Category: Project

What a Turkey

How many times have you seen someone do something incredibly stupid, even risking their life?  What a turkey! Story goes that Benjamin Franklin proposed the turkey as the American National Bird.  Almost 250 years later, this bird often carries a different connotation.  Often maligned, this tasty fowl has its day once a year.  Even two are

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And Just Like That!

Often attributed to the movie character, Forest Gump the title phrase can be interpreted as an abrupt change in one’s life. The past few years have brought significant changes to many of us.  Illness, job change, moving to a new location, kids out of school and so it goes.  Disruption can be intimidating, yet it

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Are We There Yet?

Who among us have not uttered these words as a child or for those who are parents heard them?  Usually in the context of a trip in an automobile, but perhaps now in our journey to the next . . . Society is on a number of interconnected journeys.  Most visible is the Covid-19 transit

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Crisis Management: The Need for Internal Consistency

Attributed to former US Senator and Governor Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee, “Trust is built with consistency.”  Moreover, from statistics we know that Internal Consistency, “measures whether several items that propose to measure the same general construct produce similar scores.”  The follow on definition statistical reliability, “is the consistency of a set of measurements or measuring

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Are Your DEI Wheels Spinning?

Originally published as a LinkedIn article on July 6, 2021, this updated version is reprinted here with the permission of the author.  Links to relevant sources are added. Lately, many LinkedIn posts bemoan the state of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The seeming slow take up of great ideas. Some argue that DEI initiatives are no

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Roadmap to Decision Making In the ‘Smart’ Era

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” — Napoleon Bonaparte Volumes have been written on decision-making and this pundit has offered his share of insight and comment on the subject as well.  Some of our comments regard the appropriateness of the human intercession in electronic decision making.  Others

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ESG Implementation–Strong v Weak Revisited

“A healthy corporation acts on the interests of its stakeholders and customers” — Ari Melber, Journalist Currently, organizations are being implored to implement Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) driven business models.   Proponents even suggest that investment in organizations that do not have this imprimatur should be avoided or even divested. However, one wonders what has

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Post Covid-19 Operational Performance

Not the So-Called New Normal   The light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel may not be the train many still believe.  Populations are being inoculated at very high rates.  Moreover, there is ample evidence in my metropolitan area that the general population no longer believes or adheres to the ‘advice of experts.’  This

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Open Sesame

A Year of Leadership–Or Not! On March 2, 2021 the Governor of Texas announced its 100% reopening–effectively proclaiming an end of the Covid-19 crisis.  Needless to say in our hyper-partisan world, many widely decried the decision and even accused him or bringing physical death to the state population. Mississippi announced a similar rollback of virus

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Teaming Safely

“For safety is not a gadget but a state of mind”   Second only to the basic need for food, water and what is required to sustain physical life, safety and security are the next step in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  In other words one cannot love or feel belonging or achieve a level of

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I Didn’t Do It, He Did — I Didn’t Do It Either, Someone Else Did

“When converted into productive thought and action, the energy it takes to blame, shame, and game is enough to launch anyone into heights of real success and happiness.”  – Charles F Glassman Entrée It is not often that an entire geographically LARGE state loses power and water simultaneously.  Now we know it can happen!  Welcome

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Is Your Remote Team Aligned?

Recently, my team and I were tasked with a delicate decision making process.  Due to its nature and signatory level, team members were only authorized to explore and present options.  The final decision was mine alone.  Our project governance model clearly defined this decision making process. One day I received a call from remote members

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What Is Your Opinion Based On?

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” ~ W. Edwards Deming Data and its use is a very hot topic these days.  Significant controversy exists over decision making regarding Covid-19 strategies and the quality or lack there of the data supporting government policies.  Scientific disagreements and so called ‘academic arguments‘ are appropriate, especially

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Passing of the Greatest Generation

Salute Ladies and Gentlemen! December 7, 1941 was 79 years ago.  A twenty-year-old at the time would be 99 today, almost a centenarian.  My father is 98 and not likely to see 2021. We live in a technological age, and despite the pandemic it is relatively easy living for many.  No one is asking our

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Covid-19 Positive: Telemedicine Kicked into High Gear

Crisis Drives Change In 2001 this writer approached the Houston medical community, post tropical storm Allison which flooded many basements in the Houston Medical Center with the loss of experimental data and other records.  We proposed the development of an Internet based solution to hold and manage medical records of all types.  The response to

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How Dare You!!

Lessons in Leadership—how dare you put young people in jeopardy for loss of life or failures they will live with the rest of their life? As we end Veteran’s Week, we are reminded of President Herbert Hoover’s comment, “Older men declare war.  But it is the youth that must fight and die.”  Hoover was president

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Linear Metrics in Non-Linear Times?

“If it disagrees with experiment, its wrong” Our point today is to assess how behavioral decisions are being made today; not about the politics of one candidate or the other. The race to the US presidential election has entered its final phase.  As of this writing, establishment wisdom holds the conventional candidate as the presumptive

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Can Never Be Proved Right!

“If it disagrees with experiment, its wrong”—Richard Feynman Full Disclosure: this author holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics with a minor in Mathematics.  My doctoral dissertation developed a new Game Theory based practical solution. For those unfamiliar with this discipline, check out the movie Beautiful Mind or the work of John von Neumann

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They Blinded Me with Science

Thoughts from a Scientist Full Disclosure: this author holds an undergraduate degree in Physics with a minor in Mathematics.  My doctoral dissertation developed a new Game Theory based practical solution.  For those unfamiliar with this discipline, check out the movie Beautiful Mind or the work of John von Neumann who is also the father of

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Pressure Differential

Managing Tension at the Margin As September draws to a close the Houston metropolitan area has dodged two hurricane bullets; Laura and Beta.  Fingers crossed that this very active season draws to an early and quiet close.  The beauty and downside of the 24/7 news and weather reporting is that lay people learn more jargon

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Radar: Technology Game Changer!

The battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 with over 200,000 individuals involved is possibly the largest naval battle in history.  Hopefully, one of the last ones. In that battle, the submarine USS Darter initially detected (on radar) the Japanese task force early on October 23.  Other US naval vessels spotted that armada shortly thereafter on

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Data Bias: The Latent or Unobserved

In statistics a Latent Variable can be defined as, ‘a variable inferred from observed or measured data.’ Its analysis is often used psychology, economics, and predictive modeling.  This author used Structural Equation Models (SEM) in his 1996 doctoral dissertation, Cross Cultural Negotiations Between Japanese and American Businessmen: A Systems Analysis (Exploratory Study). From that abstract,

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The Tyranny of the Blank Sheet of Paper

We have all had that, “Where do I start” moment?  Confronted with the NEW, sometimes the task seems daunting.  In a recent conversation, a colleague and I were discussing an adult training program.  The subject centered on how to help students jump start a creative flow. We humans are fond of using so called cheat

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Home for a While?

It appears that issues associated with the Covid-19 pandemic will remain for some time.  Hopefully, the emerging vaccines will be readily available in the coming months.  That said, one of the disruptive changes that may codify is Working from Home. In our March 16, 2020 piece, Home Base During a Crisis: ‘get up, clean up

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Next or Back to the Future?

Current events may have us all longing for the ‘good ole days.’  Sounds good on paper but not something any of us can realize.  Nostalgia aside we all must continue to slog on.  It is after all a one-way trip and there is no Delorean to help us. The Challenge of Change People change all

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man with burning stick while moving in darkness

Agility, Resiliency, Sustainability

In a recent Harvard Business Review, I was struck by an article about Best Practices for small businesses.  From that piece, “To successfully navigate Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) challenges like Covid-19, family business leaders can look to best practices from another organization that specializes in VUCA situations—the U.S. military’s Special Operations Forces (SOF)”

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Disrupting Disruption!

Let me understate, ‘working in the petroleum sector has always been challenging.’  Now we find ourselves in a major economic downturn caused by a Covid-19 pandemic and aided and abetted by an international crude oil price war. Once again, many thousands have lost their livelihood and possibly not return to a similar job as the

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Tumultuous Decade: What’s Next for Oil & Gas?

April 20, 2020 marks the tenth anniversary of one of the most horrific incidents in the upstream oil and gas sector—Deepwater Horizon.  In addition to the tragic loss of eleven lives, the sector forever changed.  Immediate restructuring of federal oversight resulted in the establishment of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and their

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to . . . Innovation!

The anecdote, ‘A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to’ wherever manifests itself for a number of paths.  One interpretation; we often end up somewhere other than expected. We find ourselves at another historical precipice.  Some suggest Armageddon, the end of life as we know it and the emergence of a new normal.  This writer

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covid-19

Is Big Data Analysis Being Applied?

We have been hearing for years how, Big Data Analysis will help us optimize our businesses and generate performance at levels here to for never hear of.  So where is it now? Two major sources for data on the Covid-19 virus are Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  This is

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