Antony Ladd was recently referred to me by a trusted colleague. So Antony and I got together and came to know each other a bit. He’s got a unique view of what’s going on here in the U.S. He is from the UK. As we discussed his situation, it became clear that he is a very senior executive with a great deal of operational experience. He is amused by the “deer in the headlight” look of many American business executives these days.
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Economy, Leadership, Management, Markets, New Normal, Opinion
WARNING: Geek-speak is about to happen in this blog and it’s not really about leadership (at least not directly). I think this is more about catharsis than it is about anything else, yet some of you may be amused by the trials and tribulations of a died-in-the-wool technologist, suffering at the hands of technology.
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Growing Edges, Opinion, Technology, Time Management
A colleague was complaining that “Obama is bashing business” and it wasn’t fair. He plans on punishing those who don’t support business by “voting the %^$*#&’s out of office.” I don’t see it that way. What I see is that business owners and C-suite folks need to think about this a bit more. Here’s why. Successful politicians are successful because they READ (as opposed to LEAD) the public. Rarely will a politician last if s/he gets too far out in front of the people.
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Communications, Leadership, Management, Opinion
Depending on your point of view, we in the USA are either cruelly over taxed or don’t pay our fair share of Federal Taxes. The TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party crew thinks we are over taxed. I like to make sure I take advantage of all the tax breaks I can find, but in the end, I’m grateful for the fact that we earn enough income to have to pay taxes. My spouse and I also expressed liking to actually sign the checks to pay our bills. No on-line checking for us. How crazy is that?
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Growing Edges, Opinion, Personal, Taxes
I admit to feeling inadequate. It seems as though I’m supposed to be able to multi-task, according to what I’m told by many people and according to what I observe others doing. But I can’t really. I try sometimes, but it just doesn’t work for me. I am not interested in “chatting” if I’m watching a television show (I rarely watch TV, it’s got to be something of immediate interest to me). I get annoyed if I’m deep in the middle of a spreadsheet, writing a blog post or wrestling a PC problem to the ground and the phone rings. I can’t read and also listen to music or radio or podcast.
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Communication, Growing Edges, Leadership, Management, Multi-tasking
I’ve been thinking about the Toyota “sudden acceleration” problem. Back in 1984 Charles Perrow published a book entitled “Normal Accidents: Living With High Risk Technologies” (ISBN 0-691-00412-9). Few lay people seem to understand the theory. A system accident is an “unanticipated interaction of multiple failures”[1] in a complex system. This complexity can either be technological or organizational, and often has elements of both. In today’s world, we are seeing complexity increase exponentially: from the cars we drive to the devices we use to listen to music or view video, and to the way we gather information and news, our world has become incredibly complex. That complexity in itself creates more complexity for us.
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Accident, Communication, Crisis, Leadership, Management
“We,” that is the royal we, are apparently in no mood to put up with politicians, greedy executives and big bankers on Wall Street. Main street, as the saying goes, “hates” Wall Street. No leader of big organizations (including religious and other not-for-profits) or small business owner is exempt from this disgust with the rich and powerful. How did all this happen?
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Communications, Ethics, Opinion, Shaping the Corporate Culture, Trust
The “habit” developed from my early years working at large corporations. They shut down the whole week between December 25th and January 2nd. One reason was that maintenance had to be performed on the manufacturing machines. Another reason was that customers were shut down for factory maintenance. It was a great week even if I had to go into work, because almost no one else was there. Peace. Quiet. Concentration. A wonderful chance to reflect on the year past and the year to come.
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Communication, Growing Edges, Work ethic
