What did it feel like when you went to the grocery store last? Could you easily find what you wanted? Did an employee step up to ask if you needed help? If you asked for help, did they take you to the item, or just point you to an aisle? What was your experience filling up the car with gas? …
Another Plain Old Subdivision Or Unique Community — Which Will It Be For The City Of Mesquite’s I-20 Corridor?
Walking the farmland along I-20 in Mesquite, I stopped to pick up a rock. About the size of my fist. About the size of one of the biggest uncut diamonds ever discovered. If this rock were a diamond, I wondered, how might it be cut to achieve its maximum worth? Would it be two diamonds or two dozen? Or by …
Literate In The 20th Century – Illiterate In The 21st Century
Stop a minute to consider what it’ll be like to be literate in the 21st Century… A profound shift is taking place in the way people communicate, express themselves. What’s happening? The 21st Century literate combine images, sounds, words with alacrity to communicate ideas, tell stories, design products, advertise services, hold meetings, explain issues, teach concepts, discuss direction. Computers themselves …
Barking At The Troops: Leaders And Communication
Barking at the troops. Happens all the time. The boss wants to inspire his people, urge them to battle, lead them to victory. Coax them into making better widgets, sell more work, complete tasks on time and under budget. She goes from meeting to meeting, giving her ten-minute pep talks. He takes a few softball questions. She tells everybody to …
Leaders And Character: Know Thyself
To lead, know thyself. So it’s said over and over. And to know thyself means knowing your character. What’s your character? How do you describe it? For some, the answer seems easy. The descriptors roll off their tongues. To others it’s a struggle. A struggle because it can be hard to describe yourself at the very basic level of character. …
Effective Leaders Capture the Unused Ideas
Ever wonder what happened to the unused ideas germinated on the way to finding the solution to your project? Where did they go? Did anyone save them? Because experience shows there could be gold in those ideas. Keeping those unused ideas is the leader’s job. While a team is focused on narrowing down the number and scope of ideas in …
Is Top Down Falling Down? YES!
By Logan Monaco, MS Conbrio Associate Is top-down falling down? It is, the evidence shows. Slowly, but pervasively. Hierarchy is still the norm in many organizations. Diagram the structure and you have a pyramid. Levels of people are arranged into fixed teams. The responsibility for teams is the manager’s, the person who sits above them. Each of the levels supports …
Getting Past Loggerheads
Ever found yourself in a standoff? You’re at loggerheads. Neither you nor your colleague will budge. There seems to be no way forward. Think of the issue as a straight line and the standoff puts you at one end and your colleague at the other. It seems like the only way forward is compromise, that is, to meet somewhere in …
Humans As Interchangeable Parts: A Look Into The Future
Humans are adept inventors. Our ability to make and repurpose the different elements of our environment to suit our needs has brought us a long way – from sparking two rocks together for fire to manned space flight. Creativity and innovation, it can be argued, have made our lives better. Interchangeable parts is one such innovation. Think autos, modular furniture …
You’re Only As Good As The People In The Room
You’re only as good as the people in the room and they’re only as good as what they know. I repeat it so often it’s become a mantra. So often in working with teams or groups, there is enormous opportunity for vision, commitment and planning to do something bigger, better, more courageous, more all encompassing. There’s opportunity to take the …