This weekend I was surprised with the scene of a little donkey pushing a basketball all over a big pasture with his nose and forefeet. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Even a donkey seems to know how to play and enjoy where he is. Do you?

When Bayer bought Monsanto they also inherited over 13,000 lawsuits alleging that Roundup weed killer caused cancer. One couple just got a 2 billion dollar jury award. Any deal can come with a side order of headaches whether a big acquisition, a key hire, or the...

Why do flight attendants close the full overhead bins when people are still boarding? Later boarding passengers will inevitably open all the closed bins as they gamely search for a place for their bag. I think the flight attendants close them because they have already...

Vulnerability is a popular buzzword in leadership circles. Being vulnerable is presented as a choice, but the truth is that leaders are already vulnerable in the sense that people already know their leader is not perfect and likely does not have all the answers. Is it...

Organizational Calorie Counting Simply “cutting costs” is the same as people saying they are going to starve themselves to lose 20 pounds and “get healthy.” The scale is only one dimension of health. Body composition, stability, range of motion, endurance, etc. all...

The head of the Arizona Department of Corrections is getting criticism because the department cannot seem to be able to keep the doors of prison inmates locked. Keeping an inmate in their cell would seem to be the key aspect of the job. While leaders have a host of...

Most leaders understand that they should not jump in and DO. (That is the basic form of the exercise of restraint known as delegation and empowerment.) What leaders should also restrain themselves from is THINKING for their teams and direct reports. This latter lack...

As part of the Boeing MAX safety saga, it has been reported that the input of seasoned pilot test groups may have been minimized in an effort to streamline the development process. Not having these smartest people in the room may have allowed the seriousness and...

What Leaders Really Want: Investible Opportunities Leaders often say they want more ideas from their organization. Ideas are actually plentiful. What leaders really want are investible opportunities. Investible opportunities are ideas into which the organization is...

I like Fridays. Birds, however, seem to have the right of it. Whatever the day, they sing a little song with the rising of the sun and then go look for something to eat.  They don’t get hung up on the label of the day. I have yet to observe a bird suffering from a...

Why do some people lean in to read a name tag when they meet people at an event? I think it is because they want to know what you are before they know they know who you are. Color me an old-fashioned adult, but the best way to figure that out is by actually talking to...

Government spy agencies and the military rely on intelligence that they gather from a distance (by monitoring telecommunications or via satellites). They also depend on intelligence they gather from people on the ground. While leaders should look at the bigger...

The power of persuasion is inexhaustible. That is because persuasion includes an acknowledgement of the self-interests of others. The powers of coercion, by contrast, are finite. One can only expect so much compliance, no matter how many rules or policies are put into...

My pen ran out of ink so I went out and bought more refills. Back at my office, I realized I had bought plenty of refills the last time I ran out of ink. I had just assumed I did not have it. Why do we assume we “don’t have it?” I see too many leaders assuming they...

A lot of vanity licenses plates are really funny and clever. Conversely, a good number of them are inscrutable. These seem like they are an inside joke for the owner of the car. If our job is to communicate (like leaders do), then we need to make sure our messages are...

Sometimes a little help goes a long way. Help while traveling makes the road warrior's life more tolerable. The flight attendant who finds space for overhead luggage helps. Good signage at the airport even an idiot can follow helps. As a leader try to find one area...

Why is graffiti so common? I saw a Native American Indian monument covered with graffiti, some of which was dated as early as 1873. I think graffiti is so common because people want to be remembered and recognized. As a leader are you just marking up the place while...

In the crater of an extinct volcano in the Arizona high desert and for 45 years, James Turrell has been working on a a massive art project. Most people were clueless as to what he was creating. Just recently plans are coming together to allow access to the general...

After the Notre Dame fire, the French government announced a design competition for the ruined steeple —and sparked a fiery debate about tradition and change. Leaders, too, are often debating what to change and what to keep. They ask themselves “Should I stick with...

Productivity stagnation is one of the great mysteries of the recent US economy. Despite more technology, productivity is still stubbornly low. Economists may debate the reasons, but there is no doubt that at an organizational level, leaders themselves are a key piece...

At its essence, an organization is an idea machine. It will thrive or languish, live or die, according to the quality of its ideas. Is your organization a good idea machine, a bad idea machine, or meandering somewhere below its potential? Is it generating the kinds of...

Many people are getting excited about the Game of Thrones final season. Some of the most popular characters have been “skin changers”—wargs. In the GOT universe, a warg is someone who can project their minds into the minds of animals like wolves. It is a useful power,...

Many organizations have things, but that does not always mean that they benefit from these things. An organization can have a performance system, but leaders are just fill in the blanks without much guidance or thought to help people develop. An organization can have...

There are a million ways to feather a nest and a million ways to make a dollar. Some swallows thrive in mud nests under bridges. Cactus wrens thrive in saguaro nests. Burrowing owls thrive in, well, burrows. Those are the conditions that suit them the best. It would...

If you are waiting to innovate in your organization until you come across that “best-thing-since-sliced-bread” idea, you may be waiting a long time and missing a lot of opportunities.

There are some things that can be deferred with little to no consequence: lawn chores, washing a car, missing a recycle day, etc. There are some things that are advantageous to defer. You might defer income to a future tax year for tax planning. BUT there are a host...

“Who” is the lazy man’s root cause. The senior leader of a company that deals with landfills related being rebuffed by the leader of an environmental non-profit with “I don’t want to talk to you. You are the guys that throw stuff in landfills.” Really? Scapegoats are...

Want to see where you are hitting the wall? Take everything on your to-do list, estimate the time to complete, then schedule on your calendar right there next to all your meetings and commute times. How does it look? Are you overbooked? Double-booked? Triple-booked?...

“Dad, you got fat.” So said my loving daughter after a regrettable “bulking” strategy gone wrong. (She also helpfully poked me in the middle, just in case I missed her point.) Outside perspective can sting, but if it comes from a place of real concern and trust,...

Aren’t you glad people have done “silly” or “risky” things? I am glad John Denver was proud to be a country boy. I am glad Jim Henson played with puppets. I am glad Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga teamed up for A Star is Born. I am glad people like Brene Brown take on...

Windows of opportunity are not propped open. Organizations must not only be quick to identify opportunities, but be quick to exploit opportunities.

From my local country radio station: “That last song was from Kenny Chesney as we continue to bring you thirty minutes commercial-free music. This commercial-free radio provided by XYZ Auto Dealerships. Now back to the music.” That’s commercial free?? People know what...

Don't rely on innovation to paint over rotten problems. For a house to get a proper new paint job, it requires a good power wash and scraping away of the old paint. If this step is skipped, the paint job will be less than ideal. In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of...

Children and dogs give us the gift of reminders about being excited in the moment. Children can literally roll on the ground with joy about some great gift at Christmas. They can get their elbows up to really dig in to get a giant scoop of ice cream into their bowl....

Despite public rants and sound-bytes to the contrary, business is chock-full of good, productive citizens that care about both profits and community. Those working in free-enterprise organizations should be proud of the degree to which they meet the needs of customers...

I don’t like much TV programming, but I do like Forged in Fire. On the show, contestants have to forge ancient weapons like swords and axes. The job of one of the judges is to see how well the weapons work against a dummy. The judge, Doug Marcaida, has developed a...

The FBI announced charges in a college admissions bribery scandal involving a juicy array of celebrity moms and dads. While there were certainly crimes involved, is that really the highest and best use of law enforcement resources? Does the FBI’s Boston regional...

I read recently about a transplant surgeon who, himself, was the recipient of a heart transplant. The case is notable, because the heart came from a donor who was known to have hepatitis. This doctor had long advocated that patients be open to receiving hearts from...

Some people have the habit of up talking. Up talking occurs when a person’s inflection goes up at the end of the sentence. It makes a statement sound like a question. A different kind of condition happens in meetings. You might call it down talking.   People talk...

It has been reported that power lines were a key factor in the devastating Camp fire in California. It has been further reported that an upgrade of that line was planned and postponed yearly since 2013. Evidently the issue was clear enough to warrant attention yearly,...

It is good to have traditions. I am grateful for the traditions of Christmas. I love football season. I like the movie awards season. I am looking forward to it warming up enough to get back in the pool. These are, for me, great examples of continuity. But there are...

There are four primary areas to add value in an organization: deliver on results effectively in your team/unit, develop people, raise the performance bar, and develop/support strategy. Pick one and move.

Coherent, consistent, raising of the bar (innovation) is a great cure for frustration. Frustration is that feeling that things could be better than they are. Innovation gets people working to bring a new desired future state into the present. The best leaders and...

I often see organizations that recycle the same people or stories to show how innovative they are or what a great place they are in which to work. If it seems stale to me I can only imagine what it feels like for the employees themselves. Keep things fresh. Really...

People don’t hate meetings, they hate wasting time. If you are attending a meeting and unclear as to what the objective is, ask. If you are calling the meeting, have a good reason and tell people up front. Too many meetings are simply vehicles to share information and...

I was at a coffee shop when I saw a father valiantly trying to get his young children to eat their apples. Trouble was that the staff had helpfully given them samples of chocolate chip cookies. The kids were predictably perplexed (and anguished) that they could not...

One of my good clients (you know who you are!) clued me into a song on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood’s movie, The Mule. The song by Toby Keith is titled “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” I think the title alone offers much and more on having a healthy relationship with...

I recall my accounting professor being fond of saying “you learn accounting through the end of a pencil.” The lessons my sailing instructor taught me over three days of instruction crystallized within twenty minutes of me sailing without his guidance. (They say there...

During performance review season, most organizations encourage setting “personal” or “professional” goals along with other business goals for a period. But developmental goals are business goals too. Don’t think of these as “icing on the cake” or “nice to have.” Think...

Many leaders confuse thinking strategically with thinking long-term. Strategic thinking is not about time, but appropriateness of activity. An organization can extrapolate tactical activities over a long time horizon. Many (to their detriment) would call this setting...

“Set a goal, do the work, and enjoy the ride,” says Denise Mueller-Korenek who set world record of 184MPH on a BIKE. Yes, on a BIKE. Move fast but do so with enthusiasm. THAT’s alacrity.

China recently landed a rover on the dark side of the moon and NASA’s New Horizons sent back pictures of a rock 4 billion miles away. What are you aiming for today that would be a stand-out accomplishment?

My crystal ball is as fuzzy as anyone else’s, but I did want to share some trends that I believe are worth paying attention to in 2019. Happy prognosticating! Adoption of EV (electric vehicles) will start to be driven by features and not just by philosophy. Early...

The play “Faustus” was written over 400 years ago and is the basis for the term Faustian bargain. Dr. Faustus is the poster boy for deals with the Devil. Tellingly, in the story, the Devil asserts that people create their own hells. It is worth considering to what...

Guard your minutes or you will lose your moments: moments to make a difference, work on the big things, discern key trends, savor an experience, make a correction, and a host of other potential opportunities. Junk food is defined as food empty of nutritional content....

Most coaching for leader or workplace effectiveness is focused on the mental aspects: developing perspective, emotional intelligence, projecting positivity, etc.—all worthy topics. However, there are also physical aspects that should not be ignored and that cannot be...

Do not just soak up irritations, problems or emotions of others…

People (all with good intentions) try to solve too much. They try to solve everything with one grand, elegant strategy when sometimes we just need a net and some focus to get rid of the garbage….

Often when we see this phrase (especially on LinkedIn) it means “I’m looking for work,” but we should all be on the lookout for new opportunities to learn and grow.

People confuse fun facts with pertinent facts all the time. It is a bad habit.

A good deal of success is managing conditions so that conditions do not manage us.