Blogs and books
Posted in current events, things i like, work on 10/17/2009 01:02 pm by karenLeading Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up
Harvard Business IdeaCast
Dance with Chance
The Invisible Hand: Management, Economics and Strategy (Episode 85)
Immunity to Change: How to Overcome It and Unlock the Potential in Yourself and Your Organization
I listen to podcasts while I clean the house on the weekend. And then I look up books related to the podcasts. Today has been pretty entertaining. I mean, what more can I ask for: Managing up! Change management! Two of my favorite things. I am still reading last week’s find: James Austin’s Chase, Chance, and Creativity: The Lucky Art of Novelty, which is about Chance! and Creativity! and Science! More favorite things.
Okay, so today’s podcasts. Managing up (or down, or across) can be pretty discouraging, right? I have a few burn-out bald spots on my aura ’cause of being a manager, it’s true. And effecting organizational change? Using real people? Haha! As if!
Okay, so I recognize that the job of management can be unforgiving, and I recognize that people pretty much scoff at the idea that adult humans can really change, but here’s the God’s honest truth: I always feel optimistic about these things. Why? Because we can use *creativity* in the workplace, and an organization is an enormous petri dish just waiting to house new experiments! The more things seem impossible, the more I think up new ideas. I can’t help myself. I get invited to LOTS of meetings/teams/projects — it’s something my boss tries to protect me from, but it’s also something I find incredibly energizing. I think it’s a result of (and, let’s face it) a source of tapas. Yes, I think it’s intimately linked with my practice.
Yeah, I know. We’re supposed to use the energy that results from tapas to pursue spiritual enlightenment. I can’t shake the conviction, though, that we’re supposed to dig into real life, like the zen practitioner who finally rides the ox he’s tamed into the marketplace. Apparently, my ox is pointed toward a business setting. I’m as surprised about this as anyone.
10/18/2009 at 5:12 am
hi Karen
your post is full of a lot of interesting symbolism – workplace as a petri dish, taming the ox and bringing it to the marketplace. useful ideas. i get emotionally drained if invited to too many things. they may not all take place, but worrying about them makes me feel overly popular. i like my solitude, at a time when i’m not alone.
hugs
Arturo
10/18/2009 at 6:43 am
Hi Arturo. Your comment helped me realize something: I don’t worry about the meetings/teams/projects when I’m not actually attending or working on them. That’s been a conscious decision: if I worry about stuff ahead of time, I put the worry down — just like a random thought in meditation. That’s been a purposeful practice, and it’s really useful.
10/19/2009 at 1:46 am
Thanks for these little snippets of management geekiness. I have always looked on these kinds of management books/seminars/etc with a jaundiced eye. I guess I see them in the self-help genre? But, of course, academics have no formal training in management (or teaching, for that matter), and now that I’m managing a couple students as part of a rather dysfunctional institution, I suddenly find these topics more relevant… Indeed, some leading from the middle was initiated last week…
10/19/2009 at 5:00 am
Yeah, self-help. Some of them certainly are self-helpish. I don’t mind that, for the most part. The alternative is straight-up academic writing about business/management. I don’t mind either format, really — the self-help format is easier to read, usually, and easier to grab a few helpful ideas to use in real life.
It’s kind of interesting: a person writing one of those books has to put together a whole model or whole world view of some sort — that’s a requirement of the form. But in the end, I think most readers really just take away a few ideas or a portion of the model that they can actually use.
Leadership is fascinating to me — I like the combination of strategic and tactical perspectives all balanced with organizational and individual needs. It’s like a big puzzle.