When I interviewed Ed Cohen, he was CLO of Satyam, one of the biggest companies you’ve never heard of (at the time of the interview, 55,000 people in 60 countries around the world). Unless of course you work in the world of corporate training, because Sataym was recognized as the top training and learning and development company by the American Society of Training and Development in 2007.
Ed took the leap to join Satyam in 2005, leaving a safe life in Virginia and heading to a new role and a new life in India. Before that he’d spent more than a quarter century of experience in corporate learning and organizational development, including managing Booz Allen’s training initiatives. Ed’s also the author of Leadership Without Borders: Successful Strategies from World-Class Leaders.

When we talked, Ed was in a Hyderabad taxi – so there’s some fabulous background noise going on as we :

• learn abut the importance of a mentor and a sponsor to help you achieve Great Work
• discuss how to balance the competing needs of different stakeholders
• dig down into metrics – and come up with the importance of “delight” as a key measure

Listen to my interview with Ed Cohen

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

Do you have kids? If so, you’ve probably heard of Barbara Coloroso. Heck, I DON’T have kids and even I’ve heard of her! She is an authority (if not the authority) on parenting and teaching, school discipline, non-violent conflict resolution and re-conciliatory justice.  She’s written a number of best sellers:  Kids Are Worth It, which is about the art of parenting, The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander which uncovers a dynamic that happens all the way from the playground to the board room, and – flowing from that – Extraordinary Evil: A Short Walk to Genocide.

Because courage is so central to the concept of Great Work, I was delighted to talk to Barbara about some of these deep dynamics in our lives. In this interview we discuss:

• the differences between a “culture of caring” and a “culture of mean” – and how you can participate in and create either one of them
• how being a bystander is no excuse – there are no innocent bystanders
• how the best anecdote against the three most virulent agents ripping apart the fabric of our humanity – hating other human beings with utter contempt; hording me, mine, and more instead of ours, us, and enough; and harming with lying and cheating and stealing – is to create a climate in our homes, our schools, our communities, and our workplace where we can care deeply, share generously, and help willingly

Listen to my interview with Barbara Coloroso here

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

That’s what Seth Godin is asking.

It’s the title of this free ebook (which I’d strongly encourage you to download) – and Seth’s getting some great answers from thinkers and movers and shakers – everyone from Jason Fried (founder of 37Signals.com) to Ramit Sethi (author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich) to Dan Pink to Hugh MacLeod to… well, there are over 70 people here, all of whom are worth a look.

(I’ve been lucky enough to talk to some of these people myself – why not check out these Great Work Interviews with Merlin Mann, and Steven Pressfield and Guy Kawasaki)

How about you? What matters now to you?

It’s a sad anniversary for me today – a year since the wonderful Jerry Sternin unexpectedly died. Jerry’s the founder of the Positive Deviance Initiative, and his insights on positive deviance open up a powerful and tested way to create change is large systems. I first came across his ideas in a Fast Company magazine article at a time when I was a consultant in a change management organization. They were inspiring and sobering – inspiring because of the impact the PD approach was having, sobering because it seemed to be a far cry from what I was (not) achieving in my work. Jerry and his team did fabulous work with Save the Children in Bangladesh and other countries around the world, and the PD approach is being used to tackle challenges from infection in hospital to female genital mutilation.

In our conversation we:

• learn about the origins of PD in Vietnam in 1990 – and how a crisis gave birth to a new approach to change
• cover the broad principles of PD – simple and powerful
• dig down into some of the counter-intuitive genius of PD – including how you look for people least likely to succeed to find the seeds of future success
• how accountability was a positive force for change and success

Jerry’s death was a sad day indeed, and I’m delighted to be able to share this interview with you.

Listen to my interview with Jerry Sternin here

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.

Laura Berman Fortgang is truly one of the pioneers in the personal coaching field. She has a number of books to her name including Now What?: 90 Days to a New Life Direction and her most recent The Little Book of Meaning (and no doubt you can immediately see why Laura’s such a great fit with great work.)

Laura was one of the very first personal coaches to be featured on national television including an appearance on Oprah. And on top of running a company that provides coaching and training, she is also an ordained interfaith minister.

In our conversation we:

• hear about the moment that shifted her to expand her practice from coaching to training as a minister – and the importance of listening to the call of Great Work
• get into why “meaningful work” isn’t all about becoming Mother Theresa – but finding it in the life you currently live
• talk about how your schedule tells you more about your life than you’d care to admit

Listen to my interview with Laura Berman Fortgang here

The interviews are all between 25 and 30 minutes long.
You can either download them here as mp3s, or go to iTunes, type in “Great Work Interviews” and you’ll see them all there.
You can follow Laura on Twitter at http://twitter.com/@LBFcoach