Scientific discoveries from biology to quantum physics reveal new understanding of how the world works, and these amazing findings can have profound effect on our understanding of how we live and work together. Margaret Wheatley captures these discoveries and the insights they provide beautifully in her book Leadership and the new science: Discovering order in a chaotic world. If you’re interested in changing your organization or your community, there are some wonderful lessons we can learn from nature. Here are a couple of ideas that stuck with me after reading her book.

I teach collegiate business courses and occasionally bring in a successful entrepreneur to share tips on how he or she obtained success. I asked one brash young gentleman, who became a millionaire in his 20s, to share his top two tips with the class. His clarity in that moment showed me why he is such an outstanding success in business.

I sometimes love it when people doubt me. It motivates me to prove those people wrong. And I feel sorry for naysayers in general, because they just can’t see the promise that exists in every downturn.

I recently bought a real estate company with my then 19 year old son, Brennan. About 80% of the people look at us as though we did have not a clue as to what we were doing. “A real estate company in this market? Are you nuts?” As my buddy John says, “They look at me like I have crabs coming out of my ears.” But, I am very confident in this venture over the long haul.

I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions.  But this year I’m settling on a theme.  Stop thinking and start doing. Less Hamlet, more Beowulf. Ask yourself this question , who will likely create the more pleasurable dining experience:   a) someone who has spent years in the kitchen using a variety of techniques and working with
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Recently I happened across two different articles that mentioned the concept of ROWE: results-only work environments. The idea behind ROWE is that if you give employees the freedom to define when they do their work, getting rid of work schedules and meetings, you will increase productivity. Perhaps it’s a lofty idea for many, and not
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I have multiple projects going all the time, all of them very different. It requires constant mental retooling to keep everything going. Without organization, my productivity would fall victim to daily randomness with lots of time wasted trying to figure out exactly what I should be doing at any particular moment. Let me tell you
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Last month, on the advice of an experienced project manager, I reversed a deeply ingrained work habit: I merged my work TO DO list and my personal TO DO list. Ignoring a sense of mischievousness, I wrote “book hotel room for bachelorette party” right after “finalize budget reallocations for next fiscal year.” Surely, this must
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This is the final installment of the ten week blog series entitled “10 Weeks to Supreme Productivity.” To close, I want to leave you with a very simple principle you need to repeat in your daily mantra, “prefer action over inaction.” Week #10 Tip: Prefer Action Over Inaction Doing is almost always better than not
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In Week 9, Chris explains the benefits of delegation and how you can create an environment that empowers your employees. Delegating work will definitely help you be more productive, but more importantly, you are offering someone else the opportunity to learn and grow. Here are some practical tips for delegating work successfully: Be clear on
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Now that you have implemented new strategies over the past 8 weeks of this blog series, you hopefully are finding greater success with your personal productivity. Today, I will speak to a monster key to supreme productivity: delegating and empowering others. Tip #9, Delegate and Empower Others! You are only one person, and you are
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