Maestro-level leaders and their CFO Episode #49 of the Third Turn Podcast with Arnie Hendricks Arnie Hendricks has 30 years of senior financial management experience and distinct perspectives and ...
The construct you will find here was first developed in 2009. Given the recent release of the book Listening, Helping, Learning, and the many conversations it has sparked, it is helpful to give it ...
(originally presented to a network of creatives, musicians, and artists gathered by Design Group International in 2010. This work is a taproot for what is now Maestro-level leaders.)
DIY Brain Episode #48 of the Third Turn Podcast with Dr. Roger Hall Research shows that, on average, roughly 75% of our thoughts on a given day are negative. Dr. Roger Hall, psychologist and author, ...
I loved a woman named Edna Mertz. I don’t remember her as a child, but as an adult I came to know her when I returned to pastor my childhood church she attended all her life.
This blog post took several days to assemble. It finally landed today -- the day before publishing it -- and a day when the Maestro-level leader cohort I facilitate had its monthly morning meeting.
Learning & Leading As We Age Episode #47 of the Third Turn Podcast with Kristin & Mark We’re all rather painfully aware of the realities of aging that threaten or very naturally diminish ...
The Maestro-level letter, a brief burst of wisdom, is sent each Sunday morning to all Maestro-level leader cohort participants. Every now and then one of those letters seems to seek a larger audience ...
None of my business comes from Matt Dietz, a Farmer's Insurance agency owner and seasoned podcaster, focusing on business and finance. It was a pleasure to be a recent guest where we talked through ...
UFS recently held its conference for leaders of community banks. Their theme was "Navigating the Grey." Mike Tenpas, CEO, invited me to this video interview, touching on current issues facing senior ...
When an outgoing executive leader hands the baton to their successor, there are so many risks. Each risk, if not addressed, brings a decline to the current and future value of the enterprise. The ...
Maestro-level letter is a weekly, Sunday morning, brief essay developed for executive advising clients and colleagues. Given last week's blog post and video resource on the Three Turns of the ...
Most years I get to enjoy learning and connecting at the annual conference of Christian Leadership Alliance. After serving on its board, helping to design the professional credential it offers, and ...
I wrote this blog post 14 years ago -- long before we knew the word COVID. We were in the middle of my first wife Lorie's cancer battle at the time. The perspective we struggled to gain through her ...
Every now and then it makes more sense to hold a conversation rather than write an essay, especially where subjects are prone to difficulty and misunderstanding.
The word queggestion is made up, combining the words question and suggestion. The result is a suggestion in the form of a question. Here is an example.
The Bartleby column in the 19 February 2022 Economist expresses an irritation I share. There is too much leadership content everywhere. And so much of it is terrible.
The last book written by Sigmund Freud was a collection of this thoughts about Moses and what became the monotheism of the ancient Hebrews. I won't go there…..
Have you been heard to say, "that's a waste of money!" Or, are you more likely to complain when someone wastes your precious time? We tend toward one or the other as our loudest protest. We might ...
We've been given many items to grieve during these pandemic years. We aren't going to grovel in them, but let's do notice that groveling has a sister called denial. Either way the grief we carry ...
An alternative title for this blog post could have been the question: "whip or slingshot?" Read on to see how we are braiding the metaphorical cord used for one or the other.
Transitions happen! Some parts we might be able to plan. Some we cannot. We can, however, raise the level of our preparation and thoroughness to face transitions rather than have them traumatize us ...
If you are a business owner or marketer, you've spent at least a little time thinking about the personas you consider ideal to reach. It helps you define your message and reduce the wasting of ...
Maestro-level letter is a weekly note I send to clients and colleagues. Every now and then one of these letters seems to need a larger audience. The additions of Senior Consultants Lukie Wells, Noele ...
We each have enemies. We do not arrive at Maestro-level leadership without accumulating them. Hopefully, the benefit of building integrity into our life is that we will have more opportunity than ...
A recent week-long set of meetings placed me among old haunts where I once served various clients. I drove past so many places I once grabbed coffee refills and morning carbs in the form of donuts or ...
The National Christian Foundation of Wisconsin convened the recent FUEL Conference. The collaborative planning included such groups as: Convene Truth at Work C12 Center for Christian Leadership at ...
Earlier this morning, I opened the FUEL conference, a meeting of 100 or so business leaders who draw upon their Christian faith and ethical commitments as they lead the organizations they steward. ...
I was fascinated when deeply experienced women executives from differing careers and separate places began gathering cohorts of accomplished women leaders. Was this a thing? Here is a conversation ...
This blog post, originally published in 2009 and now updated in light of yet again another devastating earthquake in Haiti, is as relevant as ever. ____________________ Gary Moore, widely known for ...
If the definition of vampires, zombies and mummies are that they are dead and don't know it, then we are surrounded by these monsters. Vampire institutions. Zombie organizations. Mummified ...
A notice from the Economist that the largest category of religious identification is nothing in particular combines with phrases I heard recently while traveling. Work comes first! I postponed ...
The past week found my wife and me in an historic adobe home in the heart of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The walled-in patio was so pleasant and so full of birdsong we spent the better part of the day ...
A true joy in this work comes from gleaning insight from people who are care to make a difference as they help organizations function effectively. Chuck Moyer is one such person, recently launching ...
What follows comes from the weekly "Maestro-level letter," a letter sent each week to Maestro-level leader cohort participants and my Executive Advising clients.
The following is a sample opening consecration used in a cohort meeting of Maestro-level leaders: Three questions are put to the great leader Ezra in the apocryphal book of 2 Esdras: What does a ...
Long ago, my graduate work focused on ways of creating agreement and forward action between groups needing to work together. That work became a dissertation that launched what has become a long ...
Short answer? It appears so. Mary Barra, the CEO, is leading GM as it seeks to fulfill a promise to make only electric vehicles by 2035. I don't know her but have been doing some background research ...
Twenty-six years ago, five denominational bodies came together to work on common definitions of what it means to earn and use money faithfully. I was recruited to run this project, which brought me ...
My fingers repeatedly hovered over my keyboard and I repeatedly walked away before starting this blog post. Why could I not get started when I had so many thoughts on this ? Finally, I stopped ...
A successful Third Turn of executive leadership identifies and begins to extract future value in preparation for succession. Maestro-level leaders cannot do this by themselves. Their Senior Executive ...
Momentum can help or harm. If you have made it to a ski slope in this unusual year, you have recently seen that once inertia is overcome, it becomes easier to make a move, keep moving, and build ...
Or Listen on your Favorite Platform: The Third Turn Leader and Charitable Giving Episode #15 of the Third Turn Podcast - A Conversation with Kate Frillmann Who wouldn't want to talk ...
In the upcoming Episode 15 of the Third Turn Podcast, we talk with Kate Frillmann, a colleague and Senior Consultant with Design Group International. Our topic: taking a forethought approach to ...
Through the many years of developing this Community of Practice, we call Design Group International , I have been a member of the clergy. Because of that, I'm often asked if I expect people to be ...
Or Listen on your Favorite Platform: Parent to Child Business Transitions Episode #14 of the Third Turn Podcast - A conversation with Brian Van de Water Brian Van de Water's Third Turn ...
Putting together a new program for senior executive leaders in the middle of a pandemic may seem a ridiculous thing to do, and yet the evidence runs to the contrary!
I was wondering about flamingos recently, and it led to a little research. I had caught myself saying that a well-developed organization with a weak board is like a flamingo — a being that stands on ...
With this post the name of this long-standing blog is changed from "The Organizational Development Muse" to "The Third Turn.” The focus on the intersection of organizational and executive ...
Inspired by so many angry and data-laden posts, op-eds and talking heads, I borrowed from Paul's essay on love to get my thoughts on paper. the photos are linked to related videos. If I may, I'd urge ...
If leaders can (re)learn any one thing from Pandemic Time, it is that the proverbial house is always falling down. Leaders are foolish to step back and say “There, that’s done,” or “Whew! That’s ...
A growing number of CEOs participate in some form of round-table discussion. Some are half days each month, some whole days, some far less frequent. Some tie to specific industry groups, or perhaps ...
Recent months have brought abundant conversation on how next-generation executive leaders might be developed within an organization — especially in a healthy company that is straining its capacity. ...
Early in the pastoring part of my career we studied the homogeneity principle—essentially that like attracts like. Folks with similar incomes, education, experience, ethnicity, and interests will be ...
"Walking beside my dying wife" is a curated blog of posts surrounding the passing of my wife, Lorie, one of Design Group International's Founders. It is now available as a free resource for ...
It is baked into the DNA of Design Group International that our consultants price our work as a fixed price, tying the price to a client’s objectives. The client needs to be focused on building their ...
The woman I’m fortunate to call my wife went for a walk with me in a city that lies along a lakeshore. We came across this quote from Abraham Lincoln in a speech to the Wisconsin State Agricultural ...
In quiet moments of late, I’ve been recalling moments from my leadership life where my best attempts to communicate were misconstrued or misunderstood. These were not bad faith incidents, although ...
My previous reflection on long-sight generated a number of responses. Some of you who responded spoke of inspiration. Others of you pointed out that long-sightedness pushes a person beyond moral ...
One of the reasons meetings become such wastes of time and money is that leaders, managers, and meeting facilitators repeatedly fail to frame the context. Another is that leaders and managers ...
For some time now we’ve been making a distinction between Process and Product when it comes to consulting: Product diagnoses and tells. Process listens and helps.
By Ron Mahurin, Senior Consultant This post originally appeared here. (Yet Strategy – and Process – Still Matter) There is some debate as to whether the late Peter Drucker actually ever said: ...
By Dr. Randal Dick, Guest Author. Reprinted by permission. Original article here. With uncertainty and disruption being the new norm in business while planning horizons are getting shorter, business ...
How does one lead without micromanaging, most especially when there is such high risk of liability/failure/ethical compromise? What distinction can be drawn, really, between that of Management and ...
Design Group International is committed to learning and helping rather than selling and telling. Our starting point is asking questions of the client rather than urging a product or service upon them.
The generation that built our super highways, university campuses, and hospital complexes also populated and built many church houses, along with large educational wings, church camps, private school ...
We would like to invite all interested persons to the 2018 Stewardship Summit 23-25 January 2018 -- near Memphis, TN. ________________ A recent privilege to work with an organization trying to ...
The following is a presentation made this past week at the Christian Leadership Alliance's Conference in Dallas, TX. It was part of a summit on Steward Leadership. Portions of what you will find ...
Over the years, we've turned, repeatedly, to the subject of Steward Leadership, especially as articulated in Scott Rodin's book on the Steward Leader. I've been privileged to support this work ...
We recently hosted a conversation on millennials in the manufacturing workplace and posted the notes from those proceedings here. It sparked some significant response and a wide amplification across ...
The Convene Team I chair is blessed with the perspective of several manufacturers. After some recent case studies regarding hiring and some content on millennials in the workplace, it was noted that ...
Christian Leadership Alliance celebrates 40 years of existence this week at its annual convention in Dallas. A key program I've personally invested in and benefitted from is its CCNL credential. The ...
In anticipation of a new rash of these letters, we repost one of our favorites originally published in 2010. __________________________ Each spring Lorie and I receive about thirty requests to help ...
The shoreline of the Mediterranean sea can be seen from the right side of the jet I’m riding in as I write this. It is beautiful, even from this height.
Truth be told, even after several decades of Silicon Valley leading the way, and an incredible amount of research demonstrating the power of teams and an empowered work force, the majority of ...
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