You think you’ve got it tough … struggling with mismanagement, lousy hires and half-baked succession plans? Yeah, baby, we all got problems. Capisce?
Even us goombas if you can believe all that stuff they’re saying about us in this article, Lousy Management, Knucklehead Hires Plague Operations of Real-Life Sopranos.
This belongs in Freakonomics!
If you’re familiar with that fascinating and insightful book, Freakonomics, you know this incentive surely backfired.
The New York Public Library recently announced the elimination of all late fines for overdue books.
Why?
When the Chicago public libraries canceled late fees, there was an 83% increase in books returned – and a 7% increase in books checked out. [CBS News] Another incentive that backfired.
A good reminder that you should take a close look at your own incentive plans to make sure they’re achieving the results you intend.
The 10th Anniversary of the death of Steve Jobs
Jony Ive was the Chief Design Officer for Apple and one of the closest friends of Jobs … they ate lunch together almost every day. Without question Ive was the architect of the great designs for which Apple is so well known.
You’ll enjoy this emotional article, Jony Ive on What He Misses Most About Steve Jobs.
Robert Sutton, the Stanford professor who wrote The No Asshole Rule, has a close eye on workplace dysfunction. You’ll find in How to Keep Smart People from Killing Each Other, one of his diagrams to help you quickly analyze what to do with a Certified Jerk.
Now, In Memo to the CEO: Are you the source of workplace dysfunction? [McKinsey], he reports that rudeness and bullying are rampant in today’s workplace.
One result is Sutton’s latest book, The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt.
If you’re in a leadership role, you need to read this. In the meantime, keep this in mind:
“As a senior leader, your job is to build an organization where jerks don’t thrive.”
Are flying cars really here?
Not exactly … but this version looks pretty cool and easy to drive, er, fly. Great video makes it seem pretty easy.
Maybe you can take a flying car out for a test drive?
Good Weekend for a Good Mystery?
If you enjoy a good book in the Mystery-Thriller-Suspense genre, start with the Mystery Corner where I’ve shared some of the more than 2,000 books I’ve read in this category.
