As children we learned to look both ways at railroad crossings; the school bus driver would sometimes wait for an eternity for us to be quiet. Making sure to do everything she could to keep us safe from an coming train, our leader looked carefully and listened intently for danger signals.
Your workplace may be sending [...]
Recently I ran across a letter I wrote but never sent. It was addressed to an industry acquaintance I worked with periodically. I wasn’t sure she would be able to “hear” what I was trying to say; I imagined that my letter might just make the situation worse. So I never sent the letter.
Here was [...]
Transmissions, pistons, and filters rarely get top billing on car commercials but everyone knows that a failure in one of these can quickly require a tow truck. Service departments organize their maintenance of your complicated vehicle by inspecting each of the important systems regularly. Just like your car’s systems work together, your work group harnesses [...]
While the term custodian often refers to the person who cleans and maintains a building, custodian can also mean one who safeguards and protects any company asset. For example, a custodian bank holds equities and bonds in safekeeping, all the while collecting and disseminating information about the condition of those assets to interested others. For [...]
One of the most pervasive productivity-sapping workplace habits I see is something I call “truth reluctance.” Lots of people know something should be said, but no one is willing to step up and get the issue out in the open.
Here’s an example:
Susie’s job was “reorganized” in a merging of two departments three years ago. But [...]
I’ve said before that “Feedback is the food work teams live on.” If a group can’t give (and receive) honest performance feedback, productivity gains are just about impossible. While there is a simple model you can use for giving feedback effectively, there are, in my experience, four types of people who will have a hard [...]
In over twenty years of working with clients in various industries, I’ve seen some of the same problems pop up over and over. This blog will allow me to share some of those problems (and their potential solutions) with a wider audience. Feel free to comment here, whether you agree or disagree with my conclusions.Some [...]
