Blog

“My New Year’s resolution is to quit procrastinating . . . I’ll start tomorrow.” Unfortunately, that’s the dead-end road that a majority of our resolutions take. Most of us are familiar with Albert...

While preparing for a talk to a safety audience, I ran across several videos by Paul O’Neil, former President of Alcoa, about why safety was his number one priority in managing the company. ...

We have just signed a new lease for our offices and as such, I am moving spaces.  As I started going through my “stuff” I ran across many articles that I previously put aside that I thought...

The science of behavior has much to teach us about how to improve performance and create a more engaged culture.  One of the key teachings from the science is that precise application of...

Elon Musk may not be a safety professional, but he has hit on some critical elements of safety culture and safety leadership that many leaders (and some safety professionals) don’t understand.  ...

My teenage kids are constantly taking selfies. Despite my general distaste for the practice, there are some positive side effects. It occurs to me that my kids have more accurate self-images than I...

I have often said, “The best job you will ever have is one where you know at the end of every day how well you have done.”  The students at Morningside Academy can wholeheartedly agree that this...

I just finished reading an ISHN article on safety incentives and the value of a gift card reward system to promote safety. To say that I didn't like it is an understatement. It reminds me of the many...

“What gets measured,  gets done.” If this saying is true, then why are so many people overweight? I have been recording my weight daily for over 35 years and as I am writing this, I am 4.5...

Is it possible that the walls really do have eyes? Even Santa understands that rewards should not be given unless they are earned, so he has created the elf on the shelf—a person whose job it is to...

According to Fortune, about 75% of employees will be receiving a holiday bonus this year.  Now, this is the point in which I am obliged to say, “Why do companies continue to throw good money...

Let me start with the bottom line.  Toxic bosses never bring out the best in people. They are bosses who exhibit the kind of behavior that proves detrimental to an employee personally, to their...

We all look forward to paying our taxes, right? It’s always nice to know that our hard-earned dollars are going to be used responsibly. Or are they? A search for ‘government waste’ on Google...

Recent events on the football field have reminded me of a story told to me by my former business partner,  Fran Tarkenton. Fran, then Quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings,  was heading out...

No matter the industry, in all my years of experience working across organizations, from the hourly workforce to the executive team, I have always found the most difficult job to be frontline...

Lean and Six Sigma are very useful tools for process improvement initiatives with the intent of reducing waste and variability in work processes and the product.  These reductions can lead to a...

At the US Open in 1925, golfer Bobby Jones called a penalty on himself, a penalty that no one saw. That one stroke caused him to lose the tournament.  When people began to praise him for his...

Attracting and keeping your best performers continues to be not only a smart business decision but a very strategic one that all companies invest in. While some believe attracting talent is the first...