If you attend conferences, you know how stimulating it feels when smart people who are creating the future get together to share their ideas. That happened to me just last week when I was a speaker at #CONNECT 2019!, a gathering of 240 leaders in the world’s most dynamic environment for supply chain innovation —the …
Last week I taught Strategic Thinking & Planning for Leaders at the UCLA Extension’s Technical Management Program, for the 65th time over the last 30+ years. My students were managers, group leaders, technologists, and project managers who kept me on my toes by asking provocative questions. One question was “when and how often should you update your …
I recently facilitated an off-site planning retreat for top managers in an underperforming technical department in a division of a Fortune 500 company. They needed a fresh start and invited me to help them revise their strategy, establish metrics, and launch key initiatives. But… Prescribing a solution without first diagnosing the problem is malpractice, whether …
For over 30 years now I’ve trained and worked with project managers in Fortune 100s, government agencies, research institutions and fast-growing businesses all over the world. I believe that project managers like you are the unsung heroes of our time because we are responsible for 90% of the positive changes in the world. But I’m upset. …
A story about Robert Crandall, the legendary former chairman of American Airlines, demonstrates how creative thinking can simplify operations and reduce costs. Crandall visited each AA location annually and discovered that a low-traffic Caribbean cargo warehouse employed an expensive night watchman to deter theft. Crandall suggested reducing the watchman to just three nights a week (the …
The amazingly good news is that it’s over…. 12 “Wild Boar” Thai children and their coach were all rescued alive after being trapped two weeks in a cold dark cave 6 kilometers deep. It was a mission feared impossible, as divers navigated tight passages of sharp rocks, weighed down by bulky equipment and guiding weak …
The great Mark Twain reminds us that we should take our brains out once in a while and stomp on them because they get all caked up. Let’s stomp! I’m a firm believer in the value of asking brain-shaking questions at least twice a year. Since the first half of 2018 is history, now is a …
After NASA’s $125 million Mars Orbiter crashed during the landing phase, a later analysis showed that the spacecraft builders worked in the metric system. NASA assumed, but for some reason failed to verify, that the builders were using the English measurement system of feet and inches. Thus, the Orbiter’s computer contained bogus data and the …
Hopefully, something like this has never happened to you. The big boss assigns you what could be a career make or break a project and asks for a plan on her desk in three days. The project is bigger than those you’ve done before and outside your mainstream expertise. You begin by jotting down some …
When I took the podium to accept my award, I began just like those fancy Hollywood actors. “I’d like to thank those who made in possible — my amazing students, the ten thousand managers, geeks, engineers, nuclear scientists, entrepreneurs, game designers, and other brainy folks who survived my unorthodox teaching style, and are now changing …
