I believe that there is tremendous power in perspectives!  Over the last few years, I have found it highly useful to look at things from different perspectives.  Whether it is a situation, a problem, or an opportunity, it is amazing when you see, hear, think and feel it from a different perspective other than your [...]

The following quote is one of my favorites: “If you always do what you’ve always done — You will always get what you’ve always gotten.” As humans, we get set in our ways to the point that we are not conscious of some things we do.  Our brain is wired to enable us to free [...]

According to an employee engagement study I read a while ago, there are five broad actions that managers should keep in mind and practice as often as possible in order to maximize employee engagement: Caring:  Show them you truly and sincerely care Challenging:  Make sure they feel intellectually/professionally challenged Noticing: Keep an eye on what [...]

This week Pittsburgh is hosting the G-20 Conference. The city has been getting ready for this event for months.  It is a big deal for us! This gives us a great opportunity to showcase our city! In my opinion, the city has done a great job preparing for and communicating with the business community and [...]

In order to survive and thrive in today’s world, both individuals and organizations should continuously improve the way they do things.  Continuous improvement requires continuous learning. However, effective learning takes time.  You need time to determine what to learn, time to do the learning, and finally, time to practice what you’ve learned. Make a Strong [...]

I was looking through materials I save to write my next post and I came across the following quote: “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” I do not know where I got it from, but it made a quick and strong impression on me.  I believe that [...]

For some reason I do not understand, clutter seems to be bad for people and organizations.  Thus, taking time to declutter is a high value activity that we should undertake on a regular basis.  When I worked at Westinghouse a few years ago, I had a boss who would take advantage of customer and executive [...]

In this post I am mixing subjects from two prior posts: Problems and Opportunities.  When you think about it, the best business opportunities are related to one or more problems.  And opportunities lie in the solution to those problems.  If that is the case, that means that to find great opportunities you need to be [...]

Once in a while I find it useful to apply corporate processes to myself.  One of the tools that has given me useful information is the SWOT analysis. For those who are not familiar, the SWOT analysis is a method that strategic corporate planners use to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in [...]

The IT world is full of challenges!  IT infrastructures are a breeding ground for them.  Problem-solving is a critical skill for IT Managers and for many IT Professionals. As human beings, we are wired to solve problems. However, that natural instinct can sometimes get us into trouble.  Thinking about it, I see two possible reasons [...]