Thoughts on people, teams, organizations, communities, effectiveness and success
Our 20 week-old Terrier-mix pup Porter’s maiden trip to Dolores Park brought back memories of the countless mornings and evenings spent with our much beloved, now-deceased, mutt Roady playing chase, kong fetch, and rolling on his back (Roady, not me) playing “sharky.”
It may turn out that you can go back, but will you find your former beliefs and behaviors in the future?… Read the rest
Backbenchers, alas, are everywhere.
They are the people in companies and associations who are quick to point out the flaws and misdoings of others but seldom are on-point to take responsibility or blame, especially when things go south.
They are folks who are adequately competent but are more interested in taking care of themselves – as well as alerting “management” to the shortcomings of others – rather than working hard to move the organization forward.… Read the rest
Sports are an imperfect analogue.
But like Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, analogues and metaphors provide representations that if properly understood can give us insight to the real world – not simply shadows on the cave wall.
So what does this have to do with the most American (as in the United States and Canada – not the rest of the countries in the Americas) of sports, baseball?… Read the rest
Tech valuations are popping (frothy is the well-used word) in the San Francisco Bay area. And the requirement to have high performing talent to quickly scale and produce a winning product may drive it all.
The scalp price for hiring or retaining top engineers was recently tabbed at $500,000 and the talent acquisition strategies of firms like Facebook includes the purchase of small start-ups only to shut them down and employ the newly acquired talent.… Read the rest
Distraction is the enemy of focus and accomplishment. The important task you set out to nail gets buried under the five to ten minor issues that snaked up during the day and grabbed your time and attention.
As Rodan of Alexandria noted, “It’s not the mountain ahead of you that wears you out; it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.… Read the rest
McKesson Corporation, where I worked as a senior exec for over a decade, had a habit of the yearly reorganization – usually in March right before the start of the fiscal year on April 1. Reporting relationships changed, some people got shifted, some people got whacked, and business continued along.
Rarely did things in terms of the running the business significantly change.… Read the rest