Responsibility is a unique concept… You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you… If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the […]
Today I recharged my batteries with a few great articles by and videos about Admiral H. G. Rickover, my favorite change agent. First, I’ll share a clip out of his speech, “Thoughts on Man’s Purpose in Life,” given to various audiences over several years (a benefit of the pre-Internet age). The task of finding a
Thoughts from a Change Agent Read More »
There’s a great line in Admiral H. G. Rickover’s “Doing a Job” speech that reads, In my organization, there are no formal job descriptions or organizational charts. Responsibilities are defined in a general way, so that people are not circumscribed. All are permitted to do as they think best and to go to anyone and
Limited only by his own ability Read More »
We can look up to figures who came before us, call them our heroes, and attempt in our own small measure to model our lives on their examples. Yet, often we aspire to be like the man or the woman at the peak of their achievement. I don’t think we do this intentionally, but rather
I’ve acquired a new aversion. I now hate the phrase: “That’s like telling him his baby’s ugly.” The offending phrase is oft used to encourage you to soften your opinion against another person’s project/position/process/behavior. The phrase is offered to encourage you to ease up on your loathing of the other’s thing (see list above). It
In last weeks #GCDrive class I touched on a lot of the topics that have been featured as blog posts here. To aid my new Guiding Coalition members with taking their new topics to heart, I thought I would recycle some of the old posts. At some point last week I got off on a
Recycling – Project 1 Read More »
A home without books is like a room without windows.” – H. G. Rickover Maybe it’s because I’ve just finished Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, but I’ve begun to notice–more than I ever did before–who does and doesn’t have books featured prominently in their offices. I know I have a book obsession, so the shelves upon
An office without books means… Read More »
To practice a profession one must have acquired mastery of an academic discipline as well as a technique for applying this special knowledge to the problems of everyday life. A profession is therefore intellectual in content, practical in application.” – H. G. Rickover There isn’t one accepted profession that seems to appropriately “fit” what it
Via non trita zaginiis traditionis suffocata est; non timere secare (The untrodden path is choked by the weeds of tradition. Be not afraid to cut through.)” I love these words and I love the story behind them too. The words, “be not afraid,” remind me of a favorite Theodore Roosevelt quote which says, “There were
I think about things that other people think are odd. For example, I’ve wondered for years why it is that almost all business books and consulting pitches assume that the reader or receiver of services is an executive (the .01 to .1% of employees of an organization). That led me to wonder why I, clearly
The failed model of executive-led change Read More »
