Blog

On my recent trip to the NexusAfrica conference in Johannesburg, I found my first intriguing lesson in the time spent with my host family.  I was welcomed into the home of Ivan and Yolande Overton, founders of ChangeWright Consulting, and their three-year-old son Mathew. 

 I was struck by how comfortable they made me feel – nearly like family.  They invited me to make myself at home which included foraging for late night snacks, taking a nap in the middle of their living room and playing with Matthew and his minitiature cars like I was actually the Uncle he called me (or at least  that’s what he said in Afrikaans I was told by his parents).

“Write for five minutes about yourself.”

That was all.  They were the only instructions we were given.  

Then we sat together in small groups and read to each other what we had written.  I sat with the faculty members who were part of this Catholic healthcare system.  They called the five minutes of writing and subsequent sharing a reflection assignment.

I was on my way this past Sunday morning to pick up my weekly batch of donuts.  Later in the day I made sure I stopped at the store on my way home from an In ‘n Out burger to get my potato chips and pint of ice cream.  Call it my Sunday ritual.

It’s part of how I stay fit and trim.  In the past few months by eating all that garbage I’ve lost three belt loops on my pants (that’s about 4 ½ inches)

Imagine you were your competition. Now – as your competition – create a plan to put yourselves out of business.

This may not seem like the question you would want to be asking yourself. One goal of every organization is at the least to stay in business, if not even thrive.

Because we never do is exactly why I recently asked a leadership team to answer that exact question.

After I asked the question, there was some nervous laughter in the room. Was I serious?? 

A few weeks ago I co-hosted a webinar with Sara Ismail-Beigi and Jonathan Thomas Meenach, two students from Bowling Green University’s Masters of Organization Development Program. The first thing we talked about in our planning were our own experiences as both leaders and participants in other webinars. Here’s the short list we developed:  

• There was some technology glitch every time

  • Presenters took the lead in several areas:

    • Picking the date and time

    • Defining the content to be covered

    • Talking anywhere between 90-100% of the time during the session

    • Leaving us to figure out how to apply what we’d learned “offline"

The list was sobering. The power seemed all out of whack. The ones supposed to learn had little, if any, power, save for signing up and joining the webinar.