Last week, my business partner Moss Jackson and I finished up a leadership development program that we had created for a long-time client. The program brought together senior leaders from different business units and corporate functions within the company, who worked in small teams on a variety of challenges. All but one of the challenges […]
Tag Archives: teamwork
The Power of the First Follower
“Out-of-Control” Controls
How often do you encounter a situation where the attempt to “control” something has itself gotten out of control? Usually it is the result of an overly zealous attempt to “protect” someone or something from the bad behavior or bad results of someone else’s behavior [whether that behavior was ill-intended or otherwise]. The Sarbannes-Oxley legislation of […]
Fathers and Sons – Part Two
In my previous post, “Fathers and Sons – Part One,” I wrote about PGA professional Russ Cochran and his son, Ryan. They weren’t the only father/son player/caddie duo that I followed during the 2012 Toshiba Classic. On Sunday, March 18th, the final day of the tournament, I was the walking scorer for the trio of […]
Fathers and Sons – Part One
For the past eight years I have worked as a volunteer Walking Scorer at the PGA Champions Tour Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country Club. It has given me the opportunity to meet, talk with and observe at close hand over fifty Champions Tour golfers, including major championship winners such as Gary Player, Lee Trevino, […]
The Tale of the Peacock’s Tail
Have you ever wondered why peacocks developed such long, beautiful tails? It’s simple evolutionary biology. Peahens show a reference for large-tailed peacocks. In the earliest days, this made a lot of sense. A showy tail was a marker of a good, healthy male who knew how to feed himself — a good breeding partner, and […]
Consequences and Accountability
Strategic Business Analysis is Messy Business
A while back I asked my son-in-law, who works for Cisco in San Jose, what kind of job he would pick if he were able to choose from anything available at his company. He told me that he’d really like to work on business strategy, maybe performing strategic business analysis. Everyone who has been subjected […]
Sometimes BS Isn’t All Bad, Especially When Dealing with SMAPs
No, I’m not writing about bulls**t. I’m writing about an approach to problem solving that my friend and colleague, Alan Engelstad, has dubbed “Benevolent Skepticism.” [Hence the somewhat misleading “BS” tag in the title of this post. I hope it worked to get your attention.] SMAPs are Solutions-Masquerading-as-Problems, but more on that later. Benevolent skepticism […]
In God We Trust?
As the American populace waits to see whether the Congress’s supercommittee can agree on some kind of plan to avoid across the board cuts to all government programs — including the liberals’ “untouchables” [Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid] along with the conservatives’ sacred cow [Defense] — it looks as if our government of elected representatives has […]