Stop Decorating the Fish Podcast

Stop Decorating the Fish

Kristen Cox
Become a better professional, a more confident manager, and a much more effective leader.
Episode 18: Confusing the means with the ends
It's so easy when we have a problem to presuppose we know the solution and start down a path where we get far too prescriptive, far too detailed, far too soon. As a result, we cut ourselves off from some very creative, possible solutions.
Nov 8, 2023
8 min
Episode 17: Thinking like a good steward
In this episode we walk through two, important ideas: always keeping the opportunity costs in mind, and a simple but effective way to calculate the proposed return on investment (ROI) for your next initiative. When we combine these two concepts, we create very strong business cases and start thinking like a good steward.
Oct 19, 2023
17 min
Episode 16: The emotional maturity needed to be a leader
Being a great leader, an effective leader, is not just an exercise in being book smart or how well you know your field. It's just as much about your emotional maturity, how well you know yourself, and how well you can work with others. In this episode we dive into our emotional blind spots, doing something wrong without being wrong, self-trust, knowing your limitations, being vulnerable, having emotional courage, and the importance of authentic community.
Aug 10, 2023
26 min
Episode 15: Seven indicators of a problematic strategy
A step-by-step way to tell if your strategy (or strategic plan) is on solid ground, or might be setting you up for problems
Apr 1, 2023
33 min
Episode 14 - Kristen interviews Rami Goldratt about inertia and innovation
What a privilege we have in this episode to hear directly from Rami Goldratt, one of the world's leading spokesmen on the Theory of Constraints (TOC), the son of Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, TOC's founder, and CEO of the highly successful Goldratt Group. Rami provides insight after insight into the power of inertia in our organizations, innovation, how to create breakthroughs, and on and on. You won't want to miss this one.
Mar 16, 2023
27 min
Episode 13: The real work of building a culture
What does it take to build a great culture...really? Is it just perks? Or is it something much deeper? And can we build a culture directly? Or is it a byproduct of something else? That's what we tackle in this episode.
Feb 26, 2023
26 min
Episode 12: What is my role in this?
We have a professional problem. We get frustrated. It's very common to succumb to a basic instinct: to blame our team, our boss...someone! Our next step is often to impose more oversight and more accountability (one of the Seductive Seven). This is a tough one to catch and fix, because it requires some personal courage and introspection. Why? Because quite often, the root of the problem is staring us in the mirror.
Feb 12, 2023
23 min
Episode 11: Taking the harder path
In this episode, we explore Dr. Goldratt's unique definition of value creation and how we tend to fall into the trap of creating more-and-more inward-facing goals over time--goals designed to improve the bureaucracy and make our work lives better, but often do not translate into removing any significant limitations for our customers. In short, we do a lot of work, spend a lot of money, and nothing improves for our clients. This episode is about what to do instead.
Jan 26, 2023
30 min
Episode 10: You can't train your way out of a bad system
Training is great, and needed...when the underlying forces that really drive the organization's consistent behavior are positive, healthy, and in alignment. Training on top of a complex set of unhealthy, unexamined dynamics is fish decorating.
Nov 29, 2022
31 min
Episode 9: A new, refreshing way to approach strategic planning
Join us in this episode to question some of your deeply help assumptions about strategic planning, and discover a streamlined, highly-effective "reframing" of how to approach it.
Nov 3, 2022
36 min
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