Want to hear a trick that might reduce your stress? I’ve both read the book and seen the movie The Martian, and I think both are great! But there’s one part that really stands out, that really resonates with me. At one point the protagonist is talking about solving problems, and says something along the […]
Lately, I’ve found that I’ve been using a particular analogy a lot. The analogy is, let’s say your customers are race car teams. NASCAR, Formula One, Monster Truck, whatever. But the point is, a race car team, at the enterprise scale, needs many things working together. A race car team is not just a car. […]
Have you heard of the Hawthorne Effect? It’s based on a study done at the Hawthorne Works factory in the 1920s and 1930s, where researchers tried making changes to workers’ environments to try and increase productivity. Things like making lights brighter or dimmer, making it hotter or colder, etc. What they found was there was […]
As the year comes to an end, many people (myself included) typically take this time to reflect on the past year and plan for the next. I was looking back at my 2023 and realized something interesting. I have 134 posts here on this blog, stretching back to August of 2017. That’s an average of […]
In both my professional career and personal life, I’ve found myself working very frequently with SOWs and contracts. (Note that in this blog post, I will use the terms “SOW” and “contract” interchangeably.) But there was one specific time that I really gained some specific insight into this area. I was involved with an HOA, […]
There’s a personality trait I’ve seen with high-quality leaders, a soft skill if you will. I’m not really sure what it is called, but I heard a person one time refer to it as “bandwidth”. But that’s not quite right. Let me try and explain it. As a senior business leader, you might have dozens […]
So I like measurements and KPIs as much as the next business manager but I am always concerned about being too overly-reliant on metrics, especially along the lines of whether the right things are being measured and optimized. It’s not even whether or not you are measuring the right things, it’s also understanding that when […]
Want to hear a secret about me? Come closer, I’ll share it. Ready? I am TERRIFIED of flying. What’s funny about it is that I fly a lot, but still on every flight I’m gripping the armrest with white knuckles, fearing for my life. And yet intellectually I know I’m safe. I’ve studied a lot […]
When you are a startup or a smaller business, it can be easier to tell whether you are actually making money. I recall working with a lot of small business owners and many of them literally were of the mindset, “Is there money in the checking account at the end of the month? Is it […]
I’ve observed something interesting lately, and to be honest it has me a little confused. When tasks or projects are being established and assigned, I’m seeing people not wanting to work on a project or task when asked. “I don’t have any experience in that area,” they say. “I’ve never done it before.” The reason […]
