The other day, someone gave me good advice to share with our client. “It’s simple. I can tell you now. Or, I can tell you I told you so later. Which will it be?” Brilliant. We were trying to tell them their design approach was not aligned with their design strategy. This advice could apply to so many areas in […]
Archive | Fireside Chats
Creating meaningful conversations around work situations. With enough interest, these might turn into community chats at a local coffee shop.
The Critical Class
I want to rename the 99% from middle class to “critical class”. There is this perception out there that we need the 1%. That they are critical to us. Among the 1%, those that own corporations such as GM, Toyota or Tesla, generate jobs for the rest of us in the “lower middle”. Yet, there are plenty out […]
Mr. Mom
By Agent M1 on September 8, 2015 in Entrepreneurism, Fireside Chats, Riffs & Ideas, Work Life Balance
After reading several articles about flexibility in the workplace, a more common topic is bubbling to the surface of many respectable publications. Here’s one that states: Bottom Line: Working fathers are placing more importance on their familial obligations, and companies must react to this societal shift. My first thought, what will that mean for many companies who rely on fathers being […]
Are you Trying to Better Yourself, or Better the World?
When I was on a start up board, I was working with folks who had pretty much found their way. They weren’t trying to prove themselves –they had peaked in their careers. They were fairly well off. My boss at the time said they were either single, double or triple jet rich. Not something I […]
Follow Your Path
By Agent N1 on April 13, 2015 in Fireside Chats, Tip of the Day, Unplugged Letters, Work Life Balance
Six years ago, I directly managed ten senior staff and oversaw a team of over 700 who were implementing projects worth ~$20 million per year. For the last five and a half years, I have had a hiatus from all of that, from managing staff, and ensuring quality programming, and juggling money, and signing off […]
Corporate Ethics
A company urgently needed to train a whole set of its staff in a particular skill and approached a friend of mine about the assignment. My friend, by my definition (not her own), was an expert: she has a post-graduate degree in the field; she has been working in that particular field for over twenty […]
New Beginnings
It’s spring. The almonds, the first of the fruit trees of the season, are in full glorious bloom. Buds and shoots are forming on other trees. The first phase of a work assignment just ended and the next phase is slowly beginning. Several new projects start this week. The girls’ term at school ends on […]
The Straight and Narrow
By Agent N1 on March 3, 2015 in Fireside Chats, Riffs & Ideas, Tip of the Day, Weekly Survival, Work Life Balance
Sometimes, the way forward is clear. Sometimes it is not. The only advice I can give is to follow your compass. This means following your own values, even if it means you have to rewrite the script or define new rules for your tribe or wait for a different path to show its way. Have […]
The Negation of Why
By Agent N1 on February 10, 2015 in Fireside Chats, Riffs & Ideas, Tip of the Day, Unplugged Letters, Weekly Survival, Work Life Balance
There’s a lot of hype these days about the need for a purpose, that to achieve we have to have a why. And it’s true. Having a mission does give us motivation. Knowing the why helps us inspire our teams. Developing a purpose provides the roadmap. I recently read a passage, however, in a novel: […]
Customize Your Life
Are you slogging through some parts of your life? Work? Relationships? Have you ever noticed how quickly time passes when you are doing something in which you are truly passionate and engaged? So many of us are doing what we “should” be doing. Maybe we selected our profession because we were good at a particular […]
