Kent Blumberg

Gorge caterpillar

Caterpillar, found in the Columbia River Gorge two or three years ago (before I kept any sort of record on my photos).  I think I took this using my medium format camera with bellows attachment and an off camera flash.

Questions for Leaders at the end of the First Quarter

The first quarter of 2007 ends this week.  Business leaders at all levels will spend the next few days or weeks collecting financial results and reporting on them.

Will all those reports help you manage your business?  Hopefully they will be of some help.  They might not be enough, though.  Here are some additional questions you might want to ask yourself in order to help you turbo charge the second quarter.  As you work through these questions, you will want to revise your "100 day plan" accordingly.

Death threats are not protected speech

I was going to write a normal post for today, something about how to write headlines that entice readers into your blog or email.  Looking for examples of good and bad blog headlines, I stumbled across this one:

"Death threats against bloggers are NOT "protected speech" (why I cancelled my ETech presentations)"

and knew I needed to change the focus of today's post.  Read Kathy's post and you'll see why.  (Note:  Kathy's post is not safe for kids to read.)

What do you do that is annoying your customers?

Cynthia and I sat down to lunch on Sunday and turned on the TV for a bit of background.  "The Stepford Wives" was playing on FX and we found ourselves starting to get into the story.

There is a part of the movie where Nicole Kidman is talking with her movie husband, Mathew Broderick.  It's quiet, with a bit of piano music playing in the background.

SUDDENLY, A LARGE NOISE INTRUDES AND THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER OF THE SCREEN IS TAKEN UP BY AN AD FOR AN UPCOMING WILL SMITH SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mood gone, enjoyment gone, TV off, two more customers gone.

Purple Macro

I shot these tiny flowers on the bank of our local bayou.

Canon EOS 20D, 65mm MP-E macro lens at 5x, ISO 100, 1/60s at f/16, with macro twin lite MT-24EX.

Processed in Adobe Photoshop CS2.  Adjusted contrast and brightness with a levels adjustment layer.  Removed various specs, then used unsharp mask twice (500/.5/1) to get the final product.

Tell me how I can help improve education in the US

This week's U.S. News and World Report was the final straw for me. 

The cover story, called "Making America Better," contained a report about how Finland succeeds at educating its children.  Within that story are some very frightening statistics for anyone worried about the USA's ability to compete in the future.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development reports every few years on the state of education in 40 industrialized nations.  The most recent report (2003) ranks the US as follows:

• 18th in reading literacy
• 22nd in science
• 28th in math.

Open door policies that work

Many companies and executives, I expect, have open door policies.  What about you?  Do you have one?  Does it work?

For me, the only open door policy that works is my policy of opening my door, getting off my keester, and heading out to see the shop floor or customers.

The Elements of Great Managing: 12 - Opportunities to Learn and Grow

[Part 12 of a 12 part series exploring the concepts in 12: The Elements of Great Managing, Wagner and Harter, Gallup Press, 2006.]

And so we come to the final element of great managing:  creating an environment in which employees agree strongly with the statement, "This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grown."

Laughing 'Gator

Is he smiling because he sees dinner (you) a few feet away?

Captured (on camera that is) on March 17, 2006 at 5:40 pm at Alligator Bayou, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Shot at ISO 1600, 1/500 s at f/8, 300 mm lens on a Canon EOS 20D.  Handheld.

Minimal processing in Adobe Photoshop CS2:  Levels for contrast, unsharp mask.

The Gemba - what it is and why leaders should care

A rant over on "The Corporate Cynic" got me thinking about gemba.  Jerome writes that the whole concept seems to be a "goofy" gimmick that would just result in more paperwork.

He could not have been more wrong.

Gemba is a Japanese word that means the "actual place."  Practitioners of lean manufacturing/lean service talk about the importance of going to the gemba in order to see for yourself what really happens.  Going to the gemba is a core principle of the Toyota Way, and should be a core tool that every leader uses.