Link Roundup for 30 September 2012

With the sheer number of writers on the Harvard Business Review Blog Network, there’s bound to be at least one article that grabs me each week. Here’s a collection of some of my favorite recent articles posted there.

• Rosabeth Moss Cantor looks at the imperfect balance between work and life.
• Mihir Desai talks about how CEO pay became a massive bubble.
• Justin Fox speculates about the economic record of the McCain Presidency.
• Peter Bregman explains how to work with someone you don’t like (and why you might not like them).
• Tony Schwartz warns “Whatever you feel compelled to do, don’t.”
• Dorie Clark wonders “Are you hurting your own cause?”
• Warren Berger shares the secret phrase top innovators use.
• Tony Schwartz returns and asks to be saved from the strengths-based organization.
• Heidi Grant Halvorson reflects on the advantages of self-compassion over self-esteem.

Link Roundup for 28 September 2012

Despite seeing references to it for a while, I’ve only recently started reading Grantland, the sports and pop culture website helmed by ESPN’s Bill Simmons. Here are some of my favorite articles from the last few months.

• How to boost your country’s Olympic medal count in seven easy steps.
• Speaking of the Olympics, what if National Anthems was an Olypmic event?
• This pair of articles got me strangely excited about professional wrestling.
• The end of Tecmo Bowl-style football?
• Somehow, Black Sabbath can still rock.
• The remarkable fame of Edward Payson Weston.

Link Roundup for 26 September 2012

I mentioned a few days ago that I’ve seen a lot of improvement recently in my ability to focus and get things done. Here are some ideas that helped me do that.

• The problem, of course, is that we often get stuck in the “busy” trap.
• To get out, we have to find ways to slow down.
• To help with that, here are five things that you should share with your CEO (and do yourself).
• Following that advice, you’ll probably need to find exercise in life’s margins.
• And while you’re doing that, eat mindfully.
• And in order for whatever changes we make to stick, we have to make them habits.

Link Roundup for 24 September 2012

Over the first half of this year, several articles (and responses) about the practice of brainstorming caught my eye. Given that one my interests right now is discovering how to enable groups to do their best thinking, I was intrigued. Here’s the chain, collected in one place.

• The Rise of the New Groupthink by Susan Chain
• Groupthink: The Brainstorming Myth by Jonah Lehrer
• The Problem with the New Groupthink by Scott Berkun (a response to Cain)
• In Defense of Brainstorming by Scott Berkun (a response to Lehrer)
• Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming by Daniel Sobol
• The Brainstorming Process is B.S. But Can We Rework It? by Cliff Kuang
• Yes, You Can Brainstorm Without Groupthink by Vijay Govindarajan and Jay Terwilliger

What’s your take on all this?

The Best Kind of Busy

Things, as they say, have been good. I’ve been spending the last few months getting used to a) sleeping more, b) running regularly, and c) eating better. It’s amazing what this has done for my ability to focus and to get things done. This week was an intense period at work, not because of the amount that we need to accomplish, but because the kind of things I needed to do (including helping the team come to agreements about working practices that incorporated a lot of diverse and often unspoken viewpoints) were emotionally trying. Without the habits I’ve been developing, I wouldn’t have made it through.

So the reason you haven’t been hearing from me is that I’ve been soaking a lot of things up, doing a lot of inner work, and building a solid foundation for creativity. And now it feels like I’m starting to come out of my cocoon.