Execupundit.com

Time Out in the Old Pueblo

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:18:00 +0000

I'll be at a meeting in the Old Pueblo for part of the day at the Arizona Historical Society. For those of you who are non-Arizonans, the "Old Pueblo" refers to Tucson and honors its history as one of the oldest cities in the state.

I went to college in Tucson at the University of Arizona and became steeped in local attitudes. To many hard-core Tucson residents, Phoenix is the Great Satan, a overpopulated and polluted locale filled with land developers and growth maniacs; in other words, the same way many Phoenicians regard Los Angeles. [Phoenix and Tucson are very different politically. One wag called Tucson "the Venice Beach of Arizona politics."]

Anyway, I like Tucson. Its desert is beautiful, the climate is cooler, and I see and think of history every time I visit. Truth be told, the two cities could learn a lot from one another.

Finding a Way

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:53:00 +0000

Miller's Rule states that whenever a person is advocating a position that appears to be irrational, you should try to conceive of what reality would have to be in order for that position to be rational. By understanding the other person's reality, you can better determine whether or not perceptions can be changed and agreement reached.

A simlar quest can be taken when resolving problems or conflict. If person A is taking a position that seems to be irrational, rather than dismissing it as foolish or unrealistic, person B might explore (1) what would have to be done to that position to make it rational and workable and (2) is that change within our grasp?

That is how alliances are made between dreamers and pragmatists.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:50:00 +0000

Organizations are no longer built on force, but on trust.

- Peter Drucker

Understated and Great

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:29:00 +0000

When the movie season seems filled with previews of special effects extravaganzas, there is a quiet power in this trailer for Schindler's List.

Fairy Tales and Fables

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:45:00 +0000

My post on fairy tales and fables in the workplace is up at U.S. News & World Report.

The Nature of Problems

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:03:00 +0000

How does a problem appear in your mind?

Is it an adversary to be overcome? A puzzle to be solved? A pebble in your shoe? A machine part that needs polishing? A mystery to be measured and unveiled? A demon? A disease? A challenge? An opportunity? A mosquito, an elephant, a gorilla, a gnat, a snake, or some other creature?

How we picture our problems determines how we address them. And do we "address" problems or "solve" them (There's that puzzle again) or "overcome" them?

When you are determining the nature of the problem, the fact that you think of it in a certain way will either be a clue to, or will cloud your view of, the real problem, for problems can hide in the mists of our own reasoning and cloak themselves in our pictures.

Cormac McCarthy Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:40:00 +0000

The Wall Street Journal has a marvelous interview with novelist Cormac McCarthy. The film based on his novel, "The Road," is coming out this month. [I've already praised the book in this blog.] An excerpt from the interview that immediately told me Cormac is my kind of guy:

WSJ: But is there something compelling about the collaborative process [of film making] compared to the solitary job of writing?

CM: Yes, it would compel you to avoid it at all costs.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Remember . . . an order that can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.

- Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke

Less is More

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:11:00 +0000

A clever ad agency in New Zealand has figured out the appropriate use of Paris Hilton's picture.

"Do It Again."

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 03:07:00 +0000

Tom Wolfe recalls a dinner with Hunter S. Thompson.

Justin's Old Man

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:09:00 +0000

What Would Dad Say has a report on one of the most famous - and amusing - Twitter authors out there. One of the tweets:

“Oh please, you practically invented lazy. People should have to call you and ask for the rights to lazy before they use it.”10:44 AM Nov 1st from web

Get Up Each Day and Go At It Again

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:24:00 +0000

Cultural Offering gives some basic rules from an unsung American hero. A sample:

Leave your work problems at work and your home problems at home - I've written about it before but he often explained that he hung his work problems on the mailbox outside.

"Beautility"

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:16:00 +0000

Any article that starts with an Avanti Studebaker has my attention:

Tucker Viemeister on where beauty meets utility. An excerpt:

Beauty has different meanings in different cultures and eras--but everybody has some idea of beauty (even the Hell's Angels). Although humans can't agree on specific examples, we do all share a general formula for beauty: It has a very pleasing physical sensual element combined with mental enlightenment. "Aaaahs" and "Ah-has." It's the combination. There is an intellectual component to a beautiful person and an emotional component to a beautiful mathematical proof. The experience of beauty is the result of the convergence of body, mind, and soul. Form and function melt together. Art and science dance.

Afghanistan: Yon, Boot, and the British

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:05:00 +0000

Extraordinary soldiers and extraordinary journalism: Check out Michael Yon with British forces in Afghanistan here and here.

And don't miss an analysis by Max Boot of the proposed strategy.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:00:00 +0000

If a cat spoke, it would say things like, "Hey, I don't see the problem here."

- Roy Blount, Jr.

Burned-Out Bulbs in Moscow

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:08:00 +0000

At our spring Board Meeting in Munich in 1989, our key people reported that all signs pointed to the lid blowing off the Soviet Empire before the end of the year. The huge volume of incoming calls and their despairing tone, plus detailed reports from our growing number of stringers in the whole dispersed broadcast area made even our most hardened and jaundiced editors believe that something new was up.

One story our people reported was the appearance of a novelty among street vendors in Moscow: a market in burned-out light bulbs. Why buy burned-out bulbs? To take to the office, unscrew good bulbs to take home, and screw in the useless ones.

Read the rest of Michael Novak as he remembers 1989.

The Big Tab

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Ever have a restaurant bill for more than $47,000?

Waiter Rant looks at one from Nello's Restaurant in New York City.

Not Just Any Jet

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:11:00 +0000

Donald Trump is moving up and selling his old jet. Stanley Bing describes:

As jets go, it’s pretty standard. The interior looks like a huge stretch, with inverted glassware and the customary burnished wood everywhere you look. Lots of nice seating. Very comfy. Potential purchasers may wish to remove the enormous TRUMP that festoons the side, as well as the large pouf of ruddy, flaxen hair that has been surgically attached to the front dome, but beyond that it’s pretty much in walk-in condition. The price is reported to be between $4 and $8 million.

Veterans Day

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:27:00 +0000

You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense. From your ranks come the great captains who hold the nation's destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds. The Long Gray Line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.

- General Douglas MacArthur in his speech at West Point

When Silence Doesn't Signal Assent

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:38:00 +0000

I once worked in a headquarters where the philosophy at the top was that praise was unnecessary because if you still around that meant you were doing a good job.

Needless to say, that was not reassuring.

Executives and managers often miss the significance of not praising a project or of failing to respond positively to an email. They don't realize that silence is often interpreted as disapproval or hostility and that their good feelings are not presumed. There is more risk in undercommunicating than in overcommunicating and yet, especially in these times of lean staffs and pressing priorities, people can easily miss opportunities to reassure.

I knew one executive who had an extraordinary record with an organization. He resigned, largely due to a sense that his efforts were unappreciated. He later said that if one of the higher-ups had asked him to stay, he would have, but no call was made. All he heard was silence.

I guess they were busy.

Great Leap Backward

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:10:00 +0000

Check out the comments. This Wired article has sparked a debate over who deserves a very dubious honor.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:03:00 +0000

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are we not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

- Marianne Williamson

The Kindergarten Teachers

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:47:00 +0000

David Brooks on the rush to therapy in the wake of the Ft. Hood killings:

This response was understandable. It’s important to tamp down vengeful hatreds in moments of passion. But it was also patronizing. Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts. If public commentary wasn’t carefully policed, the assumption seemed to be, then the great mass of unwashed yahoos in Middle America would go off on a racist rampage.

[HT: Real Clear Politics]

Learning Techniques

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:42:00 +0000

Peter Drucker once wrote about the importance of knowing your learning technique. He noted that some people tend to learn by listening, others by reading, and still others by talking matters out or by writing. Those were just a few of the approaches.

I've noticed that while conducting workshops. You bring one section of the class on board with one approach and others with different ones. A combination of fast-paced techniques can enable you to reach most - and you hope all - of the participants on a particular point before moving on to a new barrage for the next one.

I shudder to think of some of the professors I've encountered who sat at a desk and droned. They exhibited an almost total lack of interest in conveying the information to the students.

At the same time, knowing your learning technique can be immensely helpful. In our careers, we often have to work around poor instructors to get the information we need. Bemoaning their inadequacies may be emotionally gratifying but it is unlikely to produce results.

There are days when a good student resembles an accomplished jewel thief.

Can't Wait to Read the Book: Come Fly with Me

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Wade) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:50:00 +0000

Surrounded by an entourage rented from the world of professional wrestling, the 63-year-old CEO of Southwest Airlines had come to arm wrestle his company's latest nemesis: Kurt Herwald, the 38-year-old weightlifting CEO of Stevens Aviation, an aircraft maintenance company based in South Carolina. Herwald had recently taken offense when he learned of Southwest's use of the slogan "Plane Smart." It seems that Stevens Aviation had already been using "Just Plane Smart" as their slogan for the past couple of years. But instead of calling on his lawyers to get things straightened out, Herwald phoned Kelleher directly and challenged him to fight for the rights to the slogan, mano a mano. Seizing this as a chance for great publicity, Kelleher hyped the event as "Malice in Dallas," gave 700 Southwest employees the morning off and brought them to the event to cheer him on. The arena soon echoed with the chant of "Herb! Herb! Herb! Herb!"

After staging an entrance that Gorgeous George would have been proud of, Kelleher got to business. Although he strained with all his might against his adversary's obvious physical advantages, Kelleher lost the match. "If it hadn't been for my hairline wrist fracture, my cold and my athlete's feet, I would have won," Kelleher protested. Gracious in victory, Herwald allowed Kelleher to keep using the slogan anyway. More important than winning the rights to the slogan, both men succeeded in obtaining great publicity for their companies. In the case of Southwest, Kelleher showed the public yet again that the nation's seventh largest airline had a lovable, zany sense of crowd-pleasing humor that came straight from the top.

Harvard Business Review's Working Knowledge has more information on and from the book "Come Fly with Me: A History of Airline Leadership." Click here.