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We are all Advising Professionals
Colleen is a lawyer and works in the legal department of global retailing company. She wants business leaders in her company to consult with her earlier in their decision making process so she can mitigate risk to the company before agreements are finalized. Jacob’s company produces advanced chemicals for use in manufacturing plants. The company… Read more
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Ironic Outcomes: Three Questions to Ask When you are Getting the Opposite of What you Want
A year or so ago I had a coaching conversation with a Human Resources Manager for a retail company. The manager confided in me that conflict made her uncomfortable. She described the lengths to which she would go to avoid raising challenging issues or delivering candid feedback. She feared that confrontation could destroy the rapport… Read more
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Measuring for Improvement versus Measuring for Control
In 1979, Domino’s advertised their famous, “30 minutes or free” guarantee. In 1993, Dominoes owner, Thomas Monaghan ended the guarantee citing perceptions that the policy encouraged the pizza delivery drivers to speed and drive recklessly. While restaurants offering food delivery learned their lesson from Domino’s, the idea that a customer can expect their order in… Read more
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The Flatland Trap: Two Dimensional Thinking in a Three Dimensional World
A powerful lesson about the importance of contextual inquiry comes from one of my favorite books, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions. Edwin Abbott wrote Flatland in 1884. In the book, Abbott created a two-dimensional world populated by various polygons as a satire of the social hierarchies of Victorian culture. In the world of Flatland,… Read more
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A Situation Someone Wants to Change
As teenagers, my three daughters shared a bathroom situated between two bedrooms. My oldest daughter, Abby had her own bedroom on one side of the bathroom. My middle daughter Hannah and her younger sister Bekah shared a bedroom on the other side of the bathroom. There are two doors leading into the bathroom from each… Read more
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Get Lost
Making Discoveries by Losing your Way A standard compass is a device that helps you get oriented to your location because the needle of the compass points north no matter what direction you face. Being oriented means that you have a way to understand your position even when you are in new or strange surroundings.… Read more