Category Archives: Tailoring

For the Birds

Ever watch birds flying in formation? There are some fascinating bits of science that have evolved over the years that enable a large flock (a team with a shared mission) to execute a migratory process effectively and efficiently. They have come up with a process that successfully incorporates the laws of physics, economics and group behavior. Leadership of the flock rotates so that fatigue is dissipated across players rather than concentrated on one alpha. Of course, it’s taken a long time for this to evolve, and they may have some insights worth emulating.

Read More…

I Can’t Hear What You’re Seeing

For many years, the term Voice of the Customer has been a source of incalculable confusion and a hazardous source of misdirection. The reality of dealing with a cacophony of voices that can often come from the many interfaces and service points is daunting for some. Discerning the signal from the noise fosters subjective simplification and can and too often yield risky and sometimes shallow insights carried forward into our delivery of services.
Read More…

Where is That Report?

To a small to large extent, most reports that are produced and delivered are late, early, inaccurate, or incomplete, with too much or too little at the time when needed to make decisions. Ouch, that sounds like a nasty indictment. But …
Read More…

What’s for Lunch?

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.

Do you know who he was? To folks like me who love our time in the kitchen, he is considered the “Father of Foodies.” His professional life was as a lawyer and politician, but his fame comes from laying the foundations and building the house of modern gastronomy. His book, Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste) , is not on my list of recommended reads, but his insights are timeless. The Julia Childs and Emeril Lagasses and all the wannabees can thank our first “Iron Chef”. His comment above is among others that are relevant far beyond the realm of chopping blocks and saucepans.

Read More…

“How Aren’t You Doing?”

How aren’t you doing? That’s right, how are you at what you’re not doing? Have you ever been asked that question? I hope so! How well do we choose what to do and what to measure?
Read More…

Felix the Cat

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 …
Read More…

“If I Had a Hammer, I Would Hammer in the Morning, …”

“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 …
Read More…

More Gossip

Our last discussion was about the game “Gossip” and the calamities resembling the Tower of Babel and the language disconnects that impact our enterprises. In that initial article, I mentioned that we might need a Rosetta stone as a tool …
Read More…

“Our Visions Aren’t What They Used To Be”

“You don’t have to be faster than the lion; you only have to be faster than the slowest guy.” –Zimbabwe saying Organizational vision statements are fascinating to read. They become even more interesting when we can read a large number …
Read More…

Harmony and Dissonance

The YinYang has been a powerful framework for me when endeavoring to frame and evaluate what are ahead, my decisions. The importance of considering the duality of opposing, mutually defining forces or dimensions, as fundamental to evaluating completeness, is very thought provoking. …
Read More…