Waching Bill Maher's Religilous. I'm about halfway through. He's hilarious. The documentary, for me, is not about religion, but about how we construct ideas and why we construct them. Maher's dry witt and incredulous "looks" into the camera are worth the rental price alone. It seems the health of the planet is at stake here...the [...]

Looking forward to spending the day with 6 Battalion Chiefs and their leader. We'll be looking at building their leadership skills and developing common mission for the year ahead.I love to speak to large groups. But, I also love to focus in on a small group of leaders and help them think strategically and create [...]

Here's a short clip from a speaking engagement last week. I had the privilege to speak to fire and emergency personnel who make up incident command teams. These teams, beyond their normal daily duties in the cities in which they live, make up incident teams that are mobilized to meet the challenges of disasters when [...]

I'm writing in a Starbucks. There's a little boy sitting on his Mom's lap. He is maybe two, maybe. It reminds me of my two sons at that age. Everyone who walks in sits down and smiles when they see him bounce on his Mom's lap, dance to the music, and try his hardest to [...]

There's an Einstein Bagel shop in my town that recently went through a managerial transition. For those of us who were regulars, we could just feel the change coming. The store was languishing a bit and change was needed. The outgoing manager was a really nice guy, but seemed burned out. The new manager has [...]

At least one business model for the future has got to be the independent-and sometimes not so independent- musician.   Here's the model: 1) Make great music 2) Create a virtual space where your music can be heard 3) Create a tribe of fans 4) Play, play, play (wherever you can--at least early on) 5) [...]

I'm sitting in a Starbucks this morning doing some writing. There are two people sitting next to me lamenting EVERYTHING. It started as a conversation about how bad the economy is, and it has degenerated into a "negative fest" about all things related to life. Our thinking, and our collective conversations about the current state [...]

There was some more unfortunate financial news today. There is no doubt that times are hard. The temptation is great, and it would be easy to do, but don't do it. Don't participate in the recession. I'm more and more convinced that our very future depends on not participating in this recession. I'm not suggesting [...]

I'm no quantum physicist. But, I do (I think) understand quantum leaps may be small in terms of space, but BIG in terms of effect. The same is true for customer service. I travel a lot. I interface with people delivering (often to me) customer service all day long. It is amazing to me, how [...]

Leaders are developers. A few posts back, we thought about how critical it is, for leaders, to focus on people. It's not enough to be a task master or an "ensure-r of accomplishment." Getting things done, moving forward, is important. However, if people feel they are simply a cog in the machine, they will eventually [...]