Category: management
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Today's Required Online Functional Literacy
I’ve been thinking about workplace literacy lately. I’m thinking especially about professional offices (not so much the shop floor — my experience there is a lot older than my experience in front of a computer). It seems to me that we are in the midst of a major change in how work gets done. Again.…
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Do We Really Want That Feedback?
I have worked in a lot of different kinds of offices in my career, and I’ve been a cubicle drone as well as a manager. I’ve hired and fired, and received my fair share of reviews. Today I’m going to talk about feedback — getting it and giving it. There is a great deal of…
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Wikipedia And What To Do About Growth
My latest piece is posted at Public Square Today, my blog at Washington Times Communities: Wikipedia And What To Do About Growth According to the Wall Street Journal, at least for those who pay to subscribe, the number of volunteer contributors to the massive Wikipedia has plummeted. 49,000 editors dropped out in Q1 2009, compared…
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Navigating The New Push-Pull World
This morning, as I went outside to pick up the many newspapers to which I subscribe to home delivery (I’m old school that way), I saw an extra bundle in the middle of the driveway. It was a free print version of a new online newspaper, being helpfully delivered to my doorstep. My immediate thoughts…
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Tell Me About The Time You Failed
I’ve had more than my fair share of occasions to hire someone. I’ve done it on my own, and in teams of people. I’ve been the one making the decision, and I’ve been in an advisory capacity. There’s a question I always ask, but that I myself have never been asked. Indeed, when I ask…
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The Value Of Focusing On Something Else
Last night, on vacation with extended family, a few of us stayed up late playing Risk. As players of this game know, these episodes can go on for hours and hours. We laughed harder than I had laughed in a long time. As I went to bed (of course the game is not finished, it…
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Cash For Clunkers: When Paces Collide
The White House has announced that it will divulge details shortly about how it will wind down the seemingly successful Cash for Clunkers program. As of July, car dealers nationwide had done $1.8 billion in deals under the program, and are on track to exhaust the $3 billion available for the program. The initiative has…
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Management Lesson From The Boy Scouts: What Looks Simple From The Inside May Be Complex From The Outside
For the past few days I have been helping in a small way on a large crowd control effort. My son’s Boy Scout troop parks cars at the local county fair every summer. The boys plan and execute it each year. This is a huge undertaking, as tens of thousands attend the fair. It’s one…
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Are You Playing Restaurant?
When I was about eleven, I learned how to make my favorite cheese sandwich: white bread, mayonnaise, American cheese. Yes, I grew up in the midwest. Shortly after I learned this special skill, I developed a fun game to pass the time: I would play “restaurant.” More precisely, I would play short order cook. I…
Brad Rourke 