Writings

2 01, 2015

RESOLVED: Turn toward nature in 2015

By Sanchez / Tennis|2017-01-11T21:11:39-07:00January 2nd, 2015|

It is too easy to grow away from Nature.

Our lives are so densely packed with constant action, endless lists of unfinished tasks and every kind of media that we are often buried in our heads, at our desks, on our computers and phones. We power our way through our days, keeping our heads down and our focus on the goal. Absorbed by this intense and frenetic energy, we too seldom notice the Earth around us, except as it gifts us with inconvenient weather like blizzards and monsoons, deep freezes and heat waves. We lose the feeling of the nurturing love of the natural world. A part of our soul begins to wither. And the pattern can be frighteningly self-reinforcing, keeping us indoors, away from the sky, the birds, animals, plants, and the earth beneath our feet.

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28 08, 2014

Listening is the greatest form of flattery

By Sanchez / Tennis|2014-08-28T20:22:52-06:00August 28th, 2014|

This very wise remark, by Joyce Brothers, is only part of the story. As the folks at the Barry-Wehmiller Companies are discovering, listening is the foundation of a uniquely healthy, supportive and productive company culture. Barry-Wehmiller has the single most admirable organizational ethic I’ve encountered in 40 years as a professional, and their commitment to valuing every member of their team, demonstrated by their intent and empathetic listening and communication, is the key. People go to work, learn a whole new suite of communication skills, and transform their relationships with their partners, their children, their parents, and their co-workers. They live the principles of “people-centric leadership”

For a taste of this secret sauce, go here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLwS7vh9XbY#t=60

If you’d like to know more about the B-W story, drop me a line. I’m a true believer.

23 11, 2013

The Rarest Breed: Leaders who demonstrate skill at focusing on both work goals and the needs of other people

By Sanchez / Tennis|2017-01-11T21:12:32-07:00November 23rd, 2013|Tags: Barry-Wehmiller, communication skills, David Rock, Fortune, leadership, organization culture, organizational values, people leadership, people managers, people skills, people-centered leadership, people-centric leadership|

A recent Fortune article by David Rock (http://bit.ly/IaJb0S) mentions that when the firm Management Research Group looked into data on 60,000 managers collected over 10 years across four continents, they found that only 0.77% of leaders and managers could be considered among the top 33% of performers as measured by their ability to focus both on work goals and the needs of other people. That is a truly horrifying number. And I believe it.

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13 11, 2013

Leadership Trajectories to Nowhere

By Sanchez / Tennis|2013-11-13T20:02:39-07:00November 13th, 2013|Tags: blind spots, good old boy, leader, leadership, people-centric leadership, self-awareness|

A colleague, Gene Morton, has been writing lately about leader blind spots, which got me to thinking about leaders I’ve seen and worked with who just didn’t recognize their limits. The leaders I’ve seen most hamstrung by their own blindspots are those that have never failed. Many men, in particular, move up steadily, even meteorically, in organizations because they have just the right stuff at a particular time– the perfect look, bright and personable, enough technical expertise to shine in their early days and then an aura of golden boy as they are pulled higher and higher. Then, one day, they find that they need skills of accurate self-assessment, including honest recognition of their weaknesses, and the ability to listen to the people around them who know what they don’t, about their impact, their effectiveness, and the organization/environment. Sadly, too many distinguish themselves at this point by progressively underperforming into flat career trajectories or, as you point out, Gene, spectacularly delusional flaming crashes. It doesn’t have to be this way, but the “good young/old boy” network– an unconscious framework shared across the organization — both militates against the hard work of self-reflection and elevates the myth of perfect managerial traits in a mutually reinforcing spin. These guys are not actively stupid, they are probably more dizzy from their ride to the top.

21 10, 2013

Authenticity–instead of political correctness

By Sanchez / Tennis|2013-10-21T17:31:55-06:00October 21st, 2013|Tags: #heterosexism, #whiteness, male privilege, political correctness, race, racism, sexism, white privilege|

An ongoing discussion of the racial divide refers to “Whites fear being seen through”. Shit, as if we are so skilled at hiding our ignorance, our implicit privilege, our fears and superiority.

What I’ve learned in decades of race and privilege work of all kinds is this: Own that you don’t know squat, ask “stupid questions” and accept the lessons that come, even though you think you know a lot. Speak the truth about what makes you uncomfortable, what you fear, what your heart really desires, and the pain you feel. Show some damn courage and accept that real relationship is messy and imperfect and that our weaknesses are evident and that we come to be loved BECAUSE we are clearly imperfect and we own it and we explicitly work on getting better. THEN we gain the power to speak, to act, to make change and to be the kind of partners others need us to be. No shortcuts, no finessing, no image management games will work. Get the guts to be authentic, wherever you are in your journey, and the people you want to like you will love you and help you and teach you and make you whole.

Or, you can try hiding behind a false persona clothed in political correctness and keep your head down for eternity, and live apart, alone, and unknown, distrusted, dismissed, and disowned by the community whose scorn you fear. It’s our choice, every day.

19 11, 2012

Ken Burns’ “Dust Bowl” – stories of our past, and future

By Sanchez / Tennis|2012-11-19T10:41:22-07:00November 19th, 2012|Tags: climate change, Dust Bowl, environmental refugees, Ken Burns, PBS|

I caught Ken Burns’ documentary “Dust Bowl” last night on PBS. It’s a deeply engaging story, giving us a real sense of the spirit of the Dust Bowl farmers and the grinding misery of a decade of deadly black storms. I watched with an eerie feeling of presentience, like seeing the Sandy coverage, of what we are doing to ourselves again by heedlessly disrupting the natural world that we depend on for our very survival. I was especially touched by their continuous refrain “It will be better next year” in the face of steadily worsening conditions. My fear is that people will be grasping desperately to that hope around the world in the coming decades with the same heart-breaking disillusionment as the weather only gets worse. So, I stayed with this Ken Burns masterpiece, unable to walk away, with growing unease.
Part II, upcoming, appears to tell the story of the Okies who out-migrated, beaten by the dust. Again, parallels to 2012– more humans today are refugees from catastrophic climate changes than from all the wars in the world, and the curve is rising rapidly. Where do they go, how do they survive, what kind of “welcome” do they get? I can only hope the stories of our 21st century refugees are more compassion-filled than the stories from the ’30s.

29 03, 2012

How Can We Engage “Actively Disengaged” Employees?

By Sanchez / Tennis|2017-01-13T11:27:23-07:00March 29th, 2012|Tags: appreciative inquiry, disengaged, Employee engagement, employees, Employment, engagement, Management, positive change|

In my experience, the most actively disengaged employees are ones who are suffering from deep disappointment in their organization. They are often people who really invested their hearts and hopes in the past and were massively let down, by destructively poor management, by abandoned change and improvement initiatives they passionately supported, reorganizations that took them away from work/projects/services they loved, and the like. These folks are actively protecting themselves from investing in the organization again to avoid the real pain they’ve felt when they have put their hearts on the line in the past, either in this organization or some other place in their lives.

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9 03, 2012

Executive Attitudes Drive Success or Failure of Diversity Initiatives

By Sanchez / Tennis|2017-01-13T11:27:41-07:00March 9th, 2012|Tags: Barbara Parker, Business, diversity, human resources, inclusion, Management, Strategic Matrix, Work, Workplace Discrimination|

(A full presentation on the Strategic Matrix for Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives is available free at http://bit.ly/v3o6jM )

Executive attitudes toward, and priorities for, diversity are the most important variables for what can successfully be accomplished in improving an organization’s value for diversity and leveraging diversity for organizational success. Executives operate in an environment where they are subject to a wide variety of pressures and perceptions that affect how they react to diversity in the workforce and customer base and impact how the instrumental value they assign to diversity for achieving their personal and organizational goals.

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9 03, 2012

Should Diversity Training Include Ex-Felons?

By Sanchez / Tennis|2012-03-09T21:29:12-07:00March 9th, 2012|Tags: Business, diversity, Diversity training, Employment, ex-felons, human resources, United States, Work, Workplace Discrimination|

It’s an interesting question. My first reaction is that I’m not as much interested in focusing on ex-felons in diversity training as I am in making sure they are fully included in recruiting and hiring. Once they are in the door, their past mistakes shouldn’t (based on a normative hope that the information is not shared in the organization until they personally choose to reveal it) have anything to do with how people treat them in the workplace. So, although I suppose this is a form of closeting, I’d rather let them show their value to the organization first, then deal with people’s misconceptions about their legal past. As we get more successful at getting ex-felons employed, then we’ll have the foundation for talking about all that in the training room and begin to initiate conversations about the diversity aspects of the question. Truth is, given who we are incarcerating in this country, racial diversity in the workplace is still apt to be the topic that many organizations need to work on first, to get folks in the door and fully included and engaged.

The real work is at the front end, getting the initial screening, testing, and interviewing to focus on their potential to contribute, rather than on the stories in the heads of the HR and hiring authority folks. Truth is, we’ve jailed so many people in this country that we could soon find ourselves in the position of hiring an ex-felon or leaving the job vacant, which would be both mean-spirited/ignorant and bad business.

9 03, 2012

Why Women Aren’t Filling Leadership Spots

By Sanchez / Tennis|2017-01-11T21:13:57-07:00March 9th, 2012|Tags: Business, Chief executive officer, Global citizenship, leadership, Organization Development, Paul Hawken, social justice, sustainability, women leaders|

The decrease in numbers of women in leadership positions may have somewhat different causes than the long-existing impediments to women achieving leadership so often discussed, such as chauvinism in education, recruiting and hiring, management, etc.. We might want to consider what has happened in organizations in the last decade or so.

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