Emotional Safety

February 21, 2009

In a meeting the other day at a client’s office, we were discussing collaboration and what happens when the collaborative dynamic breaks down.  People get defensive, offensive and confrontational which makes things very unsafe.  This particular client is in the construction industry and has a full time safety manager, safety coordinators on every job site [...]

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How to Read (Once You’ve Graduated)

January 1, 2009

Graduation from high school, college and/or grad school is for many of us a dim memory.  But whether graduation is a recent or ancient experience, it’s important to recognize that in an important way, the education system has let us down. They didn’t teach us how to read. Oh, they taught us how to make [...]

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They May be Ignorant but They’re Not Stupid

December 30, 2008

Did you ever see The Coal Miner’s Daughter with Sissy Spacek and Tommy Lee Jones?  It’s about the life of Loretta Lynn, the great country singer.  At one point early in Loretta’s career, Tommy Lee (playing her husband) calls her “stupid”.  She turns on him quick as a flash, spits in his eye and says, “I [...]

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The Leadership Window

December 15, 2008

I was preparing for a speech recently thinking about how powerful inertia must be in virtually every business.  What besides inertia could explain why so many companies are so far behind the power curve in so many dimensions of their businesses?  For example, I speak to hundreds of CEOs every year and I always ask, [...]

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Saving Your Way to Oblivion

December 7, 2008

In this time of intense cost consciousness, an important caveat seems in order. I’d like to propose a law which I have modestly named Goodman’s Law which states:  When the cost of something is easy to quantify but the benefit is not easy to quantify, it is likely to be eliminated. There are many examples.  [...]

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How to Fire Someone

November 26, 2008

I was asked recently, “How should I fire someone?” I thought others might find my response of value. I’m not going to address this issue in the context of an reduction in force or layoff, but around a performance related issue. In a perfect world you shouldn’t have to fire anyone, they should fire themselves [...]

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Rethinking Energy

November 23, 2008

The current energy debate completely misses a fundamental point. The conventional wisdom is that alternative energy will not blossom until the cost of fossil fuels exceeds the current (or projected in the relatively near future) cost of alternative energy.  As usual, the conventional wisdom contains no wisdom and is merely conventional.  What is completely missing [...]

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Dear President-Elect Obama

November 8, 2008

Congratulations.  Not everyone is thrilled with your election, but boy did we need a break from business as usual at the White House. A couple of thoughts I hope you will find useful. I know you got a lot of support from the unions and there is a bill pending in congress to allow unions [...]

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This Would be a Great Time to Expand Your Business

October 27, 2008

Ok, it looks like we’ve all decided to get together and have a recession.  What to do? Certainly the usual things, conserve cash, look at your capital budget and decide what you can live without for the moment.  Mostly what you want to do is talk to your customers.  The real problem here isn’t that [...]

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What to Do if Your People Have Time on Their Hands

October 27, 2008

If your business is slower and you are finding your people have time on their hands, before you start axing your payroll, causing deep trauma to your company and losing a lot of history and knowledge, put them to work doing the stuff there was never time to do when you were busier.   If you [...]

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