Among the many sculptures and works of art in Washington D.C. is a piece titled “The Awakening,” a large aluminum sculpture of a man either struggling to rise from, or being consumed by the Earth. Created by J. Seward Johnson Jr., the sculpture was first installed at Haines Point in 1980 as a temporary display, then found a permanent home at the National Harbor. What intrigues me about “The Awakening”…
This article was submitted by guest blogger Sophia Katrina. In this day and age of digital dependency, employees are more isolated than ever before, even if they are working in the same office. This might make you wonder if it’s still essential for bosses to foster teamwork and collaboration. It used to be that collaboration was one of the biggest factors that contributed to a business’s success—but is that still…
In 1968, Dr Laurence Peter published The Peter Principle. He said that, in any organization, employees will rise to their own level of incompetence. Kind of a sobering thought. I’m sure you have seen organizations that seem to prove his theory. I know I have. That’s unfortunate because it doesn’t have to be that way. Employees rise to their level of incompetence because leaders either allow them to or force…
The question was posed to me recently by an executive level client. He was upset that his project managers didn’t seem to want to go beyond the way things were normally done. He wanted them to try different approaches and new ideas. The executive is an engineer and very experienced in the industry. His project managers are a mix of varied levels of experience and knowledge. In any business today,…
A basic tenet of a military organization is the ability to pack up and move out quickly. Being proficient at that skill requires planning and practice. Although I’ve been involved in many such efforts, both as rehearsals and as real deployments, one example has always stuck in my mind. It was during my days in a combat rescue unit and there are two reasons it has stayed with me. First,…
