A Critical Doer controls what is theirs to control One of my favorite episodes of The Big Bang Theory involves the character Penny starting a web-based home business selling decorative items. Uncharacteristically, Penny thought through a number of contingencies except one…success. When Penny launched the web site, she was flooded with more orders than she […]
Month: April 2015
Form Follows Function: What A Critical Doer Can Learn From Louis Sullivan And Frank Lloyd Wright
A Critical Doer attacks problems and creates opportunities from the inside out A Critical Doer generates motion from “why” more than “what” “Form follows function.” Architect Louis Sullivan made this dictum the driving tenet of modern architecture. The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright took it a step further when he said that form and function […]
How Failure Can Be A Blessing–Or Just A Failure
A Critical Doer keeps risk and failure in context with opportunity and success Perspective changes everything. To one, failure may be a blessing. To another, failure may be exactly that…failure. An article I recently came across written by Professor Baba Shiv at the Stanford School of Business uses the word blessing to describe failure […]
Efficiently Doing Useless Things
A Critical Doer generates motion from “why” more than “what” A Critical Doer understands time; long and short view “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter F. Drucker “Why are we doing this?” This is one of the most often asked, most misunderstood, and […]
A Critical Doer “Tip Of The Hat” To James Hahn
A Critical Doer works as hard to develop strength of character as strength of talent Despite what you saw on the leader board, golfer James Hahn was the winner of this year’s Masters Tournament on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National. My youngest son, Jake, pointed out this story that went largely unnoticed but […]
Expect The Best: Another “Sam’s Story”
A Critical Doer works as hard to develop strength of character as strength of talent One of the most gratifying things that happens as a parent is when your children have developed wisdom and perspective that allows them to teach you a couple of things. I posted before about my oldest son, Sam, and […]
Active Listening (Part 4): Mirror, Mirror…In My Ears???
A Critical Doer has a servant spirit The problem with your ears is that they’re too close to your brain. The brain has a processor for thinking, but it also has an ego that can obstruct thinking by superimposing our own image on a speaker. The critical thinking error this causes is known as […]
Active Listening (Part 3): Listening for “Why”
A Critical Doer generates motion from “why” more than “what” em·pa·thy (ĕm′pə-thē) n. The ability to identify with or understand another’s situation or feelings: Do you know the difference between a good listener and a good active listener? A good listener will listen to what you are saying. A good active listener will also listen for why you are saying what […]
Active Listening (Part 2): Beating the Faulty Logic Of Mutual Exclusion
A Critical Doer capitalizes on opportunities to be better Poor or inexperienced communicators will frequently frame a problem with words that make a situation binary where there are only two choices…only one of them can be correct. You may recall from a Critical Doer book review on Chip and Dan Heath’s Decisive that a narrow […]
Active Listening (Part 1): Learning To HEAR
A Critical Doer works as hard to develop strength of character as strength of talent “God made you with two ears and one tongue. That means he intended for you to listen twice as much as you talk.” My Father This is the first post in a 4-5 part series we’re going to cover […]