By David Peter Stroh and Marilyn Paul

Are you and your organization struggling to do more with less? Have people's effectiveness and satisfaction dropped as workloads have skyrocketed? More and more of us are overloaded by trying to meet the challenges of a 24/7 world. You might wonder what you can do to manage your time and yourself in ways that are more productive and sustainable. As a leader, you might also want to know what you can do to help your entire organization combat the destructive dynamics that cause your collective workload to spin out of control even as you attempt to reel it in.

To meet these kinds of individual and organizational challenges, it helps to begin by developing the case for change. On a personal level, ask what overload is costing you in your career, your most important relationships, and your sense of well-being. Consider what you really want to do--ways in which you would realize your passions and aspirations if you only had more time.

At the organizational level, the costs of overload range from spiraling health expenses and burned out employees to tense working relationships, missed deadlines, poor quality work, and angry customers. Organizations also lose sight of and fail to implement strategic priorities because they spend too much time fighting fires and moving from crisis to crisis.

November 12-14, 2012
Downtown Marriott Hotel
Indianapolis, Indiana

We're in the home stretch on our early-bird registration special, which ends on January 31, 2012. For only $650--more than 50% off the full registration fee--you will enjoy 2 1/2 days of high-impact presentations, skill-building sessions, peer-to-peer sharing, and more, all designed to give you the skills and tools you need to improve your organization's results.

Need more reasons to register? How about two of the leading speakers on leadership, change, and workplaces and communities that work for all?

Margaret Wheatley, co-founder of the Berkana Institute and acclaimed author of Leadership and the New Science and more recently Walk Out Walk On and Perseverance.

Peter Block, author of several best-selling books, including Flawless Consulting, Stewardship, The Empowered Manager, and his most recent title, The Abundant Community, co-authored with John McKnight.

Start an engine of success in your organization and the world! Register for Systems Thinking in Action 2012 by January 31 for only $650.

By Bill Treasurer

Aristotle called courage the first virtue because it makes all other virtues possible. If that is true, then courage is also the first virtue of business. Courage, after all, is the lifeblood of leadership, entrepreneurialism, and innovation.

Given the benefits to be gained when workers are courageous, it's striking that so many managers still resort to stoking people's fears to get things done. Managers who fill people with fear in order to motivate them often do so for reasons of efficiency and immaturity. It simply takes less time, thought, and technique to bark an order than it does to motivate people according to their interests, passion, and capabilities.