Since the invention of the telephone, we have been communicating virtually, which means not in the same space as the person we are connecting with. It was a big deal getting the answering machine, you didn’t ever miss a call. Now beeps, texts, tweets, faxes, emails, whatsapps, Zooms, Teams, Facetimes, to name only a few,…
What is actually happening to the human race en masse? Setting the virus aside. Pandemonium. Let’s look at that. It means a wild uproar. It was the capital of Hell in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Take the word apart for closer examination of what is really going on. Pan (Greek god) and demonium or demonic. A…
One of the things I totally enjoy is leading workshops on communication styles. You should see the looks on people’s faces when I explain simple things like, “that cake she baked for you was a message of love.” “Or the more you raise your voice to feeling communicators, the more they tune you out!” (Fiery…
During a casual interview with a young employee, I noticed the surroundings of his office. Nothing on the walls, only a pale yellow beckoning a painting, poster or calendar at least. No personal picture of a girl or a dog. Even the desk calendar had not been written on, not one doodle or appointment. I…
I finally had to put the book down. I never looked, but it must have been well over 1000 pages. I was on pg 397 and was still not to the half way point. It was a book about Lincoln and the situation in the United States in the years leading up to the Civil…
Do you ever wonder if we are using the correct yardstick to measure our success? Have you gotten to that place in life yet where you have done all the ‘right’ things and yet you don’t feel fulfilled? Did you ever hit that dead end wall at the end of a long driven journey? If…
Dealing with entry level employees in a production line environment often means high rates of turnover, which means higher costs of doing business through hiring, training and investing in new employees. In general, the people available for these production line jobs, extremely vital to our economy, are often lacking in education, positive role models, skills,…
These two characters are creeping into the awareness of business owners, HR people, investment groups and anyone involved in the post-merger integration process. Why? I recently spoke with an investment group individual about some of their recent acquisitions. They invested in a survey of the employees of the new companies. Theoretically, they could then see…
Why don’t people say what they mean and mean what they say? Many people believe life would be far easier if they did. We tend to give a lot of slack for miscommunication in personal relationships because we know there are insecurities, expectations and emotions, but in business we often expect people to set aside…
One out of four marriages ends in divorce. It’s the same startling statistic for business mergers and acquisitions. Three quarters of them fail. What do you think accounts for this high failure rate? The reasons look pretty much the same. · They’re a bad match ~ they don’t really have anything in common, they…