March 14, 2022
Good morning! Sap’s running! Remember that old refrigerator joke? (You had better go catch it!)Between Saturday morning and yesterday afternoon the temperature in our yard increased by more than fifty degrees. Don’t forget your Pies today… our grandson turns four-years-old and we miss him. Plague, please be done.
- “Just because someone carries it well, doesn’t mean it isn’t heavy.” (Unknown attribution)
- “A toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of industry-adjusted attrition and is ten times more important than compensation in predicting turnover.” (Sull, Sull, Zweig, 2022)
Does your culture allow for speaking truth to power?
- My senior IT guy, who I appreciate immensely, recently received a nice promotion and new duties at his day job.
- Among my IT guy’s newfound responsibilities has been teaching his new boss how to better communicate his vision to his team of 60 people.
- In fact, more precisely, it has been letting people know that there IS a vision.
- The boss was under the impression that everyone surely knows, but my IT guy has had to gently tell him, “No, almost no one knows.”
- “Why do you suppose there is so much confusion — and why do you suppose people are working in so many different directions?”
- “Working hard, mind you, but unaligned with the vision because they don’t know what it is.”
- Speaking truth to power might be among the most important responsibilities of subordinates.
- Does your culture allow for speaking truth to power?
- More importantly, does it encourage speaking truth to power?
- In this true story, thankfully, the boss has been grateful because he hadn’t realized how poor his communication had been.
- You can’t have a shared vision if you’re the only one who knows about it.
- Speaking of IT (Office technology), here are a few fun trivia questions stolen from Akst, 2022:
- What famous United States author and philosopher made more money by manufacturing and selling pencils than by writing and opining? (Answers down below.)
- After its invention in 1868, what company was the first to manufacture typewriters on a wide scale?
- (Everyone knows this one) Which company discovered and now manufactures Post-It Notes?
- The first computerized spreadsheet, believe it or not, was not marketed until 1979; what was it called?
- What did Betty Claire Graham, an office secretary working in Dallas, TX, and whose son was one of the Monkees, invent in 1954?
- Pneumatic tubes, still in use today at many banks, were ubiquitous in which city for sorting and delivering United States Mail?
- That’s enough for now… look down below for answers. Thank you!
- What if workplace technology were as easy to use as personal technology? (Peppard, Dery, 2022)
- “Thirty-five percent (35%) of workers worldwide said their job is harder than it should be because of outdated technology and/or processes.” (Ibid.)
- So-called crystallized intelligence — wisdom, knowledge, expertise — doesn’t plateau until about age 55 — and then remains strong for the next two decades or more.
- So-called fluid intelligence — reasoning and current knowledge, things more typical of youth — peaks at about age 20 and then declines rapidly throughout life. (Parker and Fisher, M.I.T. Sloan, 2022)
- “When you must, you can.” (Old Yiddish proverb)
