The Key to Immediate Happiness
Imagine the following scenario. You are single and live just outside of New York City. Your employer wants you to work in London for a few years. You are excited about the prospect of living overseas and are interested in the job. Assuming that the costs of living for New Jersey and London are roughly […]
How I Used Crowdsourcing The Wrong Way And What You Can Learn From It
We often hear the expression “Wisdom of crowds.” And if you have read my articles, it will be apparent that I am an ardent fan of crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing makes the argument that the aggregation of information produced by groups, result in decisions that are often better than those that are made by a single individual. […]
Balance of Work and Life is a Myth
Many years back, I led classes on Stephen Covey’s “Principle Centered Leadership” for Accenture’s managers. Over 75 percent of the attendees said that achieving balance in their life was their number one reason for taking the course. This is not surprising given the fast pace of life today. But what does balance mean? Balance implies two […]
How to Create a Happy Work Environment
While speaking at a conference on “happiness at work” in Copenhagen, I met Cathy Busani, the Managing Director of Happy, a training and consultancy business operating in the U.K. Although they only employ 30 people, Happy has won wide recognition for its innovative approach to management and to customer service. I was intrigued by her […]
How To Embrace And Conquer Pain
Let’s face it, sometimes you feel horrible. You feel like the universe is conspiring against you. It could be caused by an upsetting event, such as the end of a relationship or the loss of a job. Other times the feelings are elusive and unexplainable, thus attributed to the alignment of the stars or a […]
How Small Businesses Can Leverage Crowdsourcing
Open innovation and crowdsourcing promise to revolutionize the way companies innovate and develop new products, create marketing campaigns and solve problems of all kinds. Unfortunately, there is more confusion than clarity about how to best utilize these approaches. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of InnoCentive, one of the early pioneers […]
How to Always Be On Time
If you have been around for a while, you might recall the Hertz commercials from the 70s where the ex-football star and criminal, O.J. Simpson, is running through airports hurdling over rows of departure lounge seats and luggage. I know of other road warriors who also run through airports, priding themselves in being able to […]
When You Sit on the Fence, You Get Splinters in Your Ass!
This article was published on the American Express OPEN Forum. The title you see here on this blog was rejected by them and replaced with “The Art of Decision Making.” I decided to retain the original. This has been updated slightly since the original post. A recent Wall Street Journal article said that “for […]
Stop Asking For Ideas
I recently gave a presentation on innovation for a company that sells travel packages online. The presenter who preceded me was the executive in charge of creating the technology that automatically sends follow-up e-mails to prospects who visited the site. A few minutes into his presentation, he displayed a slide that showed the typical e-mail […]
How Focusing On The Big Picture Can Help Grow Your Bottom Line
This article was published on the American Express OPEN Forum. When I sent in the article, I called it “If you focus on the hot dog, you might go hungry.” Clearly they didn’t like that title 🙂 Regardless of how you feel about Trump’s now aborted run for President, you have to give him […]