Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Overachievers”
Some time ago, I spoke with a man who played the piano. Extremely well. So well that he had got paid to play it. Which he did, for all his money. He loved playing. It was a great joy to him. “Having to do what you love for a living is a great way to drain the joy out of …
“He was turkey farmed, and there wasn’t anything to do but ride it out to retirement.” We were talking about his old colleague. The guy had run afoul of his commander at the base for his insistence on following some environmental policy or other. The commander had “promoted” him to a special project with a special office. Each day, he …
Hersh Shefrin, long-time Santa Clara prof and father of Behavioral Finance, points out that Lopes’s SP/A theory explains why CEOs and risk professionals have so many “what are you talking about?” moments: … my research indicates that CEOs are the most hopeful of all groups, the most apt to set specified goals, and the most likely to try to achieve …
Although Monday’s note argues that Jesus’ father was a respected craftsman, and that James, Jesus’ brother, was likely either himself a Pharisee or respected by them, there is some evidence that Jesus was bereft of personal resources when he died. The Gospel accounts have many accounts of Jesus being hosted by others, or being supported by them. His disciples are …
Lopes developed the SP/A Theory framework about why people make certain choices when faced with risk. These are developed through empirical studies of undergraduates, including running commentary on why they are choosing one alternative vs another. It led to one of the key insights into why we take the chances we do, and why one person may have a thoroughly …
The ancient texts are always interesting, in part because you often discover that you’ve been reading them wrong. … Luke attests that “every year [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover” (24:1)….. They were obviously a devout, Jewish family with the financial means to make the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem, something few could afford. Bütz, Jeffery …
“Managers should never be allowed to abdicate their management accountabilities and authorities by having HR do what is their job!” I learned this from management guru and past president of Forrest & Company, Nick Forrest (no relation) several years ago when I had the good fortune to work with him briefly. Why mention HR when in a discussion about Risk …
I recently sat through a meeting where the discussants, all intelligent people who care deeply about the work under discussion, argued deeply and long without much actually happening. You’ve been in these, too, and you’ve also been frustrated by how people don’t understand when you start talking about what we need to do. But I now don’t have to live …
What does a team do? It depends on who is in it. The Imaginist decision maker sees teams as “teams of persons”. You can’t determine what is should be done until you analyze who is going to do it. Work cannot be separated from who does it because, for the Imaginst, it’s all about the person. Lots of ex-programmers seem …
As I try to get “team” better defined, one of the biggest problems I have — and one shared by Requisite Agility as a whole — is that people use words differently to talk about decisions about action. Teams, as I have started defining them, are all about doing something together, working to a purpose. How we talk about decisions …
