation? This is particularly important when talking with non-Christians who aren’t used to pulling numbered quotes out of their [...]

Hypocricy in the church

We’ve all seen them - people claiming to be Christians, or churchgoers, or “religious” (a term that I’ve always shied away from) but don’t have a clue what it means to live lives in obedience to Christ. They show up to church and are willing to judge others for not doing so, yet can’t seem [...]

How We Learn

Someone once told me that if I want to fix something mechanical (not my forte), that I should stare at it for at least a full minute. That advice has helped me much more than my Time/Life Homeowners Fix It book that sits on my bookshelf. By staring at whatever I’m trying to fix, I can [...]

Age and advice

 
I recently got reading yet another article about the generational dynamics happening within today’s workplace. It seems that this is the topic-du-jour right now, and on one hand I’m sick of reading about it, but on the other hand I’m fascinated by it. With millions of Baby Boomers exiting the workforce and only about half as many Gen [...]