Thriving in the Midst of Uncertainty

Thriving in the Midst of Uncertainty

Is uncertainty something new?

Is uncertainty just something that arrived with COVID-19, with the Black Lives Matter protests, and with a disputed presidential election?

Or is uncertainty a given in life? If so, then how do we thrive in its midst?

This is the conversation that I had with my friend and colleague Bill Watkins, founder of The Lion’s Pride business coaching program. 

Transitions in Cultures

Transitions in Cultures

In order to understand who we are, we need to understand the culture that we live in. Over the past three or four generations, we have transitioned from a culture where we were subjects to powerful institutions to where we became captives to a culture focused on consumer products. And now, we are on the cusp of a third cultural transition. The following selection is from my short book, Seeing Below the Surface: The Brokenness of Modern Organizations. 

Where Did Trust Go?

Where Did Trust Go?

When a book or essay appears in print, it is never all that could be said. It is a distillation and essence of the whole topic.

For my short book, Where Did Trust Go?, the instigating moment was a question from a Nairobi businessman. He asked me following a presentation to his group last February,

“What are we to do about corruption in government and business?”

At that point in time, I did not have an answer. I do now. It is found in this little book.

Let me describe what I see that led me to write. Let’s look at this through the lens of the Circle of Impact in terms of three problems.

Impact Starts With Me

Impact Starts With Me

In September 2018, after Circle of Impact was published, I hit the road to promote sales of the book. I spent the next year talking to people standing in bookstores, sitting at bars, in laundromats, parking lots, and hotel lobbies. These conversations went something like this.

“Oh, so you are the author of this book?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your book about?”

“It is a book for people and organizations that are in transition.”

Then they would give me a surprised look and say, “Oh. … Well. … That describes me.”

Then a conversation would happen where they would tell me a story about who they are, their life experience, and why they felt they were in transition.

I found that people first feel that they are in transition. But they lack a way to talk about it. This feeling rises deep from within themselves. This is especially true if they have either worked in an environment described above where they are simply hired to perform specific tasks or have been out of the workforce for a while taking care of family needs, whether children or elderly parents.

Of all the ways that I could describe the book, speaking about transition resonated most significantly with people. This isn’t just personal. It is also something happening to our society, our communities, and every organization within it. It is a global reality felt at the most intimate level of our lives. It is also clear that some people are better suited or prepared to make transitions in their lives, while for others it is a very tough, hard experience.