“We choose to go to the moon.” The year was 1962 when President John F. Kennedy spoke these inspiring words. This was the kick-off for what became the Apollo program. All in all, 14 missions, 6 lunar landings, 12 astronauts on the moon. Pretty good for a project that began as a wild-eyed dream and … Continue reading Going to the moon. Value for all time.

In the 1980s, AIDS arrived on the world stage. It was new. It was frightening. There was no cure and no effective treatment. To get this disease was largely seen as a death sentence. To make matters worse, it was a common belief that you could catch the disease from touching someone who had it, … Continue reading Leaders listen up. If you want to see it, you have to be it.

America. It’s got a lot of problems these days. Shootings, homelessness, a widening wealth gap, opioid addiction, rampant misinformation, wacky conspiracy theories, for-profit healthcare, and the list goes on. It often seems like the whole experiment has gone terribly wrong. Everyone these days seems to be arguing about all of the above. Everyone has a … Continue reading Yo! Americans! Even with all the problems, be proud.

Fallacy 1: The purpose of business is to make money. Wrong. The purpose of business is to help people accomplish things. Being of service—bringing value—that's the business of business. Making money is the outcome, not the purpose. It allows the business to live; it’s not why it lives. "Organizations exist to serve. Period." -Tom Peters … Continue reading Three fallacies that steer business leaders off the narrow path.

On a recent stop at a coffee shop, I walked in and the barista was chatting with their teammates. So I stood patiently waiting to be helped. This made me pause. Were any of these employees considering, “There’s a person here who pays our paychecks” or “We should help this person because they are key … Continue reading What were they thinking? Apparently, nothing at all.

Why should I care? Why should I bother with making my work stand out? Why should I go above and beyond? I mean, it’s just a job. Reason 1: self-respect Reason 2: you sell yourself short by not pursuing it Reason 3: you can only love what you do by giving love to the work … Continue reading Why bother to deliver extraordinary?

Do you like Cracker Jack? Caramel-covered popcorn with peanuts. It’s a nice treat but it’s probably not the first thing you thought of when you saw the name. What most likely came to mind was the surprise. That little toy sitting somewhere in the box. I’ve seen kids dump out the contents into a bowl … Continue reading Diligence and vigilance. The keys to customer wow.

I just read an article stating the following: “A direct correlation has been established between customer experience and loyalty.“ Is this news somehow? Is there anyone in business that doesn’t know this…intuitively? If not…what do you not get? When you’re a customer, if you get awful service and have a terrible experience, do you go … Continue reading Customer experience has a correlation to customer loyalty … DUH.

“The death of one person is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” -Kurt Tucholsky (quoted by Joseph Stalin) Dehumanization. It’s the denial of the humanity of others to justify behavior. It’s a big deal and a big problem.  For decades, we have been chipping away at removing humans and their concerns from … Continue reading I’m for the humans.

I chuckle when I hear executives boast that 98% of their customers say they are satisfied. While that sounds really good, is it really? Imagine you sell some high-priced techno-gadget. Now, imagine you sold 100,000 of them last year. If you had 98% satisfied customers, you also had 2% unsatisfied. That’s 2000 people. 2000!  Are … Continue reading Numbers can be misleading.