Human Lessons from a Bourbon Tornado
Posted on28 Apr 2014
Tagspeople's differences, tornado, bourbon, Buffalo Trace Distillery, silver bullet, individual, Wayne Curtis, The Atlantic, standardization, objective personality tests, learn, humans, control, adaptability
Comments0
A tornado demolished a Buffalo Trace Distillery’s warehouse miraculously leaving all barrels of aging bourbon undamaged but exposed to the elements for... Read More
Vanilla Phrasing, Vanilla Thinking, Vanilla Ideas
Posted on25 Nov 2013
Tagsintelligence, Vanilla Words-Thinking Series, vanilla words, standardization, process, phraseology, knowledge, innovation, efficiencies, definitions, creativity
Comments0
People often use common words in common ways. The goal is frequently understandable and quick communications. Technical terms, representing complex actions in... Read More
Working with Psychopaths
Obviously, not working with psychopaths is the best option. That, however, isn’t always practical. Additionally, it’s neither practical nor optimal to distrust... Read More
Why Problems Occur (Alert #6): Same over Unique
Posted on29 Aug 2013
Tagschange, creativity, organizational culture, efficiencies, emotions, event, improvement, motivation, problem solving, process, reinventing the wheel, rules, security, standardization, unique, Anatomy of an Event, Why Problems Occur Series, boredom, repetitive strain injury
Comments0
Creativity is challenging especially with time pressures. Additionally, depending upon the work culture, motivation might be difficult. Heck, how many times do... Read More
Predictability as Hell: A Problem-solving Perspective
Posted on10 Jan 2013
Tagsproblem solving, hell, heaven, The Twilight Zone, Walter Kirn, predictability, Predictability as Hell Analogy, The Atlantic, standardization, perspective, Influence, emotions, control, assessments
Comments0
Businesses strive for predictability. Standardization helps them achieve that. Still, many employees like their jobs for their variability, “It’s something different every... Read More
Vanilla Words and Uncreative Personalities, Cultures
Just as music can set the tone, so can words. Just as music can help you assess personalities, words too. In business,... Read More
Extremely Unified Groups: More Aggressive, More Destructive
Posted on20 Aug 2012
Tagsplanning, organizational culture, Daisy Yuhas, Disruptive Innovation & People Analogy, dissent, group, innovation, leadership, military, people, creativity, product of our environment, Scientific American, Scott Wiltermuth, standardization, Stanford Prison Experiment, synchronicity, team building, University of Southern California, USC Marshall School of Business, adaptability, aggressive, business planning, compliance
Comments0
Groups change people; a person in a group is very different alone. Subliminal influences encourage groups to accept those who adopt its... Read More
Too Much Information & Indecisiveness
Tony Hey in his article, “The Big Idea: The Next Scientific Revolution” (Harvard Business Review, November 2010 edition ), and Patrick Spenner... Read More
Best Practices = Inside the Box Thinking
One of the paradoxes of best practices is that they promote unimaginativeness because if everyone followed best practices the differentiation among competing... Read More
Standardization: A Form of Thought Control
Posted on13 Dec 2010
Tagscommunication, Vanilla Word Analogy, words, vocabulary, Thoughts, synonym, standardization, problem solving, George Orwell, expression, 1984, Vanilla Words-Thinking Series
Comments0
Expressing our thoughts is challenging especially when we don’t know the words to do so. Therefore, restricting our vocabulary will tend to... Read More
