Monday Morning Mojo

A good friend of mine told me how he was working with a team sitting in a conference room and they got stuck. They weren’t making any progress. So, my friend suggested they have a walking meeting – i.e., they get up out of their chairs and walk around the city as a group while […]

A social learning system is any group of people who learn together. It could be a family, a group of people on a subway train that gets trapped in an underground tunnel, a class cohort, or a work team. These groups have 4 dynamics that I think are pretty cool: 1. Peer-to-peer learning is just

There are two kinds of ritual. There are rituals of stability (e.g., saying hello, eating together, kissing or shaking hands when we greet) and there are rituals of transformation (e.g., theatrical events, weddings, bar mitzvahs, initiations, vision quests). Rituals of stability reinforce our relationships.  Rituals of transformation change them. Anytime you meet to create the

Half-baked ideas often contain a beautiful kernel, an essence that can be cultivated and nurtured until it matures into a powerful contribution. Yes, it’s often the case that people share thoughts that are not a good match for the task at hand, not yet fully baked. It’s the way we humans interact.  Next time someone

Last Tuesday I went to the most extraordinary concert. The opening act, the Guru Ganesha Band, captured my fancy more than the main event. Guru Ganesha is a 60+ year old Sikh who leads a band that plays music to celebrate spirituality. Before the evening was over the guru in his white shirt, white pants,

My good friend, Gary LaBranche, told me last week that innovation is about courage and vulnerability. Over dinner he shared his point of view that new ventures require boldness in the face of uncertain success. They necessarily leave you open, susceptible. Gary is on to something big. A life worth living, one that you can

Extraordinary weeks and horrible work weeks have one thing in common, they all start on Mondays. Have you ever heard the phrase, Mighty oaks from little acorns grow? It’s one way of saying all big things start small. So now, in the wee beginning of this workweek, is the time to plant something generous. Generosity

I was just named the Associations Editor for InnovationExcellence.com, “the online home of the global innovation community, building upon a rapidly-growing network with thousands of members from over 150 countries.” This due to a string of innovation pieces on associations I have published over the last several months, some of which appeared on their blog.

Market conditions are changing rapidly now. A lot of the trends that are disrupting associations have been around for a long time. But because the market disruptions are speeding up, things like breakthroughs with Internet technology, social methods for interacting like Facebook, private sector companies providing education for free as a loss leader—all these are

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment guarantees all American women the right to vote.  The federal government proclaimed the amendment incorporated into the Constitution on August 26, 1920. Amendment XIX to the US Constitution: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not