This is a post entirely inspired by David Fredericksen, Assistant Manager of Production Engineering at NVIC, a foundry in central Indiana. He and I got a back-and-forth debate going on LinkedIn over the weekend, focused on the topic of unionization that was raised in a video I’d posted. He raised some excellent points in his […]

One beauty of a concise book is that you can get smarter in one sitting. That’s definitely the case with The Conclusion Trap: Four Steps to Better Decisions by Dan Markovitz. It comes in at just shy of 60 pages, but it packs a heckuva punch in one thin volume. His whole point is that […]

According to Jim Craig, goalie for the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, he and his teammates had no doubt they would win the gold medal. They did, of course, almost exactly 40 years ago, in a story that has now become legend. February’s milestone anniversary prompted Craig to write his new book, We Win! Lessons […]

We just welcomed our new Crossovers to our Troop. Those are the former Cub Scouts who, having achieved the highest rank in that organization, the Arrow of Light, have now “graduated” into Scouts BSA, and moved from their old Pack into a Troop. As part of their welcome, a group of our adult leaders took […]

Scouting is just like any other organization in one important way. It’s made up of people – people of varying talents and abilities and moods and personalities. It’s obvious that those people, whether the Scouts themselves or the adult leaders and parents who support them, share a lot of common interests and values. That fact, […]

I’ve had an interesting dust-up the past few days over a comment I made about a LinkedIn post. Now I’ve been challenged with a follow-up question that I believe warrants an extended answer, so I decided to write it up here. It all started when a female VP at a large financial services firm posted […]

The always-intriguing Don Peppers published an excellent piece on LinkedIn today about the new focus on customer experience, and why it took so long to get where we are. His thesis is that it all came from the marketing approach of Jerome McCarthy dating to 1958, which put the emphasis on “product, price, place, and promotion.” Do […]

The passing of rock drumming legend Neil Peart of Rush wouldn’t seem to fit in with this month’s ruminations. But it does – trust me on this. I’d already decided to write about questioning your own experience, based on a passage from a book I read recently. Peart hitting the news reminded me of how […]

Those unfamiliar with Scouting are usually surprised to hear that one of its core values is that Troops are Scout-led. “What exactly does that mean?” is a typical question. It’s pretty self-explanatory. In a well-functioning Troop, the Scouts lead everything: Troop meetings, outings, service projects, and short-term and annual planning. Adults are there to facilitate […]

Well, I’ve been awfully spotty posting here. That’s because I’m writing seven full-length articles a month about manufacturing over at Forbes.com. I published my 50th a few weeks ago, and the ideas just keep pouring in. It has been loads of fun (and lots of hard work, yes). Almost my whole career, three decades now, […]