Category Archives: Fit for purpose

“Good, or Got Lucky?”

By John Evelyn  |  September 18, 2009  |  Agility,Blind Spots,Capability,Competition,Diagnosis,Execution,Fit for purpose,Legacy,Rigidity,Risks,Sustainability,Tapestry of your life,Winning

“To the victor belongs the spoils” is the famous quote by New York Senator William Learned Marcy (1786-1857), recited in the U. S. Senate, 25 January 1832. This one sure gets lots of traffic. It brings with it a lot of imagery of the uglier side of politics, graft and an all or nothing perspective. I can recall, as I read world history in high school, images of conquerors doing all the pillaging and other stuff. Certainly, the principle still has legs today, ugly legs at that.

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“Ouch! Labor Hurts!”

By John Evelyn  |  September 8, 2009  |  Adversity,Agility,Alignment,Blind Spots,Capability,Competition,Fit for purpose,General,Legacy,Leverage,Resources,Respect,Rigidity,Risks,Sustainability,Teamwork,Technology

Yesterday was Labor Day in the US. When I was growing up, it was usually a milestone close to the end of summer and a signal that back to school was here. The contributions and needs of labor did not weigh into my view or feelings about the day back then. They are a big deal today and weigh heavy.
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On the Shoulders of Giants

By John Evelyn  |  September 2, 2009  |  Adversity,Agility,Blind Spots,Books and Publications,Capability,Diagnosis,Execution,Fit for purpose,Leadership,Legacy,Risks,Tapestry of your life,Travel

I’ve often heard the term, “You are what you eat.” I suspect that some of that may be true. If you’ve read Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” you may conclude that we are more corn than anything else.
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“This Tip is on Purpose”

By John Evelyn  |  August 28, 2009  |  Adversity,Alignment,Blind Spots,Capability,Execution,Fit for purpose,Leadership,Purpose and Values,Tapestry of your life,Vision

You did that on purpose!” I often hear that when someone’s about to get it for a misdeed. It differentiates those actions that are done with intent from those not by mistake or accidentally. So, the word purpose can be used to differentiate a special cause from a random cause. In this case, it takes on the differentiator for indictment, something a prosecutor might want to propose (ironic, that purpose and propose share the same etymological genealogy)
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Mean Times

By John Evelyn  |  August 17, 2009  |  Adversity,Agility,Blind Spots,Capability,Diagnosis,Execution,Fit for purpose,Lean,Rigidity,Risks,Six Sigma,Transparency

We like symmetry. Most of us do. There is something in our wiring or programming that finds symmetry attractive, pleasing, and embodying some balance that might actually communicate harmony. We see it in the YinYang and the Taoist philosophy. We often characterize justice as a balanced scale, and countless studies have measured our perceptions of beauty among individuals and found facial symmetry the driving attractiveness variable. When we measure and analyze to find meaning in data, there is also an underlying “hope” that we find symmetry. When we see a “normal” distribution, or bell curve, we enter a comfort zone. In fact, I know countless people who work terribly hard at converting data that is not symmetric or normal into a set that is. Some, actually too many, take out data that does not fit the beauty of symmetry, proceed to insult it with names like outliers and dismiss them from our view.
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“What Do You Think?”

By John Evelyn  |  August 10, 2009  |  Blind Spots,Capability,Diagnosis,Fit for purpose,Leadership,Rigidity,Transparency

“Cogito, ergo sum” means “I think, therefore I am” is a principle developed by Rene Descartes in 1637, often referred to as a foundational element of Western thought and philosophy. It speaks to how we attain knowledge among other things. Western culture places great value on the individual, so the word “I” is a big deal for us. If we believe Rene, and we are because we think, then how we do this stuff called “think” is a pretty important process.
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Francis Bacon, Top Guns, and the Breakfast of Champions

By John Evelyn  |  August 7, 2009  |  Adversity,Agility,Blind Spots,Capability,Competition,Deming Prize,Diagnosis,Execution,Fit for purpose,Leadership,Leverage,Operational Excellence,Resources,Rigidity,Risks,Technology,Winning

It’s time for breakfast. I’m having a bowl of OODA Loops, a true Breakfast of Champions. Want some?

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“Once Upon a Time … and Then They Lived Happily Ever After”

By John Evelyn  |  August 5, 2009  |  Adversity,Agility,Blind Spots,Capability,Diagnosis,Execution,Fit for purpose,Rigidity,Risks,Sustainability,Transparency

“Once Upon a Time … and Then They Lived Happily Ever After”
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Felix the Cat

By John Evelyn  |  July 31, 2009  |  Adversity,Agility,Capability,Diagnosis,Execution,Fit for purpose,General,Leadership,Legacy,Resources,Rigidity,Sustainability,Tailoring,Technology

How often do we use our nostalgia magic bag? It’s the one where we keep our memories and trusted well-worn tools, similar to Felix the Cat’s bag of tricks. Like Felix, when he gets in a fix, we face problems …
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“If I Had a Hammer, I Would Hammer in the Morning, …”

By John Evelyn  |  July 17, 2009  |  Agility,Execution,Fit for purpose,Leadership,Rigidity,Sustainability,Tailoring,Transparency

“To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”  This quote is attributed to Mark Twain (and a few others, including Abraham Maslow).  When I first heard the phrase, it was also quoted as a Japanese proverb and …
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