Start your own fires. Begin the burn so your ideas catch fire and spread throughout the organization. I t takes 3 ingredients to start and sustain a fire. Make sure you’ve got all 3 ready to go when you launch your next plan.Fire has been around since before Prometheus stole…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." ~ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens' famous opening sentence continues "It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity." …
Concepts about paranoia abound. Ask Andy Grove, Jim Collins, Muhtar Kent and me. B y any name, change is healthy, but it means you’ll have to dropkick some of the things you’re already doing … even if you’re in love with them.A rose is a rose is a tulip? No,…
An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. ~ Sir Isaac Newton M omentum is an incredibly powerful force in business as well…
Most of us weren't around during World War II ... but D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion of all time.It involved over 250,000 troops and 15,000 ships landing along a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944.Luck?Accident? ... or the result of rigorous strategic planning and project…
Yes, the holidays are here and already the list of things to do continues to grow – completing the annual budget, planning parties, visiting with friends, figuring out what to get who for when … and so it goes.Yet, my spirit remains strong, so I’ve prepared a menu of 12…
http://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4 Simon Sinek is one of the speakers at Leadercast 2014 taking place on ONE DAY ONLY on Friday, May 9. His TED talk, "How Leaders Inspire Action" is the 3rd most watched video on TED with over 16.5 million views. His latest book, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together…
“Lary, give this customer a call. We’ve just received an unauthorized return, and I want these shoes sent back.
“Funny how the green shoes don’t fit and the red ones fit perfectly.”
It wasn’t uncommon for the chairman of company North (you may remember him from the 2nd article in our Culture Series, How Are You Paving the Road to Superior Performance) to stop by my office with a message like this.
His remarks were actually a code:
“The red shoes sold well but the green ones the customer bought aren’t selling … so now they’re claiming they don’t fit so they can return them. We’ve had no other such complaints. Tell them we won’t accept them and refuse them at the door if they come back.”
I made a note to contact the customer, figuring I’d call them after lunch when I would be more likely to catch them three time zones away.
No e-mail back then.
