- Articles
Bouncing Back to the Next Iteration
As a brown, immigrant woman, I live in a world where failure is not an option. It took me years to get beyond the ‘fail’ to the second part of the phrase, ‘to learn fast.”
Archives
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The Year of “Yes, And…”
One of the most important and popular concepts we teach in our innovation workshops is “Yes, and...” Borrowed from improv comedy, it is a mindset and approach that builds upon what others suggest rather than blocking the flow of possibilities. So, when an opportunity or idea is suggested, instead of responding with ways the idea wouldn’t work - which often feels like the responsible thing to do, the protocol – no matter what the suggestion – is to respond with an enthusiastic “Yes, and…”, then build on the idea in wonderful and unexpected directions. 2017 has been a catalytic year for CoreAlign and “Yes, and...”
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Co-Creating Our Future Together
For me, like for so many of us, the first few weeks after the election were a haze of confusion and despair. How was it possible that for all the progress we thought we’d made in the last ten years, we were being buried under an avalanche of redness – House, Senate, White House and soon Supreme Court? And not just middle of the road conservatism, but blatant, ugly, violent, apocalyptic racism, misogyny, xenophobia and homophobia.
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Boldness and Bravery as the Antidote to Despair
I have stopped reading the newspaper and listening to the latest analysis of the presidential transition. For somebody who spent hours reading and listening to the news, this is a jarring change.
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Come, Let Us Practice Together
The first time I got punched in the face I froze. My vision dimmed, my ears rang, and I couldn’t have moved to save my life. After I heard that Donald Trump had won the election, I had the same out of body experience. I couldn’t tell up from down, front from back. Whether to move forward, stand still, or hide. Trump winning has felt like a sucker punch, followed by body blows – Republicans now control the House, the Senate and will soon appoint one, if not more Supreme Court justices. For all the fear and rage on both sides of the political spectrum, this was a vote to kick over our national table. Everything is up in the air now.
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What Feeds the Shadow Side of Your Leadership?
“I liked myself more and disappointed myself less.” These words from my post-sabbatical reflections have been haunting me. I came back from my sabbatical with a commitment to not repeat the behaviors that made me need a sabbatical to recover, and with a promise to myself to do things differently. So, I’ve been asking myself: What had I been doing, or what was it about my leadership role that had me liking myself less and disappointing myself more?
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The Crappy Crapshoot of Innovation
I want to state this as plainly as I know how: innovation is fucking hard. In a world that rewards predictable procedures and predetermined products, innovation is a crapshoot. A brand new idea could prove a roaring success but there’s a good shot no one tried anything like that before for good reasons. Trial by potential public humiliation is on order, not just once but many times over to ensure observed failure isn’t a flaw in execution but an inherent problem with the design.
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Critical Thinking vs. Design Thinking
At an exit interview, a boss once gave me feedback that’s stayed stubbornly stuck in my head. At the time, I put on my polite listening face to mask my vigorous denials of her assessment. And yet, her words clung, a piece of sticky bubblegum on the bottom of my shoe, creating a slight but inescapable unevenness that’s had me return to interrogate that feedback again and again. She told me that when a new idea was presented, my first reaction was to criticize and enumerate all the ways it wouldn’t work. This default setting, she cautioned, would hold me back in my career.
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No Exit When Starting to Talk About Race
Heidi is one of those friends I’d follow anywhere. So, I immediately signed up to a day long “action inquiry” when she invited me, brushing away the vague memory that she was the one who got me into that summer T-group where people yelled at me about my racist, arrogant elitism. “Action inquiry” is a way of simultaneously doing and investigating as a deliberate leadership practice; not unexpectedly, racism came up. Or, as my friend Allan put it, “Why is it that I am not surprised that issues of race would be talked about with you in the room?”
- Articles
We Need to Talk: An Invitation to an Authentic Conversation About Racism
Many of us take pride in our comfort discussing what society deems unmentionable – sex, eggs, abortion, desire and the like. Sure, we’re just fine saying vagina, but, make no mistake we have our own off limits topics. Each CoreAlign event brings into focus our inability to talk about race and power.