Tag Archives: Change

“Ouch! Labor Hurts!”

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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“I’m Going to Pump You Up!”

Last year I lost a friend to heart disease. He had a stroke that eventually proved fatal.
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On the Banks of the Rubicon

How many times have we crossed the Rubicon, our very own River Rubicon? When Julius Caesar crossed the River Rubicon in 49 BC, it was an act of commitment to war with Rome, a point of no return, a decision to follow through without looking back. It was, in fact a decision that changed the course of history and our world as it is today
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“This Tip is on Purpose”

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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“I Know You Just Love My Idea!”

I get really excited when a new idea somehow gets into my head. It may not be original thought, as some of our ideas have been waiting around for millennia or a chance to germinate. Some died an earlier life where circumstances may have starved it. Some were just bad ideas. But when I think I’ve got a good one, I get charged up and stay up all night trying to give it legs.

I always want others to like it and in some way, feed my ego. I have wanted it a lot, so I did not push hard on others to tell me why they did not like it, or seek skeptics for hard-to-take feedback. I’ve been lucky to have learned that my approach was dumb-dumb. My first question should have been, is this worth my time? Then, should I pursue this idea and invest in it? Do I have an understanding of the nature of constraints and obstacles I will need to resolve and overcome? At what point in my development process do certain questions and answers belong? Can I objectively differentiate opportunity from stubbornness or obsession? It’s not nearly as bad as those (in the field of megalomania) who exhibit the attitude with others that, “You just don’t get it. Why can’t you see I’m right all the time?” If we’re lucky, Darwin is taking care of some those guys.

I confess that I find the questions may be to easier ask and more difficult to answer.
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The Perfect Storm

Our customers make us better! Have you heard that phrase? When I have, the translation that emerges is that our customers sometimes have to drag us into improvement. In fact, it often means that we become aware of the needs to improve from feedback and complaints. Someone might argue that we sometimes innovate from negative feedback
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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 …
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“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 …
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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 …
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