Consider some prominent leaders and discuss how they inspired others to follow their vision?
Relate the Twelve Steps of Purposeful Action to the ways these leaders inspired others. Provide examples and references to support your comments.
This post was written by Brad Renter, who will lead the blog discussion for the week starting March 3.
There are four basic levels of desire. The second level of desires includes wealth, power, and respect.
How do desires from the the second level specifically relate to corporations under the current economic conditions?
How should corporations manage these desires to remain successful in the current state of the economy?
Discuss these questions in the context of the Four Principles of Purposeful Action, with examples and appropriate links. Please review the accompanying video post on “Managing Desires.”
This post was written by Brad Renter, who will lead the blog discussion for the week starting March 3.
How 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.
As 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.
Here 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).
In 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?
We 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?
My 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?
We 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.