You sneak up behind a co-worker and disco – without getting caught and with another co-worker videotaping it. Looks like fun.
Month: September 2003
-
Death and grief
From an article in Fast Company:
Philosopher and consultant Peter Koestenbaum spends his days exploring truly big questions that have never sounded more relevant. Here, he reflects on what the shock of death teaches us about leadership — and how to move forward without forgetting.For another way to view it, check out Harrison Owen’s concept of griefwork, which is the process that we as humans go through every time we encounter change. There’s a brief description here, and more in his book Expanding our now.
-
Robert Levering
Robert Levering is the man behind the “Great place to work” book and concept. Here’s a quote from the introduction to the book
…I am more optimistic than ever about the prospects for the workplace. When Milton and I began researching this area nearly two decades ago, great places to work were clearly exceptions to the rule. They often were the result of the vision of extraordinary business leaders like FedEx’s Fred Smith or HP’s David Packard. Today more and more senior managers have become convinced that fostering a great work environment is a business imperative. But perhaps more important, employees are no longer willing to put up with the kind of insensitive and demeaning management attitudes that have typified most workplaces since the dawn of the industrial age.
Grounds for optimism, I’d say. There’s an excellent interview with Robert Levering here.
-
Book review: Bird by bird
I’ve just added Anne Lamott to my “List of People I’d Really Like To Meet”. Having just read her book Bird by bird: Some instructions on writing and life, I think she’s a nice person, interesting to be around and very wise.
The book contains many, many tips for the aspiring writer. Not on the technical stuff, like how to put the words together or how to sell your finished book to a publisher, but more on how to live as a writer. She makes the excellent point, that a writer’s main ambition should not be to be published but to write, since that is what a writer does most of the time.
(more…) -
Autumn poem
The other day while I was driving home, I looked into the gutter and saw yellow leaves. Autumn’s here, and here’s a fitting poem which I found in Anne Lamott’s beautiful book “bird by bird”.
Above me, wind does its best
to blow leaves off the Aspen
tree a month too soon. No use,
wind, all you succeed in doing
is making music, the noise
of failure growing beautiful.
– Bill HolmHere’s the author’s own background for the poem.
