What can we help you find?

Today we honor fallen fighters, who’ve given their lives and limbs to war. Today is a day, among many, I wonder just whom that sacrifice is for. Some would say it’s for us, this ultimate service t…

Today we honor falle…

Today we honor fallen fighters, who’ve given their lives and limbs to war. Today is a day, among many, I wonder just whom that sacrifice is for. Some would say it’s for us, this ultimate service they give. Not to be unappreciative, but I would much rather they live. The old send the young to die, fill their heads with glory, paint enemy humans as bad, Perhaps sometimes it’s called for, but it’s always gory, destructive, expensive, and sad. Today, we use many high-sounding words, like freedom, and justice, and peace. I imagine that I, under fire in the sky, might have prayed to just be …

“It has been a strange week here in Lake Wobegon.” This is how Garrison Keillor began his long-running humorous show, A Prairie Home Companion on Public Radio about the goings on in this fictional…

“It has been a str…

“It has been a strange week here in Lake Wobegon.” This is how Garrison Keillor began his long-running humorous show, A Prairie Home Companion on Public Radio about the goings on in this fictional rural Minnesota town, “where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” There were always funny mishap stories about everything going wrong at the worst possible moment. And everything always did work out well in the end because those strong, good-looking, above average Minnesotans controlled their reactions to events and were resilient. I thought…

Fixin’ Bessie “What is that?” I was in the  corner end of our basement that was my father’s “workshop.”  Under one of those 12”x18” two pane cellar windows, sat my father’s hand-bu…

Fixin’ Bessie “W…

Fixin’ Bessie “What is that?” I was in the  corner end of our basement that was my father’s “workshop.”  Under one of those 12”x18” two pane cellar windows, sat my father’s hand-built workbench, vise on one end, grinder on the other. The rest of the workshop consisted of floor to ceiling shelves on one wall and around the corner on the other. The shelves were stacked with George Washington pipe tobacco cans full of nails, bottles full of screws, wooden boxes full of tools, or “just-in-case” spare parts or might-fix-something-with-that bits and bobs. I was about ten, and…

These are three terms you might find on a business card, consultant, coach, advisor. Are they the same job? Does anyone use business cards anymore? When I was deciding to become a consultant in the la…

These are three term…

These are three terms you might find on a business card, consultant, coach, advisor. Are they the same job? Does anyone use business cards anymore? When I was deciding to become a consultant in the late 1970s, no one would have suggested I might become a coach instead. John Wooden and Vince Lombardi were coaches. Today, if you search LinkedIn you might find more coaches than consultants. I wasn’t aware of anyone calling themselves an advisor, though I might have heard the term, if I met Marvin Bauer, the man who turned James O. McKinsey’s accounting firm into the hallowed McKinsey & Compan…

After more than fifty-five years of working, I retired. We sold our house and moved to a condo complex on a ridge that overlooks New York City. On the rare clear morning that I am up early enough to v…

After more than fift…

After more than fifty-five years of working, I retired. We sold our house and moved to a condo complex on a ridge that overlooks New York City. On the rare clear morning that I am up early enough to view the sunrise the view is sometimes like the one above. In my Retirement, I write, to share what I learned, in life, yes, but so far, mostly what I have learned in business, in the world of work. It strikes me now that my observations are like my view of the skyline, distant, from above and afar. A lot has changed, since I left the world of work. Covid shocked everyone into a self-Employment min…

Vacation from what? I think it may be time for a getaway. “Get away from what?” you might say. “You’re retired. You are taking a six month vacation twice a year.” Well, not really. Here I am…

Vacation from what? …

Vacation from what? I think it may be time for a getaway. “Get away from what?” you might say. “You’re retired. You are taking a six month vacation twice a year.” Well, not really. Here I am writing to you, my generous reader. Vacation comes from the Latin, vacationem or vacatio meaning leisure, freedom, exemption from military service, being free from duty. The root verb is vacare to be empty, free, or at leisure. In the nineteenth century, middle and upper class Americans began vacating their homes, leaving them vacant while they moved to “cottages,” by the shore, or at the lak…

Some readers might remember that I occasionally write songs. In the fall of 2019, I wrote five songs that I have done nothing with since. I don’t do my own musical notation and several times since t…

Some readers might r…

Some readers might remember that I occasionally write songs. In the fall of 2019, I wrote five songs that I have done nothing with since. I don’t do my own musical notation and several times since then I have thought, “I really should have Doug (a musician friend) transcribe those songs so I can copyright them.” For some reason, transcription was a perpetual ‘C’ priority on multiple to-do lists. I don’t know why I felt no urgency for the last six and a half years, or why last week, I made simple recordings of those songs and one I wrote last year and sent them to Doug to write them…

Business is about People I don’t know why this idea should be as revolutionary as it seems to be. Let’s look at a definition of a business: One group of people, called producers, makes something o…

Business is about Pe…

Business is about People I don’t know why this idea should be as revolutionary as it seems to be. Let’s look at a definition of a business: One group of people, called producers, makes something or does something for another group of people, called customers. Whatever the producer people make or do for the customer people has enough value that customer people pay Money or barter goods and services for it. The producer people might use tools or materials provided by another group of people, suppliers. The producer people are then the supplier peoples’ customers who expect value in exchan…

“I might learn something.” Robert H. Schaffer, pictured upper right, turned 100 this week. That is freaking amazing! Happy Birthday, Bob! I came to know Bob Schaffer, first from his book Breakthro…

“I might learn som…

“I might learn something.” Robert H. Schaffer, pictured upper right, turned 100 this week. That is freaking amazing! Happy Birthday, Bob! I came to know Bob Schaffer, first from his book Breakthrough Strategy, which I read when I became an independent consultant for the first time. The second time I ventured out on my own, Bob’s partner Ron Ashkenas, who I’d met at a mutual client, offered me a much-needed subcontract role implementing the methodology described in their book Rapid Results. I met Bob face-to-face then, and took his workshop, High Impact Consulting, based upon another of…

“You are a conceptual reductionist.” The speaker was Dr. Richard Taylor and we were training continuous improvement (CI) coaches together in Hong Kong. It was at the end of a long week and we were…

“You are a concept…

“You are a conceptual reductionist.” The speaker was Dr. Richard Taylor and we were training continuous improvement (CI) coaches together in Hong Kong. It was at the end of a long week and we were packing up. “What?” I tilt-head-sneered. I really was not in the mood for snarky banter from Ric. Kelly, a mutual client, had put Ric and I together to design and deliver four weeks of training to a cadre of internal coaches for a CI initiative to improve safety at an international oil company. We were incredibly different people. Ric was a professional engineer, who held multiple graduate de…

I recently attended a writer’s conference in Florida. Florida in February sounded like a really great idea. It was 35° Fahrenheit. The conference was great; the people were great. We hugged a lot. …

I recently attended …

I recently attended a writer’s conference in Florida. Florida in February sounded like a really great idea. It was 35° Fahrenheit. The conference was great; the people were great. We hugged a lot. Two days after I got home, I came down with a cold. “Oh,” said my friend,  “You probably didn’t dress for that Florida cold snap and you got chilled.” I’m pretty sure that my friend knows that my “cold” is caused by a virus. Being generous, perhaps he thought that walking a half mile to and from the conference in just a sport coat lowered my immune system and made me more suscepti…

Some of my readers may know I am a very late adopter of Technology. I listen to music on Spotify now, but I still have a turntable and listen to vinyl albums occasionally. Some of you may also know th…

Some of my readers m…

Some of my readers may know I am a very late adopter of technology. I listen to music on Spotify now, but I still have a turntable and listen to vinyl albums occasionally. Some of you may also know that I am extremely resistant to letting AI write anything for me. “I like writing and I don’t want some machine doing that for me,” (apologies to Denny Zager and his song “In the Year 2525”). I also write some songs,  and I hope Denny still writes;  I know he builds Zager Guitars now, which I can’t play well enough to invest in, but which many musicians I respect say are very “playa…