I recently returned home from a three-week family road trip. This was mostly a vacation but not entirely. Since I have been working from home since March, working from the road was fairly feasible. I coordinated to work about one third to one half time and take the appropriate amount of PTO to cover the […]
Read MoreInsights are often born out of frustration. I routinely urge my colleagues to pay attention to those moments of repetitive frustration and annoyance and use them to identify opportunities for improvement. Not all are actionable, but I find that most are, and the solutions can be simple. I’ve recently felt a growing disdain for the […]
Read MoreI don’t have razor-sharp technical skills. I’m not the guy for writing dynamometer programs, developing analytics logic and dashboards or creating visually engaging communications. I’m kept around to strategize and make decisions. I’ve always liked to solve problems; in fact, I have an often-annoying tendency to seek and point them out. Presently few of us […]
Read MoreYou’re essential, and you’re out there, open, doing the work – or – you can work from a computer, which in this day and age means you can probably work anywhere. I’m the latter. I’m remote, my team is remote, and we carry on our roles as best we can (and sometimes better) from a […]
Read MoreSunlight and a warm breeze flowed leisurely through the open bay doors of Hometown Motors’ service department on the second Monday of June. Wafting in on the breeze was the distinct aroma of bratwurst and burgers earning their stripes on the grill just outside the rear door. Combined with the hint of grilling onion, the […]
Read MoreOn Friday we have a really big thing happening. An assembly of 20 people from 7 states. There are A LOT of things on the list: flights to book, hotels accommodations, local transportation logistics, name tags, logo clothing, swag bags, meals, agendas, speakers notes, out of office messaging, training room a/v, headsets for a facility […]
Read MoreBob watched over the rim of a lifted coffee mug from the doorway of his office. Spread out before him was the 20-bay expanse of concrete floor and overhead mercury vapor lights that was the service department of the local dealership. Twin rows of overhead doors made up the outer walls feeding vehicles into the […]
Read More“A general never blames his troops.” It was a statement I needed to hear. I was a part of a very big, very important project that hadn’t turned out according to expectations. It wasn’t all my fault, but mistakes were made by many including me – and including the general. Up to this point, I […]
Read MoreSome people call me the ‘The Sprinting Hippo’ and I don’t mind it at all. I coach and play for a softball team during the summers, and, just like the noble hippopotamus that can reach top speeds of 30 mph (it’s true, look it up!), I am much faster than you might assume just by […]
Read MoreWhen there’s a lack of harmony on a team, chances are everyone is aware of it on some level, even if it’s just a vague sense of something’s not quite right. It could be really bad, palpable even from a distance – there could be internal turmoil, talking behind colleagues’ backs (which is never as […]
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