On November 22, 1968 Japan Airlines Flight 2, a DC 8, was scheduled to land at San Francisco International airport. In heavy fog, its Captain Kohei Asoh, not adequately trained on the plane’s new flight director, landed his aircraft in San… Read More ›
accountability
DECISIONS: WHAT IF ALL YOUR OPTIONS SEEM WRONG?
Some time ago, I read a “New York Times” article by Wolf Biermann, a German author who has lived on both sides of the Berlin Wall. Its title was The Tragedy of Angela Merkel. In explaining the conundrum he… Read More ›
DECISIONS AS ACTS OF FAITH
When many of us hear the words faith or belief, we think of religion. So I often receive a strange look from others when I tell them that most of the decisions we make in life are also based on our faith… Read More ›
DIAGNOSING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S HEALTH
Imagine you are on an airplane and seated next to you is a congenial and engaging man or woman. You strike up a conversation and discover your seating companion works for the airline you are flying. At some point, you… Read More ›
TEAM PERFORMANCE: THE FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE OF FULFILLED HUMAN NEEDS
I have focused on the topic of teams several times in this series of articles. And indeed there has been enough written about the topic these past twenty-five years to fill an entire library shelf. I return to the subject here,… Read More ›
THE NATURE OF FACTS
The Webster Dictionary defines a FACT as “the quality of being actual; something that has actual existence; a piece of information presented as having objective reality; something that hinges on evidence”. So when you say “in fact”, what you are… Read More ›
THINKING AND ACTING FORWARD
Tradition is a very powerful and important thing. It is a glue that helps hold nations, societies, families and organizations together. Traditions are a source of pride, we celebrate them, we defend them, and we hold on to them because… Read More ›
DON’T ASK IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO ACT ON WHAT YOU HEAR
I recently encountered the following story. A supervisor initiated an employee opinion survey designed, among other things, to identify what the staff thought of their performance as a manager. The supervisor promised the responses would be anonymous and had arranged to have another staff… Read More ›
EFFECTIVE CORPORATE DECISION MAKING: STEP FOUR INDICATORS OF DECISION SUCCESS
To be a manager is to make countless individual decisions for which you will personally be held responsible and accountable. However, in most organizations managers collectively are also required to occasionally come together at various levels to decide and implement… Read More ›
ACCOUNTABILITY: THE SIMPLE MANAGEMENT SECRET OF THE PAUL O’NEILL STORY
Chapter four of Charles Duhigg’s fascinating and highly insightful book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” is entitled“Keystone Habits or the Ballad of Paul O”Neill”. This chapter has drawn a lot of… Read More ›