If you’re a fan of the QBQ! book and follow us on social media, then you know this: We are really big proponents of PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY (PA).
We write about PA, train on PA, give keynote presentations about PA. And, like you—work hard to practice PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY at work and home.
My wife, Karen, and I even wrote a whole book on the power of accountable parenting!
But … why?
Continue Reading“Organizations that put polices before people fail everyone.” Outstanding!
Have you taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)? The Millers have, and doing so has enabled us to better understand and relate to each other. Kristin is even certified to teach MBTI because there’s nothing more powerful than our QBQ! content on personal accountability combined with MBTI material in the same workshop.
Anyway, if you do know Myers-Briggs, then you will know me without meeting me when I tell you my “type.” I’m an “ESTJ.” If you aren’t familiar with MBTI, stay with me here. You see ….
Continue ReadingWe recommend that you forward this piece to your colleagues and boss to create meaningful dialogue.
Question: Does “free speech” exist in our organization?
Resting in a Colorado field, these bales of straw possess a beauty that stems from their “alikeness.”
The characteristic of “alikeness” can be of great value when the market wants and expects consistency. McDonalds comes to mind. Buy a Big Mac in Sochi, Russia at the Olympics and it tastes exactly like the one you consumed a few days earlier in Paterson, New Jersey.
But what can be positive about alikeness in straw bales or the food we purchase, can be very negative in our organizational cultures.
In Toronto to speak on “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” I got out for a long walk and passed by this building with its profound proclamation:
Continue ReadingLet’s do that here by exploring 5 traits likable people possess. Yes, there are more than five, but in this space I’ll share four and then you can come up with #5!
Here we go …
Continue ReadingWhile many talk about leaving a better world to our children, accountable parents work to leave better children to the world.
One thing I’ve learned writing a bunch of books is this: Every book has typos.
Some mistakes don’t matter much, as we can still understand the author’s meaning—even when there are two in one sentence! Example:
Continue ReadingAt QBQ, Inc. we sometimes rail (yes, rail) against anything that smacks of victim and entitlement thinking. We’ve blogged on this topic many times, like here and here and here. 🙂
Knowing our point of view, Lois, a longtime believer in the QBQ! book, sent us this email:
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“Karen, I dropped Becca!”
It was our son-in-law calling my wife’s cell.
It seems that “Becca Boo”—her painful but triumphant Sept 21, 2012 birth story here—had hit her head at the Denver airport where we had just dropped the Lindeen family for an evening flight home to Wisconsin. As fathers have for a millennium, Erik had been tossing Rebecca up in the air while she giggled and grinned—till she slipped through his hands.
THUD.
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I have never been on a board, though I have surely been bored. In fact, I bore quite easily, so the thought of being bored on a board, well, that simply bores me. 🙂
But, I’ve been invited to join a board here in Denver, with my five-year term beginning in January 2014. And I don’t think it’ll be boring at all.
Do you know the Denver Rescue Mission? The Millers have been “friends of the Mission” since 1998. It’s a venerable (love that word!) organization founded in 1892, and it’s truly a mission on a mission with a mission. In fact, they have something every outstanding organization has:
Continue ReadingI regret to inform you that if you have read QBQ! but not its companion book—Flipping the Switch … Unleash the Power of Personal Accountability Using the QBQ!—you’re missing out on some terrific stories! 🙂
One Flipping the Switch story is “Living Like Larry.” It’s about an outstanding TSA agent who makes a difference in the lives of travelers.
Our story today is about Woody, a corporate security guard, who, like Larry, causes each of us to ask The Question Behind the Question (QBQ):
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John G. Miller – future QBQ! author – commanding a 1960’s “Fox Trac.”
The winter of 1970 in Ithaca, N.Y. provided perfect conditions for bombing around on our now vintage-looking Fox Trac snowmobile. Thus, the 11-year-old competent, confident, and cute commander of this carriage needed the proper winter attire. So my mom (riding in the cart with my brother) and I went shopping for a “snowsuit.” Much to my dismay, we found one. Yes, the hideous thing you see me wearing in the picture.
Really, Mom!? Neon yellow!? Can’t I get one in a man’s color like black, Navy blue, or rich chocolate brown!?
All my pleading for anything-but-yellow fell on deaf—but wise—ears. We came home with my new “banana suit” and, like it was yesterday, I remember why Mom chose it (and, no, it wasn’t so she could find me in a snowstorm!):
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