Car jack. Nail clippers. Claw Hammer. Teeter-totter. Tweezers. Nutcracker. Scissors. W hat do these devices all have in common? They create leverage, a simple but extraordinary force that increases the power of everything to which it is applied. (Whenever a word is underlined with a dotted line, there is an…
There's nothing more important ... or more challenging ... than the need to balance short-term results with long-range plans. H ow is your organization focused? Are you encouraging long-range thinking or only what happens this week? Do you have the Attention Span of a Mosquito? How many times have we asked Are…
Start your own fires. Begin the burn so your ideas catch fire and spread throughout the organization. I t takes 3 ingredients to start and sustain a fire. Make sure you’ve got all 3 ready to go when you launch your next plan.Fire has been around since before Prometheus stole…
Do you spend too much time juggling projects and tasks you’re unlikely to ever tackle? Maybe it’s because there’s stuff in there not worth doing? S ome people call it re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I say, throw ‘em overboard!In What is the cornerstone of your strategy?, I…
In many instances, finding customers can be easier than keeping customers. T here are a lot of things we can do to get them to show up. But, do we do everything to make sure they keep showing up?You don’t have to look very far to find instances where customer…
Man’s shortcomings have been catalogued since the Garden of Eden, and ever after, philosophers and kings have attempted a definitive list of those iniquities. P ride is often considered the mother of all sins and the one from which all others emanate, so it’s at the top of the list.…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." ~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens' famous opening sentence continues "It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity." …
For most of our life, we’ve heard, “Don’t be a snitch”. In most of the movies we’ve seen, the “snitchers’ don’t fare so well when their comrades discover their double-dealing. D oes this same approach work in organizations?Some of you may be familiar with the famed but controversial West Point…
Everyone makes mistakes. That much we know for a fact, don’t we? S o, why do so many persist in their insistence that they did no wrong?Why are we are so unwilling to admit our mistakes?Despite the lessons that cover the waterfront — from Watergate to the Catholic Church —…