Posts in Dr Mike's Blog
Purposeless Exploring

I found the process of exploring without purpose was good for my soul. We spend so much of our lives being purpose driven and outcome driven – I've got this objective by that date as a step towards that long-term goal. And of course, as an Achiever on the Enneagram scale, my need to hit targets of any kind is hard-wired.

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Two Things

I don’t have McKinsey’s fabulous research resources, so I can’t prove my theory, but I believe self-awareness and a learning mindset are essential in any stage of an organisation’s development. As Jack Welch said, “when the rate of change on the outside exceeds the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.”

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Growth Mindset - Not

Someone was telling me the other day that they were sick of mindset.  I’ve been a fan of Carol Dweck’s work for 10 years, so I asked her why.  She said that in her experience the way it was being used was as a bit of a putdown by managers.

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Mindfulness@Work

When it was introduced at the Leadership table, he and the CFO rolled their eyes at each other. In their minds it was one step from hugging trees and singing kumbaya.

But now they’re sold, although they don’t use the mindfulness in public. We call it Active Leadership to distinguish it from personal mindfulness practices like meditation, breathing exercises and gratitude.  What we’re talking about is mindfulness@work.

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Decayed Decade

Acknowledgement: I stole the name from a University Revue in 1979. It’s also a song by Sabertooth Zombie but you probably knew that. At the end of every decade we may feel that the human condition/society has lurched another step down. But the reality is much more uplifting: most of the poorest people today have better lives than a billionaire had a century ago. As we head for the beach and then gear ourselves up for a new decade, give yourself some reasons to be hopeful.

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