An important management lesson was written over 2600 years ago. It’s a story about a shepherd boy who gives fake warnings about a wolf attacking his sheep to get attention from the villagers. Unfortunately his fake reports prove fatal later when an actual wolf attacks him and the villagers don’t…
10. What you see is what you get.
Napoleon Bonaparte, arguably one of the most successful military leaders in history, owed part of his success on the battlefield to his ability to choose a place to fight. When he could, he fought where he could see the whole battlefield, and then positioned himself so that he could see.…
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…
8. Fake News!
Fake News is not limited to Media Barons or Political leaders. We generate it ourselves every day inside ourselves and our organizations. It’s a part of being human. Shinkansen drivers in Japan have special protection against Fake News. They carry it with them in a leather briefcase. Their briefcase contains…
7. You are what you Aim for.
There are few things more polarizing in an organization than target setting. I don’t mean that leaders are divided on the merits of objectives, though they often are. I mean that the whole subject of targets is what separates leaders from their teams. There’s a theme in leadership literature that…
6. Trial and Error
Everybody wants Innovation If there’s one theme that dominates Leadership writing, its the idea of having the courage to step into new territory, to try something new. If you’re not Innovative you’re not doing the right thing – and you’re definitely not cool. This positioning of Innovation as a “moral…
5. The Most Important Decision…
You’re driving down a crowded road at high speed. It’s dark, it’s wet, you don’t know the area and you’re looking for a hotel to stay for the night. Up ahead there’s a busy T-intersection and you have to make a choice: turn left or turn right. Straight ahead is…
4. Traffic Control
I was lucky to learn to drive in a place and time where heavy traffic was something you only saw on TV. My driving skills were honed going fast on open roads, or occasionally late at night on suburban streets, not grinding through heavy traffic. It was not until I…
3. Why DMAIC doesn’t work
Did you know that Organic Tomatoes are less good for you than non-Organic? The reason has nothing to do with the chemicals or whatever may or not be in different tomatoes, but with the fact that Organic Tomatoes are at least 40% more expensive than non-Organic. This causes demand to…
2. Houston, we have a problem
On April 13th 1970, as NASA’s Apollo 13 spacecraft sped towards the Moon, an explosion in an oxygen tank should have ended the flight and the lives of the crew. It didn’t end the flight, the astronauts survived & returned to earth because the “Problem” was solved. NASA succeeded in…