Article in Risk Management Magazine

Mike Richardson has been one of my mentors for several years – he is a former CEO of an International business, is currently a Vistage chair, has published a well received book on Business Leadership (Wheel$pin – the Agile Executive’s Manifesto), and runs his own successful consulting firm, Sherpa Alliance.  Mike suggested that he and I collaborate on an article that brings his focus on helping business leaders develop greater AGILITY in the chaos of business, with my experience preparing young commandos for managing chaos on the battlefield.  We worked on the article off and on for over a year, and it was finally posted on-line at Risk Management Magazine (click here)

As is common in these sort of things, the original version of this article was well over 4 times as long as what was finally posted.  Given the format restrictions and the targeted audience, we knew we had to cut out some good content, and it took us a while to edit our article down to about 1500 words. It was a lot of fun working with Mike on exploring the intersection of Navy SEAL (and other commando units) approaches to battlefield problems, and the challenges business leaders face in a chaotic market place.  We went into greater depth on this idea during a discussion we recorded in a webinar which Mike posted on his website at mydrivingseat.com (available here), and subsequently Mike had me come speak to his Vistage groups.  I enjoyed and learned a lot from this process, and use much of what Mike and I explored together in the work I’ve done since.

End of Summer

Moving into the fall, the summer has flown by.  I just returned from helping to lead an Executive Leadership Expedition with the National Outdoor Leadership School, and in my most recent Bob’s Corner blog Unplugging to Plug in (which you can see under the tab ‘what I’ve written’ on the home pate) I offer my impressions after returning from a great trip. We are already planning next summer’s expedition.

A week after returning from the mountains of Wyoming, I gave the opening Keynote for a Returning Warriors Workshop in Palm Desert, and began the fall semester, teaching Ethics for Global Business for the Master of Science in Global Leadership program at USD. I’ve been getting some more momentum with my Vistage speaking, while I also prep myself for the SuperFrog Half Ironman at the end of September.  I can already see that, as we finish up the summer and get into the fall, a busy schedule will be getting busier.