From the Archives: Anatomy of a Life Changing Seminar (or how the corporate world found ways to spend down their profits)

In 2014, I was still deep in my second career as a Continuous Improvement Lean Manufacturing Six Sigma Training and Development Change Management Leader. That career had started in the late 1990’s and I kept adding tools (and titles) to my toolbox in order to help the various companies I worked for to eliminate waste […]

Group or Team… what do you really belong to?

I belong to a writer’s circle at the community where I live I have to be honest and say that I have not been to as many sessions as I should have. The caliber of the writers is excellent, and I am trying to humbly learn how to put my words and thoughts together more […]

Tradition!

Tradition! One of my great loves is old school musicals that made it to the big screen. Probably because I was an actor in high school and a few rare times since then. But one of my favorite musicals of all time was Fiddler on the Roof. What a great story line about overcoming great […]

Finding Purpose

Happy New Year. Okay, it’s a couple of days past that time but I’m finally finding time to sit at the keyboard and do a little thinking. Over the years, I have discovered that writing is my best thinking time. I block out most distractions and as long as chores and assignments don’t interrupt, I […]

Conflict? We don’t need no stinking conflict!

Conflict Management Put two people in a room and at some point, there will be conflict. The story is as old as Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were the first and second sons of Adam and Eve. While Cain was a farmer, Abel was a skilled shepherd who took care of the family’s animals. […]

Course Corrections – Where the hell are we?

Course Corrections – Where the hell are we? Recently I wrote a story about five submarines that lost their way on a scheduled mission. https://theleansubmariner.com/2020/02/28/lost-boats-an-occupational-hazard-in-1920/ For five days these boats were unaccounted for and fleet leaders had to send out a number of vessels to locate them. In the end. All made it safely back […]

All good things must end. Sometimes not just the way you expected

I taught my last professional development class at the college I work with last Friday. It didn’t start out that way, at least that was not my intent when I began the session, but the reality of the world we live in caught up with me at the end of the session. A little background. […]

Who planned this anyway???

No excuses The campaigns are all over. The last vote was cast. Falling nine votes short of victory means you go home and think about what happened and what you could have done differently. But second place in a two person race is still first loser. There are no real excuses. There are some reasons […]

A different kind of adventure – Public Office

Up until today it’s been all talk and lots of opinions. But today is different. I join many others in this great experiment called the American Republic by publicly beginning my candidacy for election to a public office. In this case, it is a candidate for Sewickley Township Supervisor. I have no delusions about what […]

2017 – What a great year.

2017 was quite a year There have been a lot of changes in my life the last year. Health events, career events and just general life events have all added to the mix. Some of the events have been surprising to say the least and frankly you could look at what happened in 2017 and […]