055: Getting Radical Alignment With LIfe – Bob Gower

Imagine being married 3 times, and feeling on the verge of suicide, and then getting WOKE! Woke to your truth and become radically aligned to your truth about what you wanted for your life. You got specific, dumped the bullshit, set the boundaries that would save you and make you say, "Oh shit!"

Welcome to Bob Gower's world. A world were radical alignment is not only the title of his forthcoming book but also the way he lives his life. What might happen for you if you radically aligned to your truth with intentions, honoring your concerns, setting boundaries, and allowing your dreams to fully come to life? That is the focus of our radically aligned conversation today about getting in alignment with yourself.

Organizations are a superpower for humans. They help us thrive. Yet many organizations are failing to thrive—or just plain failing—because they’re not able to /adapt fast enough/ to our uncertain, fast-changing world.

Bob Gower helps organizations improve performance by /designing future-ready systems/ that help people work more effectively now, and adapt more easily to future changes. 

In his talks, Bob explores: What makes organizations and teams succeed? Why do they fail? How can we work together more successfully?  

In his consulting work, Bob helps organizations design teams and streamline systems, to perform at the highest level. The result? Increased speed and agility, more productive associates, happier clients, lower costs.

Bob’s work helping people build better organizations grew out of curiosity and a strong sense that we can be and do better. For ourselves. For others. For our organizations. For our planet.

 As a young adventurer, exploring life, relationships and cultures, Bob:

• Researched the Shaker movement in college.
• Explored the backcountry of the US and Canada, doing manual labor. 
• Journeyed for 3 months from Bangkok, though Laos, to Hanoi.
• Went to Japan to study Zen and martial arts; arriving with a few hundred dollars and a backpack, he made a life there for 6 years by playing in a traditional Irish band. (The Japanese loved it.)
• Drove across Cuba having adventures involving rum and art.

These experiences /made culture visible/ to Bob. He understood in a profound way that there are a wide variety of ways to live and work. 

The corporate world provided insights into what is effective—and isn’t—in work cultures, as he:

• Led creative teams as design director at the SF Examiner, leading its re-design, and early digital presences for MSNBC, Newsweek, Discovery, and others.
• Became expert in agile software development and lean theory as product leader for Silicon Valley startups MaestroConference and Genius Inc.
• Traveled the world for Rally Software as an Agile Coach, specializing in enterprise-level Agile transformations.

 Bob Gower saw people and organizations fall far short of their potential. He realized that bad behavior...