Can Passion be addictive?

img_1712How does passion for what we do impact our success?

Is passion addictive or does it change over time and as careers progress?

What do the actions of today’s corporate leaders tell us about their passion?

How has their passion changed over their careers – to get them to the position they are in today?

Discuss these questions in the context of the Four Principles of Purposeful Action, with examples and appropriate links.

This post was written by Chris Miller, featured here with his daughter. Chris will be the discussion leader for the week starting February 24.

Are Accountability and Victimization cousins?

img_1493As our nation’s economic speedboat threatens to run aground, the economic crisis is a hot topic everywhere including our blog discussions as well.

What can you say about the acceptance of accountability, or the lack thereof, by our leaders – for this economic disaster?’

Has a sense of victimization spread rampant through our society, alleviating all responsibility?

It seems as if no one is to blame – so are we all to blame?

Discuss these questions in the context of the Four Principles of Purposeful Action, with examples and appropriate links.

This post was written by Chris Miller, who will lead the discussion for the week starting February 24.

Chopra talks on leadership and ethics to Engineers Club

img_0140Here are video clips from a talk on Technology Leadership and Ethics by Prem Chopra at the Chattanooga Engineers Club on Monday, February 9, 2009.

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3    Part 4    Part 5

Comments are welcome…

P.S. Venkat, who recorded and edited this talk, is exploring ways to improve the exposure (the lights we dimmed to highlight the slides).

Was this economic crisis caused by the lack of integrity?

img_0987In the accompanying post, we discuss the global distress resulting from the dramatic nosedive of world economies.  The general belief is that this situation was brought about by greed and corruption in financial firms, while our government loosened regulations and oversight. Most of you will agree that the lack of integrity (excerpt from lecture in September 2007 (3:09): Make Integrity a Habit) is a major cause for this mess. But but is there more?

Has there been a lack of all five positive core values (integrity, commitment, persistence, teamwork and communication) in the actions of corporate executives and government?

Can you discuss this, citing examples?

Did greed cause the economic crisis?

boat3We are all aware of the dramatic nosedive of the stock markets, which has eroded trillions of dollars from the value of US and foreign corporations, and is causing economic stress globally.  A CNBC TV series suggests that a major cause for this situation, at least in this country, is American Greed. Others blame our government for loosening regulations and ignoring their role of oversight, as CEOs of now bankrupt Wall Street firms walked away with the hundreds of millions of dollars bankrolled by U.S. taxpayers. Listen to this excerpt from my lecture on quality improvement in September 2007 (4:09): Unjust Rewards: Compensation for Failure.

Is greed the only negative core value (of the five: lust, anger, greed, attachment/possessiveness, arrogance) that caused this crisis?

Can you discuss, with examples, how all five negative core values have played a role in creating this crisis?

Will owning ‘everything’ bring you happiness?

img_0051My friend Raj Diwan, a retired DuPont scientist, and I were discussing over dinner this evening how a person would feel if he or she were to suddenly become wealthy. Being engineers, we stretched the hypothetical situation of this “blessed” person to the “limit” and asked what if this person were to own “everything” in this planet, if not the entire universe. We then surmised that since nobody else owned anything, they would in principle not exist. So now you have this individual who owns everything but is alone in the planet.

Can you see this person being happy?  If so, how?  If not, why?

How do Entrepreneurs and Managers differ?

brookmaster-compassWe know of many similarities between entrepreneurs and managers. However, to clearly understand these archetypes it is helpful to compare them. Think, research and discuss how these two archetypes differ from each other. Refer to your Archetype-Attribute matrices and research the Internet as you present and discuss your views on this question.

Play BrookMaster, emulating a well-known manager and an entrepreneur, to illustrate your understanding.

What is the relationship between Entrepreneurship and Innovation?

boat3Following our live and archived discussions from last week and tonight, and your research and experience, what light can you shed on this question? Asked in other ways, the question could be:

Are entrepreneurs innovative?

or,

Are innovators entrepreneurs?

Illustrate your comments with examples from industry, providing references and links.

Does purposeful action ever end?

img_0082The answer to this question is found in the metaphor of the brook. Just as the brook is the flow of water, so too life is the flow of action. Without the flow of water, there is no brook; without the flow of actions there is no life.

Since flow creates the flow of what is to follow, our actions set the stage for future actions. So, considering the question in the title of the post, if you consider actions as continuing through life – and we mean purposeful action here – then these continue. You might argue or ask, what happens when we die? The answer depends on the nature of the action. For example, Mohandas Gandhi’s action to free a nation from foreign occupation peacefully continues through others, as do Mother Teresa’s acts of service to humanity.

This concept of continuing action works lock-step with the concept of continuous improvement, or Kaizen. How can there be Kaizen if the action ends?

Another aspect of this post relates to the extent or breadth of the action being considered. For example, if we consider the action to be simply walking a mile on a certain day at a certain place, the action in and of itself ends. However, if one considers the walk as part of a healthy living regimen, it continues – through its ups and downs as the case might be …

Now, what do you think… and why?

Are politicians leaders or entrepreneurs?

Here is a systematic way to find out:

img_0004

Consider any two prominent politicians – say, one from the US Congress and one from the US Senate – perhaps one Republican and one Democrat. Compare what the say they stand for with what they actually vote for and promote. Investigate how they were first elected and then re-elected, the money they collected and spent to get elected, where it came from, and how those donors fared. Consider the lobbyists with whom the politicians associate and what money exchanges occur. Examine the committees they work on and what comes out of those committees, and who benefits. Compare their assets before they were elected with what they accumulate over the years, over and above what their salary would suggest.

Play the BrookMaster Leadership Coaching Game, emulating the choices you believe each of these politicians would make. Which of the six archetypes (leader, entrepreneur, manager, consultant, trustee and intellectual) do you expect them to be? What would you expect their ethical balance to be in terms of their Giver/Taker ratio? Compare what you expect with the results you actually obtain from BrookMaster.

Now, go ahead and play !