Tag: conditions

What We’ve Got Here is Failure to Communicate!!

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw The 1967 movie Cool Hand Luke, popularized the term, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”  The American Film Institute lists this statement as number 11 out of the top 100 movie quotes.  The basis of this

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Sun Sets in the West: Science or Commentary?

One newscaster recently used the metaphor of the sun setting in the west as settled science so contrary views were not newsworthy.  His argument–Fairness is Over Rated!  What?  One wonders whether this is true for those who believe the world is round or for those in the Flat Earth Society? Yet most political commentary and

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Why Corporate Initiatives Fail

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, one definition of initiative is. “A new plan or action to improve something or solve a problem.”  In corporate parlance this often translates into yet another short-term and often politically correct effort to demonstrate forward motion/social citizenship.  Often forgotten faster than the evening news cycle as new searches for performance

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ESG Explained

According to Investopedia, “Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s operations that socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments.”  Definitions of the three components are pretty straightforward: Environmental–Generally refers to the stewardship of the planet and how organizations facilitate that responsibility. Social–Facilitating organizational responsibility to the global

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THE SCIENCE: The Reason We Need STEM

Almost every day, we hear that “The Science” says . . .  We are told Covid-19 and Climate Change are based on The Science and as such we must accept that expert analyses as ‘settled.’  Then something changes and once more the science police demand we accept their new interpretation. The near-term result: confusion and

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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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Its the Heart

“A good, quick, small team can beat a big, slow team any time.” — Paul William “Bear” Bryant, legendary college football coach In the early 1990s my former wife and I, both avid sailors decorated our boat for the local Christmas Boat Lane Parade.  While we had some help, most of the work was performed by the

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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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How Bored Are You? – Adding Value During the Pandemic

A friend of mine sent me this uncited picture, so my apologies to the originator as I cannot give you the rightful credit deserved.  If you see this, let me know and I will update this blog. We are all enduring 2020 in our own way.  Sometimes positive but often negative.  Battling my own 2020

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Lessons in Servant Leadership: What Did You Say?

Watch almost any media talk show and the interviewer will often interrupt the guest trying to answer the question just posed.  This is such a common phenomenon that it is accepted behavior perhaps driven by ratings that come from on-air confrontation.  It is part of the culture! Why ask the question if you’re only going

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Want – Like – Need

Years ago, as part of a never-ending series of company reorganizations, a team of our change management consultants headed to the ‘field’ to interview users.  Upon their return, they presented an extensive list of technology investments deemed necessary to remain competitive. Their list focused on technology and not business concerns.  Wondering, I asked who they

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Systemic Reasoning Errors: Stink’en Think’en

The April 13-14, 2019 edition of the Wall Street Journal featured an opinion piece by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr., Russiagate and the Media’s News Denial.  The author makes the point, “Judgement is teachable.  Long ago, in relation to the Enron debacle, I pointed to the work of Harvard’s Max Bazerman and Northwestern’s David Messick, who

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I Hate These Things: Why Does This Always Happen to Me?

We have long argued that people will change if they understand the new idea/technology value proposition—what’s in it for me?  For some, this question is more difficult to answer than others. Moreover, we are all stuck!  This age of digitalization may pass a few ‘off the grid’ hermits by, but for the rest of us

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Excellent Behaviors: Assessing Relationships in the Operational Excellence Ecosystem

One of the hot business buzzwords of 2017 is “Operational Excellence.” It has been the subject for many pundits, including this one. In October and November we published a two part series, Assuring Operational Excellence from Contractors and Their Subcontractors through BTOES Insights. Each part included a link to additional information. The October edition featured

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