Many years ago, while giving a presentation to representatives of the Chinese Finance Ministry my translator hit a bump as she attempted to translate something I was saying about accountability. I was a young consultant, fresh from a Chemical Industry career, and like all my fellow practitioners, I spoke accountability as a first language.
I was a Boy Scout. Since 1907 the motto of the global Scouting program has been, “Be Prepared”. Yet the 2023 Scout Jamboree was woefully unprepared for a myriad of severe weather-related issues that befell it in South Korea in early August. Continue reading
Thousands of incidents involving toxic substances harm and kill workers — and the public — every year. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, exposure to harmful substances and fires/explosions are the fifth and sixth leading causes of workplace fatalities, respectively.[1] Continue reading
At times, even leadership can be a tremendously lonely experience.
The emotional fallout of making difficult decisions that negatively affect the lives of some team members, the feeling of rejection when team members leave for other opportunities, and the discomfort of disappointing passionate team members who offer ideas that can’t be executed in the moment, among many other leadership acts, all take their toll. Continue reading
Terminator, Bladerunner, Bicentennial Man, Ex-Machina, any of the Transformer’s movies. Buzz Lightyear, C3-PO, R2D2, WALL-E, Chappie, Finch, her… Sci-fi has always had us on the hook.
Consider the highest-grossing movies of all time: 4 of the top 5 are sci-fi (and 3 of those spots go to Star Wars and Avatar movies, between them grossing over 7.3 billion dollars.). It’s clear: we love robots. Continue reading