Archive for November, 2009
ManagementSpeak 11/30/2009
Monday, November 30th, 2009ManagementSpeak: Come to me with solutions, not problems.
Translation: When did you get the impression that you’re supposed to delegate work to me?
This week’s anonymous contributor had the impression that he should contribute phrases and interpretations. He was right.
Legless Dog Syndrome
Monday, November 30th, 2009Old joke: Did you hear about the guy who had a dog with no legs? Every morning he took it out for a drag.
Some managers consider that to be their job description.
To avoid that sad fate, imagine it’s as I proposed two weeks ago: You and every other executive and manager in your organization have [...]
Great Quotations, 11/23/2009
Monday, November 23rd, 2009“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”
- John Lennon
Requiem
Monday, November 23rd, 2009My friend Larry Robbins died last Wednesday, apparently of karoshi. He was 52 years old.
Larry’s death by overwork was self-inflicted. He was the sort of person who constantly looked for what wasn’t being done that he could do. The universe being what it is, his attitude gave Larry an infinite pile of work.
He figured if [...]
ManagementSpeak, 11/16/2009
Monday, November 16th, 2009ManagementSpeak: Great idea. Put together a meeting to get everyone on board.
Translation: I don’t like your idea, but I’d rather let a room full of naysayers shoot it down than tell you directly.
Alan Earnshaw joins the KJR Club by providing a terrific alternative to the translation of last week’s ManagementSpeak.
Leading without authority
Monday, November 16th, 2009What if the CEO had no authority?
Take it a step further: What if you had no authority either? Same job, same responsibilities. You gauge success the same way you gauge it today. The only difference is that you can’t exert your authority and make it stick.
How much would change? Very little, I hope. Those who [...]
ManagementSpeak, 11/9/2009
Monday, November 9th, 2009ManagementSpeak: Great idea. Put together a meeting to get everyone on board.
Translation: Great idea. Now we have to persuade a bunch of people who have no interest in it.
Vince E. Angulo joins the KJR Club with this great idea.
Thesaurus Rexx
Monday, November 9th, 2009An over-quoted but appropriate exchange:
Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”
Sherlock Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”
Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”
Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”
- Silver Blaze, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I’m not Sherlock Holmes, and [...]
ManagementSpeak, 11/2/2009
Monday, November 2nd, 2009ManagementSpeak: We’re committed to this and are going to make it happen.
Translation: You people fix it.
This week’s anonymous contributor fixed a phrase whose meaning had been obscured.
What if SOA is a mistake?
Monday, November 2nd, 2009What if you decide Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a mistake?
Perhaps you’re concerned it’s a misguided attempt to build applications around generalities instead of specifics. Maybe you think object-oriented (OO) analysis had it right — that building a model of the things that make up a business is better than building a model of its [...]
Bob Lewis is president of 