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Three posts I enjoyed this week, all speaking to a different aspect of doing more Great Work:

1. Distracted?

My friend Anna Sonser pointed me to this revealing piece from the New Yorker magazine, talking about how our lives seem to be getting more fragmented and disjointed and distracting – and how all sorts of people (that you’d never suspect) are medicating themselves to increase their focus. You might be thinking – I’d never do that. But if everyone around you is suddenly hyper-focused and productive, what then?

2. No. Just say No. No, No No.

Seth riffing on one of my favourite themes: the cost of not saying No.

Here is how Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, does it.

3. The art of Great Work

Kyra’s the one that did that great caricature of me. She’s now a seaglass artist, and this is a lovely meditation on what she’s learned about Great Work in producing her beautiful pieces.

This week I’ll be spending time at the conference of the American Society of Training and Development, which is why I’ve selected a Chief Learning Officer to feature in the Great Work interview. Kevin Wilde is the vice president of Organizational Effectiveness and the chief learning officer at General Mills.

And he’s not just any old learning officer, in fact, in 2007 Chief Learning Officer Magazine selected Kevin as the CLO of the year. Kevin has been with General Mills for about ten years and prior to that he was working with General Electric. And the impact of his leadership at General Mills has been seen. Fortune ranked General Mills as number six as one of best companies in the world at leadership development. Training Magazine ranked it number five as a designation as a top company for employee development.

That’s not an accident, as you’ll see from the wisdom and insight Kevin brings to this conversation. In this interview we discuss:

• How a fortuitous car ride with Jack Welsh changed how he worked with senior leaders
• Where the balance is between “derailment factors” and a person’s strengths
• A key insight for success for any manager to do more Great Work
• The importance in strategic planning of starting with what inspires
• And two fantastic stories from his time as an ultra-marathoner

=> Listen to the interview here: http://www.findyourgreatwork.com/interviews/kevin-wilde

“My mind perched on top of my head like a spider monkey and thought of more things that could go wrong…and whose fault those things would be. I tried to drop my attention from my head to my heart, which is actually an ascension of sorts…. Still, my mind chattered on, as if the spider monkey had taken acid. My mind is my main problem almost all of the time. I wish I could leave it in the fridge when I go out, but it likes to come with me.”

~ Anne Lamott, Plan B; Further Thoughts on Faith

I’m a fan of Anne Lamott, or at least of the two books of hers that I’ve read, this one and Bird by Bird. She has a gift for sticking her finger in her own confusion and messiness and writing about it with humour and gravitas both, and in the process helping me see my own confusion and messiness.

This is just a fantastic description of that internal yak-yakkity-yak that keeps a frustrating running commentary on our lives. Richard Carson writes about it really well (he calls it “the Gremlin“), as does Tim Gallwey when he talks about the inner game.

What’s your spider monkey mind jabbing on about to you at the moment?

And if you bring your attention down to your heart … what do you notice there?

I love that, when you graduate from University, you get the Commencement Speech. As if it’s only now, at that moment, that you get to start something. Not before. Not after.

Here’s one of the best commencement speeches I’ve read, just as good than the Steve Jobs’ one that got so much press some years ago.

It’s from Paul Hawken, author and founder of Wiser Earth. My favourite lines?

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.

How about today you think:

What will I commence?

What needs to begin?

What’s the Great Work I’m going to say Yes to?

Laurence Haughton is a writer, lecturer and management consultant. His work – the two books he’s written and the services he provides – rest soundly on the fact that he’s spent the last 15 years interviewing over 5000 executives, entrepreneurs and managers as to what really makes things succeed.

So whether Laurence is talking about how you use speed as a competitive advantage (as he does in his first bestseller It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small…It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow) or about the art of execution (the topic of his second book, It’s Not What You Say…It’s What You Do) the insights are grounded on reality, not just theory.

In this Great Work interview we talk about

• How his first job shaped Laurence’s world-view (and it’s a company you know well)
• The role framing plays in your experience of Great Work
• The challenge behind creating great teamwork – and the power of feedback
• Why principles trump rules
• And why the New Zealand All Blacks never seem to win the rugby World Cup (OK, that’s not exactly true but it’s pretty close).

Listen to the interview here: http://www.findyourgreatwork.com/interviews/lawrence-haughton/