Tag Archives: Leadership

Going for the Gold

By John Evelyn  |  March 2, 2010  |  Agility,Competition,Execution,Fit for purpose,Obesity,Operational Excellence,Rigidity,Sustainability,Teamwork,Winning

By now many of us are working through the withdrawal symptoms of POSD, or Post Olympic Stress Disorder. The quality of coverage keeps ratcheting up every time, particularly with the clarity of HDTV, bigger screens, and cameras suspended in truly agile systems. I am amazed at how the athletes perform at levels that continue to redefine what is humanly possible and just how little the difference is between the first and the fifth placers … often a fraction of a second. High performance is redefined.
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Toyota’s Headache and Tylenol

By John Evelyn  |  February 16, 2010  |  Capability,General

Toyota’s woes continue. This week they’ve announced production idles at two US plants, their recalls have grown to 8.5 million vehicles globally, allegations of cover-ups are blazing across the news wires, and dealers across the nation are experiencing further drops …
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A Tale of Two Tigers

By John Evelyn  |  February 8, 2010  |  Adversity,Agility,Blind Spots,Capability,Diagnosis,Fit for purpose,Rigidity,Risks,Sustainability

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.” So begins “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. Although a story replete with social commentary, it brings into focus the impacts of adversity, particularly on the elite and unprepared. Aristocracy meant respect and a special place in the eyes of many, perhaps leading to hubris, and hubris often led to disaster.

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Love that Potential!

By John Evelyn  |  January 26, 2010  |  Agility,Capability,Execution,Fit for purpose,Lean,Leverage,Operational Excellence,Resources,Rigidity,Six Sigma,Teamwork,Technology,Winning

A long time ago I studied engineering, mechanical engineering. I loved the subject and the lenses it brought. It was and is about transformation, solving problems, creation, leverage, and making new things that work and making old things work better. …
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I Have a Dream

By John Evelyn  |  November 16, 2009  |  Adversity,Capability,Leadership,Legacy,Tapestry of your life,Vision

When was the last time you dreamed? Not the go-to-sleep dream, but the dream that has a future that is really attractive, one we wanted to be part of? Is that dream still alive? In the universal words of kids in the back seat of the car, “Are we there yet?” Has the dream taken a detour, stuck in traffic, parked in the remote lot, or crushed in a junkyard, fodder for recycling? In this dream, were we the driver, passenger, or someone on the curb watching traffic go by?
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The Choice is Yours … Maybe

By John Evelyn  |  November 6, 2009  |  Capability,General

What defines a good strategy? What does it mean? Strategy may be one of the most overused and subsequently confusing subjects in practically any realm we encounter. We hear about so many categories of strategy, that subjectivity has overcome objectivity …
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It’s Not in the Bag …

By John Evelyn  |  October 23, 2009  |  General

It’s hard to miss the green. Bordering on fashionable, sometimes imitating political correctness, tugging at our sensibilities of responsibility, the green movement is here. The issue is enormous and affects everything from choices about the water that we drink in or out of plastic bottles, how we sort and take out the trash, our transportation choices, and even the faddish colors of the cloth bags some carry to the market. I suspect that I’m not alone in the surrealism of the duality of playing a participant actor in my micro world, and simultaneously as a spectator to the unfolding of the global drama. Surrealism emerges in that I may “feel good” about my cloth bag, but am skeptical of how the big drama will end, and whether the writers of this bigger play have blinders as I may.
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“One Thing …”

By John Evelyn  |  October 18, 2009  |  Capability,General

It’s really great to be surprised, particularly when it’s a good one. For close to two decades I’ve been ranting about three rules, the only three rules we need to execute, improve, or accomplish close to everything. There are many attributes that contribute to success, brains for example, but those are not what this is about. The three rules are focus, discipline, and follow-through.
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On the Dock of the Bay

By John Evelyn  |  October 6, 2009  |  Alignment,Blind Spots,Books and Publications,Capability,Diagnosis,Fit for purpose,Legacy,Vision

Have you thought about how we make decisions? It’s fascinating and frightening. I believe decision making is by far our greatest Achilles Heel. In his book, “Fateful Choices,  Ten Decisions that Changed the World”, Ian Kershaw delivers a monumental and …
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The Real Deal

By John Evelyn  |  October 1, 2009  |  Alignment,Blind Spots,Capability,Competition,Execution,Fit for purpose,Integrity,Leadership,Legacy,Purpose and Values,Respect,Risks,Sustainability,Transparency

While driving this morning I caught some news on the radio. One disturbing bit of news reported that a large defense contractor in Great Britain is facing potential fines of over $1 billion for alleged bribery paid in pursuit of business.
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