Bailey WorkPlay
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The Relationships Of Our Life’s Work
Leave it to Pamela Slim to help me fine-tune something that I’ve been playing around with for a while. As I aim to keep all the various parts of my professional life in some sort of harmonious symmetry, I find myself struggling to define what I am doing. On a near daily basis I ask myself questions like: How does my career path relate to my current job? How does my current job relate to my graduate work in business anthropology? How does my graduate work relate to Bailey WorkPlay? How does... |
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At Connection Cafe: Is Your Data Collection Unbalanced?
For the Connection Cafe blog this month, I wrote about the need to use a balanced qualitative and quantitative approach to learning about constituents. Here’s a teaser of my latest post…the full post is at the Connection Cafe… Mixed in with the work that I do at Convio, I’m also pursuing a Master’s degree in business anthropology. If you’re like most folks, you may be wondering what that is exactly. This field is somewhat new even though anthropology as a social... |
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Matt Millen and the Art of Poor Management
For those of you who follow football, the firing of Matt Millen should not come as a great shock (and for those of you who happen to still follow Detroit Lions football, it likely comes as a Day of Liberation). If you don’t happen to follow or care for the american-style pigskin sport, this is just another example of what happens when you hire someone to manager your operations who has technical experience and passion, but next to zero management ability. The fact is that while anyone can... |
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Why Job Fit Is Important To Your Confidence
Unless you’re one of the exceptionally rare and fortunate individuals who has always landed in the right job, you’ve had at least one job that didn’t fit right. Like a pair of shoes three sizes to large or small, it always felt poorly aligned with who you are and your unique set of talents. Maybe you’re in one of these jobs right now. If so, let me ask you a few questions: Do you often question your own personal value? Do you sometimes feel a distinct lack of confidence... |
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Latest Research: Using A Symbolic Approach To Connect Organizational and Corporate Cultures
As I progress into my Business Anthropology grad work, you’ll start seeing most of the discoveries, insights, and developed applications here either in the form of blogposts or downloadable resources. Look for a new Portfolio page soon. Over the summer, I did some introductory research on culture in business. What might come as a bit of a shock to most managers within organizations is that the concept of “culture” that’s been thrown around for the last 30 years isn’t... |
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September Is A Perfect Month To Talk About Work
My dear friend Rosa Say is writing a month-long theme on Ho’ohana and worthwhile work that is well worth tracking and reading. Today, she answers the question: Why bother with Ho‘ohana, and “Worthwhile Work” at all? The basic definition of Ho‘ohana is this: “Ho‘ohana is the value of worthwhile work. Work can, and should be a time when you are working to bring meaning, fulfillment and fun to the life you lead.” So, what you doing to bring meaning to what you do? Similar... |
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Faith And The Bankrupt Leader
As a leader, do you expect faith from those who follow you? Do you reward that faith by continuously fulfilling the promise of things you say you’ll do? Or do you constantly expect your people to believe in you without doing the hard work of following through on commitments? Think hard about this because it’s your integrity and effectiveness that’s on the line. It always amazes me when I see individuals in positions of leadership assume that their position affords them a never-ending... |
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At Connection Cafe: Bring Your Staff Into Your Community
Here’s my latest blogpost over at the Connection Cafe… Yesterday, Lacey wrote about how to engage folks who are interested in volunteering for organizations. It’s a great segue into another area that I find lacking in most nonprofit websites: staff and organizational employees. What do they both have in common? Your volunteers and paid staff are part of a diverse community within your organization. However, it’s this diversity in community that is often neglected. Frequently,... |
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The Art Of Managing Self-Interest
This past week, I had a brief twitter dialogue with Shannon Seery Gude (@seerysm) who was wondering how to get teams to track their time spent on projects. For anyone who has ever had to track time, you know it can be a laborious and unsavory administrative task. And worse, it can be frustrating busy work if you feel that your time-capturing efforts don’t serve a useful purpose. At the root of her question was one that challenges managers and consultants every single day: how do I get individuals... |