Constraint.
Deciding to contain megalomania, in all its forms.
The writing process is as much about elimination as it is exploration and discovery. It requires dedication primarily to the purpose of the writing project and secondarily to the phrases the writer might string together. The writer must be willing to sacrifice said phrases for the greater good of the project. Confident humility is essential here. The same is true for leaders in the enterprises of contemporary society. An enterprise can crater if those endowed with authority and responsibility avoid the noble constraint that channels ego and ambition into serving a universal purpose. Ungoverned gamesmanship stifles the professional experience and proven skill that protect the enterprise and authentically advance it. Today’s moment provides an opportunity to bolster governance without bureaucratizing it — surfacing, shaping and deploying actual talent for the purpose of a better experience for all stakeholders. Put people in charge who put the enterprise or the endeavor first.
Walt Whitman. John White Alexander. 1889. Oil on canvas. Gift of Mrs. Jeremiah Milbank, 1891. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hubris syndrome
Lord David Owen. Power is a heady drug, which not every leader has the necessary rooted character to counteract. To do so requires a combination of common sense, humour, decency, skepticism and even cynicism that treats power for what it is – a privileged opportunity to influence, and sometimes to determine, the turn of events.
Effective leaders seek the unknown: four questions to ask
Gerald Zaltman. Asking and answering various what-if questions, sometimes called “miracle questions,” can be like twisting a kaleidoscope—each turn produces a dramatically different view, helping transform sound strategies into excellent ones and converting failed solutions into ones that work.
What 1,000-year-old companies know about resilience
Eric Markowitz. These are firms that have survived recessions, world wars, colonial collapses, and technological revolutions. The oldest of them, a Japanese construction company called Kongō Gumi, was founded in the year 578 A.D. … When you study these organizations, you realize that our modern definition of resilience is dangerously incomplete. We treat resilience as a character trait. But in the real world, over long horizons, resilience behaves much more like the defining property of an ecosystem.
Previously unreleased 1940s Sinatra recordings will bowl you over
Charles L. Granata in conversation with Donald Liebenson. Frank had tremendous respect for songwriters, and what he did was to record and perform these great songs from musicals of the moment — the foundation of the American songbook — and bring them to people who didn’t have the time or means to come to Broadway. I believe that’s what helped make these songs the classics we consider them to be today.