Category: Situational Awareness

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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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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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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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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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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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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Running Across an Open Field: Strategy for Disruptive Technology?

Several weeks ago, as an amateur history buff, I was watching a documentary about World War I.  During one segment the commentator discussed the apparent fact that if soldiers refused to charge out of their trenches across an open field into the teeth of waiting machine guns they would be shot. The brutality of such

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Lessons from the Seventies

At lunch the other day and for whatever reason, the history of the 3M Post It Note became a subject of our conversation.  This technological marvel unveiled in the 1970s is still widely used today. As with other new or disruptive technologies, the ‘sticky note’ was panned at first and for some time.  According to

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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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Millennials Take On Our Increasingly Complex World

Originally published in 2013. On January 1st at 0348 hours a young engineer employed by a service company is trying to address a problem she has encountered with a compressor on a drilling rig in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico.  She graduated from college three years ago and went to work for a large energy

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Command and Control: Is this the Way to Run the modern Railroad?

The managerial model, Command and Control (C&C) dates back to the dawn of humanity when tribal chieftains dictated the behavior of the group.  It survives to this day in many forms.  Typically, one thinks of military operations as the current manifestation of C&C in the western world. According to Wikipedia, by one definition found in

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