I almost lost some fingers once. Another Navy story. While in the North Arabian Sea (NAS) right after the Shah fell we were getting bored waiting for taskings from on high (we spent 120 days in the NAS but were never called into action - the next group participated in the aborted hostage rescue opreations). So our Admiral suggested some fun and games - one being turning motor whaleboats into sail boats and having a race between the three ships in the task group (Sterret (my ship), Waddell, and B… Continue

At the last company I worked for I had the opportunity to create one of those innovation groups - a Strategic Markets function the job of which was to get our company into new, growing markets leveraging the processes we had with new technology - using partnerships to move more quickly than developing our own technology.

We had 10 folks, in marketing, product management, implementation and sales.

The biggest mistake I made was viewing it as a destination in itself. I saw it growing to become a… Continue

Some years ago, our company supplied billing services for a mid-sized telecom provider. It was old technology, and we were very interested in migrating them over to a new platform we’d just begun to offer. They were referenceable and complimentary of our work with them. The IT group, our liaison, was happy to set up a meeting with the various groups that would be involved in a decision to change platforms.

At that meeting we learned the other groups didn’t hold us in such high esteem. Not only… Continue

I've only had the chance to read the abstract, but the doctoral dissertaton of Heather Carmack, of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University, looks like a treasure trove of insight on mistakes, apologies, the health care system, use of narratives and sensemaking. I I can't wait to read the other 352 pages (!).… Continue

The title might seem fundamental but as a manager, I had a really hard time dealing with this fact. Past success seemed to be a powerful screen hiding current challenges. We have built many products and executed many projects successfully, some even with certain components not tried before. Trying to emulate the same in every assignment, I made this terrible mistake of relying heavily upon "averages" of past data to set expectations for current and future projects unmindful of the fact that the… Continue