A colleague has been reading and commenting about Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say--and What You Don't by L. David Marquet, and it seemed like a good pick to read and discuss.

The essential idea is right there in the subtitle - what you say matters. The book fleshes out that idea with some nice anecdotes and elements of the thinking behind the concepts. There are some good concepts in here for regular interactions with other people - whether you are a formal “leader” or otherwise working with people to get things done. (In other words, almost everyone.) That said, I am not totally convinced in some of the way Marquet brings the various elements together.

Oct 3
Oct 3 Leadership and Self-Deception

Jack Vinson

book review, personal effectiveness

"Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box" by The Arbinger Institute was a good and challenging read. I found it engaging with connections to ideas from Theory of Constraints that I have been exploring and using in my work. I also finished the book on Yom Kippur - a day of reflections - so I was thinking about my own assumptions around how I operate in the world.

Jan 19
Jan 19 12 Principles of Knowledge Leadership from Arthur Shelley

jackvinson

knowledge management

Arthur Shelley posted his 12 Principles of Knowledge Leadership to a KM mailing list - turns out he wrote this a year and a half ago. Good reference material! He even channels Gandhi.

Aug 5
Aug 5 Lean Project Leadership

Jack Vinson

book review, project management, theory of constraints

Apr 20
Apr 20 Is change becoming social?

jackvinson

business

Mark McDonald on the Gartner blog network says that The nature of change is changing with a new pattern being related to much flatter organizations and wider information flow. He says that change is becoming social-driven, rather than process-driven. Interesting.

Apr 18
Apr 18 Leading an imperfect journey

jackvinson

self, book review, theory of constraints

I was sent a complimentary copy of The Imperfect Leader because I've been reading and reviewing a number of other business novels. As you might guess from the title, this one focuses on leadership.

Feb 19
Feb 19 Leaders setting the stage

jackvinson

culture, theory of constraints

"Super Size Productivity Now: 3% Automation, 97% Leadership" by Kathleen Brush talks about how organizations can create more real productivity - and it's nearly all down to leadership.

Feb 5
Feb 5 Bad meetings lead to bad decisions

jackvinson

book review

Death By Meeting by Patrick Lencioni is an entertaining and rather direct leadership fable on the importance of creating a good meeting culture. It's helpful for all sorts of reasons, but the key is that bad meetings lead to bad decisions.

Nov 24
Nov 24 Too much on the plate

jackvinson

personal effectiveness, project management, theory of constraints

How Smart Leaders Talk About Time is a "Conversation Starter" from HarvardBusiness.org in October. It talks about the the struggle so many businesses have of having too many things to do and prioritizing amongst them. What is a leader to do?

Jun 27
Jun 27 Leading vs managing

jackvinson

business

Another interesting discussion from Sig at Thingamy: mindless stuff and leadership vs. management. He starts with an example of "managing" teenagers and gets to the key that they can only be led.

Mar 19
Mar 19 The Leader with Seven Faces

jackvinson

culture, book review

A review of The Leader with Seven Faces by Leandro Herrero.

Dec 24
Dec 24 Why won't it work?

jackvinson

culture

Bruce MacEwen has a nice piece on leadership that takes off from the recent HBR article about Havard's Program for Leadership Development. I picked up on his comment that leaders need to bring people into the conversation by voicing reservations.

Dec 5
Dec 5 Deciding How to Decide

jackvinson

culture

CIO Magazine published an excerpt from Why Great Leaders Don't Take Yes for an Answer by Michael A. Roberto. I like the author's focus on thinking about how to make decisions, rather than which decision to make.

Nov 4
Nov 4 Spillane lecture on the (Missed) Management of Instruction

jackvinson

cloc, culture, event report

Jim Spillane gave a talk on "School Reform American Style: The (Missed) Management of Instruction," which focused on K-12 education and the design of the organization that provides education. I heard some interesting things about organizational design that extends beyond schoolrooms.

Oct 30
Oct 30 CLLC: Rich Teerlink

jackvinson

event report, knowledge management

This website covers knowledge management, personal effectiveness, theory of constraints, amongst other topics. Opinions expressed here are strictly those of the owner, Jack Vinson, and those of the commenters.

Jul 30
Jul 30 Leadership Is Language

Oct 3
Oct 3 Leadership and Self-Deception

Jan 19
Jan 19 12 Principles of Knowledge Leadership from Arthur Shelley

Aug 5
Aug 5 Lean Project Leadership

Apr 20
Apr 20 Is change becoming social?

Apr 18
Apr 18 Leading an imperfect journey

Feb 19
Feb 19 Leaders setting the stage

Feb 5
Feb 5 Bad meetings lead to bad decisions

Nov 24
Nov 24 Too much on the plate

Jun 27
Jun 27 Leading vs managing

Mar 19
Mar 19 The Leader with Seven Faces

Dec 24
Dec 24 Why won't it work?

Dec 5
Dec 5 Deciding How to Decide

Nov 4
Nov 4 Spillane lecture on the (Missed) Management of Instruction

Oct 30
Oct 30 CLLC: Rich Teerlink