My purpose is to ask better questions.

We often assume that the question we are asking is the best question? But often we really intend to get at a different answer. To get assess or understand a different angle of the problem.

If we ask a better question, we follow a different or slightly adjusted problem path. We reach understanding more quickly and connect with others’ views more meaningfully.

In considering how we makes sense of our lived experience, I believe we have to reconcile how what makes us human also creates barriers to connection in the way of bias. By acknowledging our bias’ we open our minds and then better understand others. 

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Kenzie & Merica showing me some love. 

Connect with Me

Maximizealot Insights Newsletter – Substack is where I publish stories and ideas.

@maximizealot   Twitter is a place I post, and source similar interesting ideas.

LinkedIn     A professional interaction forum for business insights.

Symbio Strategies    Where I ideate, consult and create impact specific to clients.

To be a part of ‘a better question’ dialogue,  Reach out!

Insights from Reading Others’ Works

AEON     for ideas, bold thinking, deep thinking.

Stratechery    for the intersection of strategy in the tech world.

HBR (Harvard Business Review)     for business and strategy focused research and ideas (so I know what the business leaders are reading.)

Our World in Data   for validation from data about almost anything you can think about.

The World is Flat, T. Friedman     a short history of technology, globalization, climate change.

Big Magic, E. Gilbert     every idea needs to find a home, what ideas will you give a home?

Behavioral Economics     from this well researched source and as a topic across sources.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, M. Manson     for so clearly challenging focus on the right things.

(and many more I will add as I go)

Sources of Insight for Me

  • Dogs, horses and our cat who constantly remind me to be present.
  • Husband and our many years in building a life together.
  • Millennial business partner with a global mindset and who advocates for the individual.
  • Supporting my Dad as he fights NHL (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) from a rural town.
  • Losing my mother (2006), an RN & Director, to surgical error at a rural US hospital.
  • Growing up in a rural community that afforded safety, well-being, agency and environmental stewardship, while also limiting my world view.
  • Symbio Strategies, an Experience-focused consulting and research firm I founded.
  • International organization leaders with whom I have consulted and coached.
  • Sustainability centered students I met while teaching Strategy in Business at Presidio & Pinchot MBA programs.
  • Research about humans in orgs: nurses sense of purpose & human capital as assets.
  • Start-up focus – Intergenerational aspects of working together (then we pivoted.)
  • Start-up focus – Well-being in the workplace (then we pivoted, again.)
  • Replacing pain meds with human CBD during our German Shepherd’s 10th year. (she turns 14 in Jan ’19)

 

A bit more about me

I believe my purpose is also take my lived experiences as a responsibility to seek and share insights. Especially those that may oppose or be in contrast. It is my hope in creating insights I might encourage individual thinking, and bring new learning and considerations.

At my core I love to maximize – to do the most I can, at the best quality and with frequency. This is a blessing and a curse – sometimes to my disappointment and often causes others discomfort. By helping others see the other side, or the contrast to their views, I believe we can create a more peaceful world around us.

I have had the opportunity to live in various parts of the world, to eat and drink at wonderful places and interact with nature in various settings. I have experienced encounters, some paid, some by chance, that inform perspective. They have broadened, deepened and also helped formed my views of today.

A ‘facilitator’ has been my primary role throughout my life. I have been consultant in management, leadership and engagement as well as a professor of business strategy and a practitioner of sustainability and social enterprise.