performance

Many times when people walk out of a meeting and look happy it is because they have achieved consensus and can now move forward. I always question if this is a sign of a good outcome or not. While having everyone on the same page and sharing the same vision is without question a good thing, arriving on a strategic decision based on consensus may not.

I’m not a talented writer. In fact, in many ways I’m pretty lousy. I’m a miserable typist—capable of  little better than hunt and peck—only have a vague idea about where to put punctuation and no matter how much I proofread, I always end up with typos.

“There’s a time for work and a time for play.” “Work hard, play hard.” “Once you finish your homework, you can go out and play games.” Most of us were brought up to believe that there is a stark divide between play and productivity.

Do you know why fire engines are red?

When I was a kid, my siblings, cousins, and I used to have fun tripping up on the answer to this riddle (or anti-joke, as it's apparently referred to) about fire engines. Have you ever heard it? It goes like this.

I originally wrote this's post for 360Connext on November 8, 2013. 

What does a consistently great customer experience trump?

You've read a lot of posts about "this trumps that" and "that trumps this." I'm guilty; I wrote one. But let's talk about the customer experience. What does it trump?

Ever run or cycled into a headwind? You have to work a lot harder to make the same progress that normally comes a lot more easily. Conversely, running or riding with the wind at your back is a glorious feeling.

On a recent ride, I had plenty of opportunity to consider how headwinds and tailwinds apply to business as I tried to distract myself from all the huffing and puffing I was doing just to maintain a decent speed. Here’s what I came up with:

There’s a neat article by Reuters discussing how workers’ brains and management practices often work at cross-purposes. They cite, among others, Charles Jacobs, author of the book “Management Rewired,” recently reviewed here. An excerpt of the Reuters piece:

by: Idris Mootee

Human Resources was once a professional practice. Some how something happened and it is not what it was supposed to be. Instead of becoming a business partner of the CEOs and CFOs, they have become irrelevant. When I read about conferences around “strategic HR leadership”, I find it funny. HR today are, for most practical purposes, neither strategic nor leaders. Here ‘s the conference’s mission:

by: Guy Kawasaki

Pontificating, theorizing, and terrorizing abounds these days in tech startups. Here is a simple test to help you figure out if the startup you work for is in trouble. All you have to do is listen to your CEO talk to people for a week and determine if she uses these lines.

by: Jonathan Salem Baskin

Anheuser-Busch last week rejected InBev's acquisition offer, and ran a full-page newspaper ad to explain why.

It seems that its brand is just too valuable.