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The NY Times published an article about President Bill Clinton’s visit to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong-il about releasing the two imprisoned American reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The result was simple and surprising- they were released! I found this article particularly interesting...
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From Work-Life Balance to Work-Life Bursts and Work-Life Teams I was reading a colleague’s post on work-life balance , where she was referencing Jack Welch’s statement that there is no such thing . Those who know me would certainly laugh if they knew I was commenting on work-life balance...
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I had an interesting experience when going out to lunch with my team. They took me to one of their regular lunch spots where I had never been. I kind of vaguely knew where it was, but I didn’t know exactly where it was. I had to drive separately to get back for a meeting, so we split up in the parking...
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One of the neat things about my new job is getting to play with, I mean, work with some cool products. Last week the HP Personal Systems Group (which I'm now in) had a big product launch in Berlin. I was happy when the launch date finally came, because I could finally talk openly about the products...
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It's the time of year to reflect on the year behind and think about the year ahead. As I reflect on the last year, I realize that my most valuable accomplishments were not necessarily the accomplishments themselves, but the learnings that were behind them since it is those learnings that you carry...
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I went to Leadership Boot Camp (my own name for an intensive HP Leadership Development program) earlier in the summer with a number of senior leaders from across the company. The class was mostly VPs with a few directors. As part of the program, they have assessments to help you understand yourself better...
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I somehow got mixed up with a bad crowd- a very bad crowd- a trail running crowd. These people are crazy. They see a hill and they want to run up it. They like running half-marathons and marathons. They run at a moderate pace, sauntering along and stopping to regroup every so often, but they just keep...
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David Maister has an interesting post on using friendship skills as a strategy at work. David's target audience is people in professional service firms where clients are your key customers. He suggests that skills that make a person a good friend will also make a person a good consultant for your clients...
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I've been in a number of fun and productive brainstorming meetings at work this past week. The people in the meetings are from different parts of the organization, so some people know each other well and some are meeting for the first time. There has been a lot of energy in the room and people are openly...
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I was on a panel Q&A session for the women interns at HP Labs. The panelists were a set of current and past lab directors at HP Labs and a senior researcher at HP Labs. My fellow panelists had some very good advice. The audience was a bright, energetic group of women who are in various stages of...
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When you're playing sports, it's natural to have a strong side. In soccer, you may be better at kicking the ball with your right foot than with your left foot. In ice hockey, you may be better at making and receiving passes on your forehand than on your backhand. Or, you may have a better slapshot than...
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You know the person... the person who is always looking at their cell phone or PDA, checking for new messages, stepping out for phone calls, busily pounding on their laptops responding to their emails, even when they're in small meetings. The person is very busy, always moving, and always has so much...
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What size audience do you need to stick with a new idea, a new tool, or a new hobby? An audience of zero. There are things that I do for an audience of zero. I do them for myself, and I do them no matter what. I enjoy doing them so much or find them so valuable that they don't require any audience. If...
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Last week I was talking to some friends about their work environment. I was hearing some stories that were a little hard for me to believe. All of a sudden, a little lightbulb went off in my head. I asked them, "Have you seen that show The Office ? What do you think about that show?" They laughed and...
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Sounds kind of silly out of context, but those of you who work out know exactly what this means. When you're doing something tough at the gym like lifting weights, doing pushups, or striking a strange yoga pose, then it's kind of natural to hold your breath and stop breathing. If you're lucky, you have...