This Is Just a Test: In a panel conversation this week, one of the panelists noted that a lot of companies, who thought they have solid emergency plans, discovered that they did not. That’s the bad news. Of course, the good news is that for many, the pandemic is a reasonably straightforward way to test our systems without real structural …
Managers: The saying I grew up with was, “Leaders make sure we are doing the right thing. Managers make sure we do it right.” In a modern corporation, the desire is to move leadership to every level of the organization (Intent Based Leadership—IBL). Therefore, managers are being asked to broaden their view to include managing unrelenting change in our internal …
The Test: My wife does a fair amount of baking. I noticed that when she is baking a cake or bread, she will sometimes stick a sharp knife (like a paring knife) or a toothpick into the cake when the timer indicates that the cake is supposed to be “done.” Sometimes, after doing this, she takes the cake out to …
Planning: I’m told that Benjamin Franklin said, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Planning is critical in order to move an organization toward achievement of the vision. In the same way that a map is not the territory, a business plan is not the way the market is or will be at the time of execution. It is our …
Chrystal Ball Many of us have heard about doing a postmortem on projects, initiatives, and business plans. After implementation, we are interested in determining what went right and what went sideways. Perhaps fewer of us have heard about a premortem. In its simplest form, a premortem is planning ahead for a disaster. Those of us who work for or with …
Geek Out {Geek Speak} Warning, a bit of geek-speak here. Don’t panic, it’s not going to be that painful! Back during the times of my undergraduate education, we often talked about the theoretical issue with a stimulus causing overshoot in a second-order system. The image on the right shows that phenomenon in a rough form. The equation below is a …
Climate Change Now there’s an interesting topic! Of course, there are at least two camps on the climate change thing. One is that the climate is changing and that mankind is causing or at least exacerbating the change. A second camp is that yes, the climate is changing but it’s a natural phenomenon and mankind is not only not causing …
Little Correlation In my experience, sales forecasts and actual sales have little correlation. This topic came up recently as several colleagues, and I discussed what appears to be a panic push for more sales activity from the sales team. The trouble is, many are still clinging to the old model of sales, and most of us agreed that the model doesn’t …
Like so many folks our age, my wife and I purchased a “starter” home a year or so after I was established in my profession. At the time, that profession was electronics engineering. The home was a very well built New England home, but small and old. It was a Cape Cod style home. It needed work, lots of work. The representative …
I am privileged to be working on a team planning a rather large event. There are myriad details to which we must pay attention. Lucky for me, my involvement is focused on the overall structure and the content of the all day event. Others, with a great deal of experience, are responsible for the logistics. Still, this is a daunting …