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Bob Mason

How to Prevent a Team Disaster

January 13, 1982 was a cold day in Washington DC. The temperature hovered at 24 degrees and heavy snow was falling. At 4:00 PM, after waiting 1 hour and 45 minutes for Washington National Airport to reopen, Air Florida Flight 90 took off bound for Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Boeing… Read More »How to Prevent a Team Disaster

How to be an Assertive Leader

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In a recent interview on CNBC, Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo talked about a meeting with Steve Jobs where Jobs told her “If you really feel strongly about something — if you don’t like something people are doing — throw a temper tantrum. Throw things around, because people have got… Read More »How to be an Assertive Leader

The Glass is Always Full

You’ve probably heard the question before; is the glass half empty or half full? It’s the wrong question. It’s better to ask, what the glass is full of. Unless it’s in a vacuum, the glass, or any container, is always full of something. Even the glass that is filled halfway with liquid is still full. The rest of the volume is taken up with air, dust, and other things you can’t see and probably don’t want to think about. People are like that too.Read More »The Glass is Always Full

Heat, Wind, Sand, and A Critical Mission

The sand suspended in the air was worse than usual. A recent sandstorm had made the air almost opaque and I could only see for a few feet. I could barely see the 26 airplanes parked in front of me, or the approximately 200 mechanics who were working to get them ready to fly. (The picture was taken in the daytime) As I walked towards where I knew the planes were, I could begin to make out their shapes, and see the outline of the troops scurrying about. Within the next hour or so, at least 20 of those airplanes would be airborne.

The airplanes were C-130 transports many of which were more than 40 years old. They had spent their years in hard use, carrying heavy loads around the world often landing in barely improved dirt strips. They were old, tired airplanes. But because of the mechanics that toiled day and night to keep them mission ready, they could still do the job.

Those mechanics worked in conditions that were uncomfortable at best. Read More »Heat, Wind, Sand, and A Critical Mission