Saturday, May 17, 2008

Say What you Mean, Mean What you Say

If you have something to hide, people are likely to feel it before you tell them and tacitly question your authenticity before you realize it. Many people struggle with Saying What They Mean (whether for fear of being candid or intent to mislead)and are not so good at concealing their thoughts. This is something that's likely to be impeding their ability to achieve.

The most successful people I know are easy reads. You don’t need to de-code what they mean. They are just naturally adept at saying what’s on their minds. It sounds silly – and it reminds me of Peter Senge .

Senge founded the Organizational Learning lab at MIT – wrote The Fifth Discipline, a cognitive approach to business, and invented the concept of a Learning Organization. To summarize a 400 pager; it about expanding your capacity to create the results you desire. It's probably the most influential applicable concepts to management I have come across. If you prefer Cliff Notes to Books start here: http://www.rtis.com/nat/user/jfullerton/review/learning.htm

If you have never heard of Senge it might be because he was a huge advocate of controlled growth. He believed there was a maximum annual growth rate beyond which an organization achieved diminishing returns. He had the unfortunate distinction of writing this just prior to the growth of the Internet in the mid 90’s. The overwhelming majority of this thoughts hold up very well – If you manage or aspire to manage people the book is a must read.