-
On Leading Organization-wide Change
In October 2014, I was asked to share how I have led organizational changes at Covenant Eyes. The following text is from an e-mail message I wrote in response to that question, covering design thinking, decision making, asking better questions, and influencing behavior in order to reach shared understanding.
-
The 5 most important texts for a business leader
These are the books, or in one case an essay, that I think every leader in a business should study. This is not an academic list paying homage to some MBA syllabus. Rather, if you want a business that has a healthy culture, that is profitable, that is sustainable, and that delivers real value, the…
-
Being competitive
The key to being competitive is to compete. Last weekend I shot in the National Pistol Matches, specifically the President’s 100 and the National Trophy Individual match. Wow, was I ever not competitive! My final scores were very nearly middle of the pack, out of the approximately 475 competitors. While I would have liked to…
-
In pursuit of paper
I pay attention to paper that I use for printing. Trivial? Maybe, yet I do care. I care about the paper weight, brightness, dimensions, finish, and sometimes even what the paper fibers feel like. There seems to be a variety of fibers in paper, and, my, isn’t that interesting? Yet, although I care about these…
-
On delegating work better
When delegating work, it isn’t enough to pick a good person and give them
-
Will St Charles MI flood in Spring 2014?
I’ve lived in St Charles, MI since 2008. It’s a nice little town, I think. One of the features is the confluence of the North and South branches of the Bad River, pretty much right in the middle of town. So, it has been a pretty cold winter with what seems like a higher than…
-
Five Whys, Socratic Method, and Dependent Arising
Root cause analysis—jargon for managers in lean startups and Agile dev shops. In plain language, isn’t it “Well, I hear what you’re saying, but what’s really going on?” I feel a rambling, messy first draft coming on. Why in the world do we need jargon for such a common line of reasoning? This is every…