PLEASE NOTE that as of October 15, 2011, this list has been moved to my site's Slides page, where I'll be making all future updates.
I'll leave this post intact in case anyone's linking to it or it turns up in any search results, but I encourage you to visit my Slides page for the current list.
Updated April 2010
I'm a visual learner, so I occasionally create PowerPoint slides to provide another way of understanding and communicating the concepts I'm writing about. I wanted make it easier to reference these slides, so here's a compilation of posts where graphic images have (hopefully) helped to augment the text. (If you don't have PowerPoint, you can download a free viewer from Microsoft or use Google Docs, another free alternative.)
The title and image both link to the original post, but there's also a direct link to the actual slides at the end of each excerpt:
Conflict Modes and Managerial Styles
David Bradford on Real Options
Developing Your Professional Vision
Double-Loop Learning and Executive Coaching
Double-Loop Learning, T-Groups and Feedback
Joel Peterson on What's Important
On Change: Inclination, Motivation, Action
Three Things You (Probably) Won't Learn in Business School
Trium on Agreement vs. Alignment
Two (of many) dimensions that describe our actions are 1) our level of awareness and 2) our degree of spontaneity at a given moment. Mapping these dimensions across each other results in four distinct ways of being, four "modes," although the boundaries are arbitrary and highly fluid. There's no implied hierarchy—no one mode is "best"—but a given mode may be best suited to our needs at a given moment...
[Download Slide, 58 KB]
Conflict Modes and Managerial Styles
How do you deal with conflict? Most of us have a "natural" conflict resolution style that corresponds with one of the five modes identified by Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann... It's worth noting that the TKI and Kraybill's version are built on the Managerial Style Grid, developed by Jane Mouton and Robert Blake in the 1960's...
[Download Slides, 53 KB]
David Bradford on Real Options
If we can push beyond our current limits in any of these areas--our model of leadership, our skills, our personal style--we expand the range of options available to us in a managerial situation...
[Download Slides, 29 KB]
None of this is rocket science, by any means, but I'm struck by how often our decision-making (particularly in group settings) could be improved by a more conscious application of this simple framework.
[Download Slide, 58 KB]
Developing Your Professional Vision
"Truly great [professionals] understand the difference between what should never change and what should be open for change, between what is genuinely sacred and what is not. This rare ability to manage continuity and change--requiring a consciously practiced discipline--is closely linked to the ability to develop a vision."
[Download Slides, 148 KB]
A number of people wind up here after searching for "double-loop learning," a topic I've addressed before while discussing meta-work, executive coaching and feedback, so I thought I'd provide a simple graphic overview....
[Download Slides, 64 KB]
Double-Loop Learning and Executive Coaching
To make this distinction clearer, I've applied the concept to an issue that often comes up in executive coaching engagements and one that I've dealt with on a personal basis--communicating more effectively. In my own case, I received some feedback that helped me make a strategic decision to express my emotions more fully when speaking in order to have a greater impact. Here's an illustration of this strategy...
[Download Slides, 52 KB]
Double-Loop Learning, T-Groups and Feedback
How effective are your interactions with others? What behaviors enhance your effectiveness, and what behaviors undermine your effectiveness? How do people perceive you? What behaviors positively affect the way you're perceived, and what behaviors make a negative impression on others?
[Download Slides, 66 KB]
Our interpersonal communication behaviors can be defined not only in terms of their energy but also in terms of their intensity. These qualities are similar but distinct, and understanding the subtle difference between them can help us be more aware of the choices we're making and allow us to tailor our approach to a given interaction...
[Download Slide, 36 KB]
The value of these models isn't in their conceptual elegance--it's in their ability to help you be more effective in the world. Applying them shouldn't be a time-consuming or difficult process, and in some cases it may involve nothing more than a few moments of thought after an experience and prior to its repetition... The point is to recognize how much can be learned from our every experience and interaction, and to begin to capture more of that learning on a consistent basis.
[Download Slides, 37 KB]
Much of my work as a coach involves helping people be more influential, even--especially--when the thought of their own influence makes them uncomfortable. Last year some reflections on the dimensions of cultural difference--and specifically the concept of "power distance"--led to further thoughts on interpersonal power, which in turn contributed to a rough model of how we become more influential, which I called the Influence Pyramid...
[Download Slides, 78 KB]
Joel Peterson on What's Important
What's important isn't necessarily urgent...and what's urgent isn't necessarily important. We all have plenty of urgent matters we're compelled to deal with, despite the fact that they don't really have much bearing on the course of events. But what about those truly important matters that go neglected because they don't compel our immediate attention?
[Download Slide, 70 KB]
"Don't settle for work that's merely rewarding; find what you love to do and do it. Don't settle for superficial good feelings; strive for a deeper sense of meaning and purpose."
[Download Slide, 98 KB]
What makes organizations effective? For that matter, what do we even mean by effectiveness? I've been giving these questions some thought recently and the following graphs are the result...
[Download Slide, 75 KB]
On Change: Inclination, Motivation, Action
How do we make change happen in our lives? What supports our efforts? And what gets in our way?
[Download Slides, 57 KB]
[S]ome groups are more effective than others at helping the members learn, increase their awareness and change their behavior, and I believe that the group's levels of safety, trust and intimacy are the key factors in determining its effectiveness in this regard.
[Download Slides, 268 KB]
Three Things You (Probably) Won't Learn in Business School
I learned a hell of a lot in business school, but it wasn't until after I graduated that I fully realized how much I still didn't know... One of the reasons I find my current work with MBA students so gratifying is that I'm helping them explore topics that will allow them be better prepared after graduation than I was. I recently had a chance to talk with Corey Ford, a former GSB student.. We talked extensively about what he'd learned in business school, but I also asked him about what he didn't learn...
[Download Slides, 90 KB]
When we assess our lives--our fulfillment, our effectiveness, what's working, what's not working--how far ahead do we look? How far ahead should we look? Is that time horizon a good fit for the issues under consideration? And what issues are most relevant to us in a given time horizon?
[Download Slides, 111 KB]
Trium on Agreement vs. Alignment
Extend the Frontier: Why? In order to make more important decisions more quickly and easily. How? Increase trust among group members and link personal and group goals.
[Download Slide, 23 KB]
How do we act when we feel "responsible"? How do we act when we don't? And what are the implications for our organizations and our colleagues?
[Download Slide, 56 KB]
Photo by b1gw1ght. Yay Flickr and Creative Commons.
