Uncollaborative Organizations and Premature Commitment “What do you mean you can’t ship? This is a big deal. They need the product. We spent weeks working to land this contract. What am I going to say to these people?” Ever heard these questions from sales when the operations people say that Read more…
The first time I heard the song Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin, it was from a Sony reel to reel tape deck near the bank of a Mt. Jefferson Wilderness Area high lake. I was mesmerized by the haunting guitar intro and the heartfelt cry of Robert Plant’s voice Read more…
“Capital Journal collecting sir.” He just looked at me through his screened front door with a look on his face that was a mix of astonishment, shock, and concern. I suppose that would be the normal reaction upon seeing a young 11-year-old boy, with a dog hanging silently from his Read more…
What I had forgotten was this: respect is not an expectation. Respect is a gift that others give to you.
Whether it was raining, windy, cold, or hot, this ten-year-old kid delivered papers for the Salem Capital Journal every afternoon except on Sundays. The route was important to me. As a kid, I liked to save the money I made and buy things I really wanted. For example, I bought Read more…
It was 47 years ago, on a rainy fall Friday evening where I sat on the bench watching my team be frustrated by the other civil war rival from across town. It was the city’s biggest event of the year – the two high school football teams duking it out Read more…
During a recent board meeting, the question was informally asked about why we seem to have such a hard time getting things done. It was actually Rosanna who posed the question, “Right now, everything we do is a needs based project and we seem to just hope that somebody will Read more…
Surprised, I awkwardly turned, thinking that I had heard someone at my office door. But upon inspection, no one was there; just the unrelenting roar of the factory. Over the months that I had worked at my job, the roar and vibration of the factory had become invisible to me Read more…
In the realm of information technology there is nothing quite like an information system startup. The new system is installed; we hit the “on” switch; and voilà… “Here it is,” we say out loud, pounding our chests with a high degree of enthusiastic pride. “We’ve just changed our world.” However, Read more…
CL/TalkLeft.com The other night when out with a group of acquaintances, namely my wife and her friends, we were all having a really great time until… The “until” is when some asks me what I do. I hate that question. “I’m an industrial organizational psychologist,” I say. “You’re a Read more…