Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

I'm going to date myself and say that I've been using PowerPoint since the early 90's.  Just like kids are transitioning from the PC to mobile devices with very little effort, I transitioned from transparencies to PowerPoint in much the same manner.  It actually became a core competency of mine which is good when you are a management consultant.  We are now at a time where information is more pictures than words-- so much so that cloud services are increasing space size and companies catering to the photography generation are going out of business.  The irony is that you have to simplify the information as much as possible to get your point across and make your story that much more compelling. With this shift comes a whole  set of tools that give you instant gratification and new ways to tell your story outside of the PowerPoint templates of old. I'd recommend getting familiar with, if not immersing yourself in these tools. Otherwise, you'll be the one...

Consultants are everywhere.  There is no shortage of people wanting to give you his or her opinion.  Even the CEO of Deloitte Consulting, Jim Moffatt, says that there are too many consultants .  But as we all know, if there wasn't demand for such services, there wouldn't be the supply.  Just as there are enough people wanting to give advice, there are enough out there asking for an opinion or two.  Whether the advice is heeded or not is a topic for a separate discussion. What separates the good consultants from the so-so ones is that they think about these three questions as they work with clients.  Am I providing value for what I am charging (daily/weekly)? For example, if your bill rate is $100/hour and you work 40 hours a week, what did you provide for $4,000? I would say that a lot of us may struggle with that question which makes it even more important for you to prove your worth day in and day out.   How many productive hours did ...

This past weekend, my wife thew a party for some good friends of ours in appreciate for listing and buying their home with her as their Realtor.  Even though the fun was in the party itself, there was a lot to be learned through the planning of the event.  What I did learn is that not all cupcakes are the same. If you are planning any event at all that requires dessert or sweets -- or just food in general -- check out Lenox Cupcakes .  They have all the essential ingredients of a great business: A great  story A great product  A great product I'm sure that the owners are great as well, which checks off the "great people" category. My point is that when you are a master of a craft that people like, and do that craft better than anyone else, people will recognize this. As a result, you will create a loyal following.  Lenox Cupcakes has a fan for life in me -- and probably more based on how the people at the party loved those cupcakes....

When someone tells you that the organization is flat, be cautious -- actually don't be cautious, run away. People want structure. People want titles. People want hierarchy. It sets a natural order to things.  When everyone has the same title, it actually can cause more confusion -- especially if you fill those titles with people of varying experience and tenure.  Confusion can cause speculation. Speculation can cause disgruntlement. Disgruntlement can cause toxicity.  That's speaking from experience and not observation.  What they don't tell you about the flat organization is there is a clear delineation between the top and the bottom. We'll call it "The Great Wall."  You are better off being hired directly into the top layer of a "flat" organization rather than trying to barge through that great wall.  So before someone sells you on the perks of working for a flat organization, look past the sales pitch and ask the hard qu...

A question that I get asked a lot is, "What do you want to do?"  And every time I answer it, I have to stall and say, "Well, that's a very good question."  When you are a generalist and are used to providing answers that you think the other person wants to hear, it's an  impossible question to answer authentically. After all, a generalist has made a career by figuring out how to do anything.  I mean, if you are asking me what I really want to do-  it's win the lottery, travel the world, and have experiences that I can talk about that are once in a lifetime. Oh, and I'd like to finish  my DJ lessons too.  And then there's reality.  How do you find the place where work doesn't feel like work?  Where is that place where you know you belong and aren't wasting valuable energy trying to fit in?  The self-help answer is that it's all a state of mind.  My answer is that the self-help answer is not helpful at all. Life is ...

There is a term in economics known as creative destruction.  "Creative destruction describes the "process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one." - Wikipedia In layman's terms, something new comes in and destroys something old. Think of the evolution of media from 8 track to cassette to CD to mp3, and so on.  Piggybacking off of that, there is a term that I'll coin as "destructive destruction."  This is when something old destroys something new and innovative. An example would be when an owner of a company destroys new and innovative things that are making his company profitable because either he can't understand it, or things were getting out of control.  Or it could be a leader that lets initiatives stagnate into extinction because it's not the way things have always been.  There are leaders today that destroy ...

Who you tryin' to get crazy with ese? Don't you know I'm loco? Cypress Hill - Insane In The Membrane    Sometimes the only way to deal with people you think are crazy is join them in the craziness.  The one thing about company culture is that you can't fight it.  The more you fight it, the more of an outcast you become. It's draining.  Fighting it can become toxic. Toxicity becomes negativity. Negativity can lead to ostracism.  If you think that everyone around you is nuts, guess what? You are probably the crazy one.  And nobody likes to be around the crazy people -- the ones that just.don't.get.it.  Therefore it's decision time. Decide if you want to join in and pledge, or keep your head down and waste time in the quagmire.  The choice is yours.