What happened to thinking in this country and when did the loudest shouter become the winner of the debate? When did people become fearful of expressing an opinion unless solely in the company of total agreearators? When did it become fashionable to just be nasty? When were news sources allocated so that half the population gets all their news from Rachel Maddow and the other half Glenn Beck? Why are those on the right completely ... >>full...
[ Posted bymichael cardus, July 28, 2010 8:15 ] Thinking and increasing your knowledge of a subject make it more challenging to have a strong opinion on. I remember learning this directly in my ethics class. We all start with strong opinions then we find research, evidence, anecdotes from our friends to support it. Then suddenly you are challenged by some antipodal evidence and you must respond better than just repeating your self louder.
Encouraging people to be skeptical about their knowledge and to look for chances to have their dogmatic views shaken. Will re-affirm beliefs or possibly increase your understanding.
BTW i am still you FB friend :)
[ Posted byTechquestioner, August 02, 2010 16:52 ] A pox on both their houses! The right-wing idealogues have driven all the centrist Republicans from the GOP. The left-most liberals are speaking for the democrats. Who is speaking for all the middle-of-the-road Americans who want a balanced approach to governmental, economic, and social problems when those on both extremes not only don't want to compromise and find common ground, they use all sorts of parlimentary maneuvers to prevent it?
Tony Hayward, now former CEO of British Pollution, got his life back today. He no longer will need to find ways to cut costs on those damned expensive off-shore drilling rigs. Tony no longer will be looking for corners to cut as he now will have the time and money to return to his first love, yachting.
I doubt that Mr. Hayward will do much yachting in the Gulf of Mexico however, as that nasty ... >>full...
[ Posted bycheap tiffany jewelry, August 06, 2010 2:02 ] I'm sick and tired of the greedy taking away jobs, polluting the planet and picking our pockets.
[ Posted bymichael cardus, July 21, 2010 7:48 ] I have experienced both of these before.
Generally It is scenario 2 of the boss telling me that new ideas are not my job. Followed by 1 by me just giving up and stating that is not my job.
[ Posted byChris Reich, July 21, 2010 12:29 ] Michael,
ME TOO. Nothing kills initiative faster than being told "that's not your job!"
As outside people, you and I face that often. Fix us but mind your own business. Ha! Oh well. You can only help if they let you. Usually a company's biggest problem is not letting people initiate!
I had a post here a few days ago about a big mistake made on a job quote that slipped past everyone costing the company thousands of dollars.
I then left open the question as to how those kinds of mistakes can be avoided.
Too bad, no one offered solutions even though many wrote to tell me about a recent horror story at their business. Many said that these obvious mistakes were common.
Businesses are enamored with "metrics". Management wants to measure and graph everything possible. It's fun to look at colorful graphs and shoot at performance shortfalls at business meetings. Johnson, it looks like your sales aren't trending in the right direction! Smith, your time per call is getting out of hand! Jones, your expense 46 category is higher than budget, what's your plan?
Management by bullets. I suppose, if the boss is blind reports must be presented ... >>full...
[ Posted bymichael cardus, July 14, 2010 8:55 ] When you give power to the metrics you tend to explode the data results. Also the measurments do and will mis-lead because there is constantly an observer created reality. Once you measure the thing you are measuring you impact it.
I like how you mentioned that your best sales person may not have what the metrics are looking for.
I hear about bad things that happen at businesses all the time. Often those things are dismissed as "stuff happens" or "we all make mistakes". Often these big boo boos are attributed to Murphy's Law.
Here is a tale with no apparent easy fix.
There's a big construction project worth a few million dollars. You're in charge of preparing the bid. You go over and over and over the numbers. This project has over 3,000 components from ... >>full...
[ Posted bymichael cardus, July 09, 2010 15:00 ] Chris.
This is a good example plus I feel baited by the 'teambuilding' reference.
Perhaps the problem could be solved by building a tower out of rope, while closing your eyes, and gently falling into a building stacked out of cards.
Then they could all go go-kart racing and play laser tag.
Now that is out of my system. The 1st thing that jumped out is the lack of experience and talent to handle this bid. Your example of the wrong measurement system 2ndly the many eyes checking loses accountability for the process.
I really am not sure and this is the ambiguity of work.
Great question - now I am thinking.
[ Posted byChris Reich, July 09, 2010 19:27 ] Michael---
I was hoping you'd take the bait---in fun and with respect I set the hook. But if you and I were working together, this is exactly the sort of problem I'd have "teams" solve.
There are numerous, easy to implement solutions to this and a million other similar problems that happen at businesses every day because of FAILED teamwork.
Also---there was plenty of experience on this project. (There's a hint there)
Tony Hayward, now former CEO of British Pollution, got his life back today. He no longer will need to find ways to cut costs on those damned expensive off-shore drilling rigs. Tony no longer will be looking for corners to cut as he now will have the time and money to return to his first love, yachting. 
