De Nile is not a River

shutterstock_95386021Face it, we all do it:

  • The job we’re hopeful we’ll land has no chance of ever showing up in an offer letter.
  • That diet (mine in this case) that we think worked well has the regular 36″ waist size slacks still too tight.
  • The company that’s getting it’s lunch handed to it in the market continues to think and refer to itself as a market leader.
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[Life Back West] July 2012 – “Misfit Toys”

If you live in a certain City by the bay, sooner or later little surprises you.

Avengers (comics)

Annoy you? Yes. Delight you? Often. Alarm, disappoint, thrill, and endear? Always.

It’s those differences that make the place so special. Take away those difference and ultimately it leads to one destination; the land of boring, common, even mediocre.

Some workplaces are just like that City.… Read the rest

Embrace Your Critics – or Fail

Bud Tunt, one smart exec with whom I worked at Fortune 15 McKesson, told me that the savviest thing you could do in business was to take away all the excuses.

Bud was on so something.

There are three camps; people who care and support you or your ideas, people who care and have criticism about you or your ideas, and people who don’t care or support you and sit on their hands.… Read the rest

The Problem with Inclusion

There’s a problem or two with diversity and inclusion efforts.

It’s just not the one(s) you probably think.

Similar to the efforts to increase employee engagement – if you can just win the hearts and minds of employees they’ll be more productive, have less turnover, and engender greater customer satisfaction  – inclusion and diversity efforts in some organizations struggle with the proper effective positioning (think marketing) and the changed culture required to be effective.

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