Kent Blumberg

Take the first step NOW

The world is moving too fast for perfect plans.  Yes, you need to plan your project, proposal, business, meal - whatever - but at some point you need to execute the plan.  You need to get out there and do something.

Customer Service and Trust

Seth Godin's post Sunday, the story of an incident he witnessed at Radio Shack on Friday, got me thinking again about how important good customer service is to business success.  Before writing this post, I wandered around the blogosphere to see what I could find on the subject of customer service.

Cognition and Chance - How good are you at making decisions in uncertain conditions?

In preparation for writing a book review for "The Mensa Research Journal," I am reading Cognition and Chance: The Psychology of Probabilistic Reasoning (Raymond S. Nickerson, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004, 520 pages).  Here are a few of the most interesting conclusions Dr. Nickerson draws from his overview of several decades of research.

Treat mediocrity as an organizational emergency

Where is your organization mediocre?  Are you treating that mediocrity as an emergency?  If not, you may be the next GM.  Check out Mark Edmondson's take on mediocrity on "The LEAN Executive."

Leadership Development Questions

Nearly 20 years ago, Max DePree, then CEO of Herman Miller, Inc, wrote Leadership Is an Art.  Although I have long since lost the book, I still use DePree's list of leadership questions with my team.  Here are a dozen of my favorites from the book. 

Life-long Learning

I believe that when we stop learning we start dying.  According to Wayne Hurlburt,

"Legendary Hall of Fame baseball manager Earl Weaver (photo left) once said, 'It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.'"

Read Wayne's October 26 post for some questions to ponder on lifelong learning.