Prisons are a little more complicated form of punishment than most people realize. Prisons use physical walls to separate inmates from each other and society. Prisoners are not just socially isolated, they’re separated from people they trust. Prisons are mental punishment. Keeping a person in isolation isn’t just about keeping…
94. Are you Lucky?
I worked with a group of people once who each pooled $5 every week to buy lottery tickets. They were happy talking and dreaming about what they would do if they won, but they never won the big one. They hoped they’d get lucky, but never did. It’s true that…
89. Are you safe?
Employee engagement is not a “soft” topic. It’s hard work. Being nice is not enough. There are plenty of friendly, agreeable leaders with deeply unhappy teams, who have failed to deliver results. One reason for those “nice failures” is that friendliness and fairness alone don’t create engagement. Engagement doesn’t just…
79. The Agile contradiction
We all want to be Agile. Why not? Who doesn’t want to be flexible, fast & responsive? If you value flexibility & speed, why not apply it to everything? Create a new silver bullet and give it a name. Call it “Agile”. The trouble is that righteous adjectives can become…
73. Do you go with the Flow?
You can’t change everything. Nor would you wish to. Vision and objectives are critical to success but not every objective needs to be about change. The things that are already built are important too. The foundations we stand on. The water we swim in. Not just in a static sense,…
9. Practice makes Perfect
There are 2 things that Mozart and Messi have in common. Both showed genius from an early age. Both also worked and sweated and practiced for years before the world saw that talent. A professional orchestra musician practices 2-3 hours a day minimum, plus actual performances of course. No professional…