more beautiful question, berger, book, Toby Elwin, blog

A More Beautiful Question by the book

People are born to inquire and to discover. Between two to five years old a child asks 40,000 questions.

Then we are taught to stop asking, stop seeking, and stop inquiring.

Questions are the fuel of curiosity.

Seems the concern is more about the answer and we have lost the patience for questions. Questions challenge authority. The impact: no questions, no innovation.

From the board room to a bored room, there is much to gain from Warren Berger’s new book, A More Beautiful Question.

orangutang, 2013, top post, Toby Elwin, blog

Top 10 blog posts for 2013, 10 to 6

Closing out 2013 I look back at the year’s most viewed posts with a chance to reflect on different blog topics that people most view, to include: change management, culture, project management, and mergers and acquisitions posts.

Did a topic near and dear to you finish in the top 10?

Frank Barrett, leadership, Appreciate Inquiny

Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz by the book

Frank Barrett, is an active jazz pianist leading trios and quartets as well as touring the United States, England, and Mexico with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

Frank Barrett, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizational Behavior at the Naval Post Graduate school. Yes to the Mess is a journey through the power of music and the possibility of messiness. Frank correlates this mess to organization development, design, and possibility of innovation, managing highly-talented individuals, group communication, vision, and team dynamics.

Yes to the Mess is not just a book on jazz, but an organization behavior book, a leadership book, and a team development book.

facebook, employee engagement, wrong, Toby Elwin, blog

What’s wrong with employee engagement? Ask Facebook

Praise in public, scold in private. Many are coached on this. But what happens when a single manager’s lack of self-awareness meets the level of the Facebook video a father posted to his daughter? See video below?

What, you ask, can the paternal bond of a father and a daughter offer management? The situation, I witness far too often, is a manager’s tough love, just as a father hides behind, will snap an employee or co-worker back into line. The father in this video uses tough love and tough love seems a viable option in a far too many manager tool kits, as well.