Welcome to Our New Format
As we launch Year 3 of our company newsletter, we invite you to continue spending four to five minutes with us each month as we review timely insights from The Fit Leader.
Our new format seeks to honor the time-honored adage that "The secret to a good newsletter is to have a good beginning and a good ending, then have the two as close together as possible."
We will continue to provide you with articles that center around our model of leadership fitness, including our monthly book reviews and the popular section we call "One More Thing".
The 90-Day Runway
Spend time on any Internet search engine these days, or peruse the business or personal development shelves of any local bookstore or library, and you likely will find numerous titles and references pointing to the significance of "the next 90-day period".
A quick glance through just the first page of a recent Internet search on the terms "next 90 days" uncovered the following results:
· Surviving the Next 90 Days
· The 90-Day Health Challenge
· Make $100,000 in the Next 90 Days
· Your First 90 Days on the Job
· 90 Days to a New Life Direction
· Making an Impact in the First 90 Days
While one might argue with how magical the proverbial 90-day period really is, the important point for most of us is that adopting some meaningful framework or perspective can help us plan for the future results we desire.
What we put in motion today surely will have an effect on where we end up in the future. What specific actions are you willing to commit to making in the next 90 days?
Overcoming Our Immunity to Change
Providing brilliant insights, Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey's newest book Immunity to Change upends much of our current thinking on what it really takes for leaders and organizations to change.
When only one in seven heart patients go on to change their habits when told they will die if they don't, we must begin to question whether desire and motivation are enough to overcome the obstacles necessary to move us forward.
The authors, using a concept introduced by Ronald Heifetz, distinguish between "technical" and "adaptive" challenges, and show how leaders can run into problems when they apply technical means to solve adaptive challenges.
One of the book's most insightful contributions is the concept of an "immunity map" that describes how organizations and individuals often have very powerful immune systems that keep them from making the very changes they "want" in their lives or their organizations.
For our current reading list, please click here.
One More Thing: 5 Riddles to Sharpen Your Thinking Skills
My good friend and colleague Alan Headbloom (www.headbloom.com) specializes in helping foriegn-born professionals communicate with more comfort and accuracy.
Every month or two, Alan sends me thought-provoking articles that always cause me to stretch my thinking.
This month, one of Alan's articles included 5 riddles for sharpening our thinking skills. See if you can solve these riddles before looking at the answers.
1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him?
2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 5 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. Five minutes later, they go out and enjoy a wonderful dinner together. How can this be?
To read more, please go to:
http://www.theleadershipfit.com/blog.
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