Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Red Light, Green Light

By Kevin Payravi (Own work)
[CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)],
via Wikimedia Commons
Did you ever sit through a traffic light, only to have it turn green and only allow enough time for two or three cars to go through before it was red again?
Every time this happens to me, I begin to have delusions that I am a civil engineer and I could plan traffic flows better than the folks that do it. Maybe I could, maybe not, but ultimately that's not my job. But I have to think that for me, the driver, having a non-stop green light in my lane would clearly be the most efficient way for me to get to my destination.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Simple Formula

Business and commerce are not concepts that are particularly complex or confusing. In fact, any successful business follows a relatively simple formula:
  1. Make a product or provide a service that people want to buy
  2. Get people aware of that product or service
  3. Sell the product or service for more than it costs you to produce
  4. Do it over and over again and scale alongside it
Everything about improving business boils down to "sell more at lower cost." So which side of the business do you find yourself on? Selling more or reducing cost? If you don't know, how can you effectively move the needle for the company?

Friday, March 27, 2015

Vacation Day

By English: U.S. Department of the Interior,
Office of Insular Affairs 日本語: アメリカ合衆国内務省島嶼局
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Today's a vacation day for me. Although I wish that I could say I was relaxing on a beach that looks something like the one in the picture here, today is not one of those kinds of vacation days. Perhaps it is more of a "staycation" day as I plan to spend it at home.
Americans have, in recent years, been flagged as taking fewer and fewer vacation days. This article on MarketWatch indicates that in general, Americans only take about half of their allocated vacation days. And there is a whole initiative driven by the travel industry to study the effects of unused vacation on the economy. Their study said more than four of ten people left vacation days on the table, resulting in 429 million unused vacation days in 2013.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Cloak and Dagger

By Julo (Own work) [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons
Last night,  I had a dream about international espionage,  murder,  and a conspiracy to cover it up. At the office. Makes the real issues and drama that we experience in the workplace so much more mundane, doesn't it?
In the end (right before I woke up), the plot had started to unravel, just like it would in a spy novel. Lies started to be exposed and the liars who told them. Gossip spread around the office about the truth coming out. The entire cover-up began fading away as more and more facts surfaced. Those responsible became more and more nervous that they would soon be found out.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Follow The Leader

Follow the leader (42003845)
By Christopher Michel from San Francisco, USA (follow the leader)
[CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons
I posted the following thought a few weeks ago on LinkedIn:

It would be pretty difficult to teach kids to play Follow The Leader if the leader is at the back of the line. Leaders lead from the front. Easier said than done, sometimes, but worth a try and you can set an example.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Getting Stuff Done

I bet you have a "To Do" list. I do. In fact, I have a list at work, a personal list, a list of things to write about, a list of places I'd like to visit, things to do around the house. All in all, I have several To Do lists.

The challenge comes when the list gets so long that it seems unmanageable. I know I catch myself snoozing 30 reminders that pop up en masse, and after snoozing the third time or so, I start to challenge the effectiveness of my list.