FORWARD21: #3
FORWARD21 is a weekly newsletter with top hand-picked forward thinking human and workplace resources for 21st-century executives, leaders, and change agents curated by Bill Fox.
How to Be a Powerful Change Agent in the World
When I first got involved with corporate transformation back in the 1980s, I learned that many transformation projects were failing because we have a leadership problem.
The leadership in my company at the time sent me off to attend a workshop led by one of the world’s leading consultants. That’s where I learned we have a leadership problem, and it was now my job to go back and tell my leadership they were the problem!
Advance the calendar to today, and how can it be that despite the enormous attention and focus on leadership over the past three decades that most people are still waiting for leadership to show up?
Along the way, I realized that what we’re focused on isn’t working out very well, and maybe the problem isn’t leadership?
Then one day, my frustration boiled over. There had to be a better way, so I channeled my frustration into an intention and asked new questions.
Little did I know what my intention and new questions would set in motion. The unexpected just happened and my world changed.
Back in 2012, I discovered the book Do You Quantum Think by Dianne Collins. Dianne’s book gave me an understanding and helped me move more fully into my intention and work.
In her book, Do You Quantum Think, author Dianne Collins says –
Asking yourself deeper questions opens up new ways of being in the world. It brings in a breath of fresh air. It makes life more joyful. The real trick to life is not to be in the know, but to be in the mystery.
I was so enthralled with what I learned that I had to talk to her. An email resulted in a fascinating phone call and conversation.
Dianne and I kept in touch, so when I started the Exploring Forward Thinking Workplaces interview series, she was on my initial list of people to interview.
Below are a few key insights and takeaways from her book:
It’s important to distinguish here that the question you’re in is also creating a context and giving a trajectory of where we will go. It’s going to influence what line of thinking and actions we will take.
What is relevant is that when you start to live consciously, when you can see your automatic habits, in that moment, you can make another choice!
My question that led me to create the QuantumThink® system of thinking was: If thinking creates results, then what is creating our thinking?
When we ask how can we have this work for everyone, it’s a place to stand to see what shows up.
Because my publisher requires me to take any interviews published in the book offline, I highly recommend you read the full interview in my new book The Future of the Workplace.
You’ll gain an understanding of how to think in a new way that sets real transformation in motion in yourself and the world.
FORWARD21: top articles that got my attention
Question Yourself⎜Gemba Academy
Kevin Meyer relates how we all grow up within a framework of ideas and values provided by family, friends, and community that we all too often simply accept as correct and true. Meyer shares two recent lessons he learned from one of his favorite web sites, Brain Pickings. Mayer says, “Far too many people simply follow the values and opinions of others, without questioning or continually testing against the raw input of reality.” You discover two great ways to update your thinking and beliefs.
Why You Should Stop Trying to Be Happy at Work ⎜Harvard Business Review
Author Emily Esfahani Smith writes that “people who focus on meaning in their personal and professional lives are more likely to feel an enduring sense of well-being.” She also points to research that shows that “making work more meaningful is one of the most powerful and underutilized ways to increase productivity, engagement, and performance.”
How to run a calm workplace⎜The Economist
Does a relaxed ethos in the office work better than a hard-charging approach that’s found in most companies today? The Economist takes a look at the latest book It Doesn’t Have to be Crazy at Work, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, who run a software company called Basecamp. In the book, the authors argue that it is perfectly possible to run a business with consistently growing profits without requiring employees to work madly long hours. The authors of the article believe it may be the best management book this year.
The Signature of an Artist⎜Brian Gardner
Brian Gardner is someone who inspires my work and influences the minimalistic design style I use on the web and elsewhere in my work. In this recent article, Brian inspires us to “embrace your signature, defend your signature, and proudly start putting your signature on everything you create.”
FORWARD21: books
Dianne’s book is one of my all time favorite books. Below are a few of my highlighted highlights. Email me at bill@billfox.co if you’d like to get a PDF of my complete list of highlights.
Do You QuantumThink? ⎜Dianne Collins (SelectBooks, 2011)
“A system is like a vortex. Once you’re in, it takes you with it. If you try to drive outside the road system, you’ll only get so far until you are forced back inside the system.“
“Even a novel idea or the most brilliant plan is likely to get swept into the powerful force of the existing system. When you QuantumThink you do not attempt to change the current system; you think in a new system.“
“If all we have to do is change our thoughts to change the world, then with six thousand years of wisdom available to us at the click of a mouse, how is it we are still not living it?“
In Closing
Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, please consider forwarding it to someone who’d like it or, even better, consider buying a copy of my new book The Future of the Workplace, or one of my Be a Workplace of the Future Series books.
If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe at forwardthinkingworkplaces.com.
To your great work life & success!
Bill Fox
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