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Keep Sharpening: What Can Be Better?
Eleven leadership conversations, one enduring question, and the beginning of the next chapter for The Sharpening.
“None of us is as smart as all of us.” — Don Carew and Eunice Parisi-Carew
From Steve
Twelve weeks ago, I published the first issue of The Sharpening with a simple hope: to share a few ideas that might help leaders and organizations get a little better.
I wasn’t entirely sure where it would go.
Since then, we’ve talked about curiosity, processes, problems that don’t age well, the cost of waiting, culture, people, clarity, workarounds, planning, and the importance of going to see the work.
Writing these first twelve issues has genuinely been a joy for me. It has given me an opportunity to reflect on lessons I’ve learned over more than three decades of leading, improving, facilitating, and sometimes simply figuring things out along the way.
More importantly, I hope you’ve found something here that has made you pause, think, start a conversation, or make something just a little better.
Better—That’s the Key Word
One of my favorite thoughts from The Man Who Sharpened Stones is built around a simple question:
What can be better?
Not what can be more.
What can be better?
It’s a question worth asking from time to time. And that’s really what The Sharpening is about.
As we move from Volume 1 to Volume 2, my hope is to keep sharpening The Sharpening and continue sharing ideas that are provocative, thoughtful, and, most of all, meaningful.
I’d also love to reach more readers who might find value in it. If an issue makes you think of a friend or colleague, please feel free to share it.
We’re just getting started.
Eleven Leadership Conversations Worth Revisiting
Volume 1 gave us eleven ideas that leaders and organizations can continue putting into practice:
1. Continuous Improvement Begins With Curiosity
Stay curious. Better questions often reveal better opportunities.
2. Great Organizations Don’t Run on Luck
Strong results are supported by repeatable processes.
3. Problems Don’t Age Well
Solve problems early, before they become bigger and more expensive.
4. The Cost of Waiting
Sometimes the most expensive decision is the one we keep putting off.
5. Leaders Set the Temperature
The environment leaders create shapes the culture people experience.
6. Nothing Has to Be Broken to Get Better
Improvement is not reserved for things that are failing.
7. Never Lose Sight of the People
Organizations don’t produce results. People do.
8. Accountability Begins With Clarity
People can’t own what they don’t clearly understand.
9. Don’t Confuse a Workaround With a Solution
Getting through a problem isn’t the same as solving it.
10. Now Is the Time to Begin Planning for 2027
Good plans are built before the year begins.
11. Go See the Work
Get closer to the work to understand what really needs to change.
Three Books Worth Revisiting
The Man Who Sharpened Stones by Steve Aldridge
This book sits at the heart of the idea behind The Sharpening: good doesn’t have to be the finish line.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Improvement ultimately depends on people, trust, accountability, and teams working well together.
Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen
Getting better isn’t about one dramatic moment. It’s about discipline, consistency, and making good choices over time.
This Week’s Challenge
Take a few minutes this week and ask yourself one simple question:
What can be better?
Ask it about your work.
Ask it about your leadership.
Ask it as a team.
You might even ask it about something in your personal life.
Don’t begin by asking what can be bigger, faster, or more complicated. Start with what can be better.
Then identify one practical step you can take.
Help Me Sharpen The Sharpening
As we prepare for Volume 2, I’d genuinely like to hear from you:
What leadership or organizational challenges are you wrestling with?
What topics would be useful?
What have you enjoyed most so far?
What would you like to see in Volume 2?
Send your thoughts to Steve@AP-Advisory.com.
Keep Sharpening
Eleven issues. Eleven conversations about getting a little better.
And we’re just getting started.
If this issue brought a colleague, leader, or team to mind, please share it with them.
If your organization is facing a recurring problem, an unclear priority, or an opportunity to improve, let’s have a conversation about what could be better.
Better today. Even better tomorrow. That’s the journey.
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