“Dad, why do we work?”
Charlene, our 18-year-old, didn’t ask that exact question, but she might have. Here’s our conversation:
Continue ReadingGot spam? I sure do. Sadly, I’ve learned to tolerate it much of it, hoping it goes straight into my “trash” folder. But yesterday, I got a “spammy” email that looked and felt somewhat legit. From a firm selling phone services, the sender was Matthew and it started like this:
Continue ReadingIn spite of the precious child pictured below, this message is not about QBQ! parenting (but this was). Also, be forewarned: We will be mixing our metaphors today! Lastly, stick around till the end where we apply the content. I mean, isn’t that what it’s all about? Enjoy!
Rebecca “Becca Boo” Elizabeth Lindeen – born 9/21/12
After Kristin, our firstborn, arrived in 1983, I began carrying a Canon AE-1 camera everywhere I went, exclaiming, “That’s a picture!” Drove my wife, Karen, nuts.
But it’s what new dads do.
Thirty years later, with an ever-present smart phone in my pocket, I see stuff everywhere and exclaim, “That’s a blog!”
It’s what old authors do.
Continue ReadingI love this brick. I paid $10 for it in 1982.
It came from the Anaconda Mining Company smokestack in Great Falls, Montana. The “Great Stack,” as it was called, was built in 1908 and was 585 feet tall—quite a feat for the times. Karen and I were lucky enough to be living in Great Falls in September 1982 when a demolition crew detonated charges to bring it down while the whole city watched.
But it didn’t go quite as planned. This is how the Great Falls Tribune described the moment:
Continue Reading
John (age 22) and Karen (19) on June 21, 1980
Karen Elizabeth Giles Miller has many roles …
And one other title that fits her well:
Continue Reading
I asked Molly, our twentysomething daughter, who has served as captain of soccer and basketball teams, “Molly, in your opinion, what makes an effective team?” I was honestly just curious what she’d say; it wasn’t like I was doing book research! But I loved her answer: “Everyone taking care of their own stuff, Dad. Everybody working hard at doing their job.” I appreciated her thought so much, it went into Outstanding! under the chapter titled, “Work!”
Continue ReadingIn Flipping the Switch, the companion book to QBQ!, we teach five “Roadblocks to Learning.” One of them is Exclusion, and it’s all about when we, based on our faulty assumptions of people around us, fail to learn from them.
My story:
Continue ReadingWhen I do a radio, TV, or podcast interview, I’m often asked this question:
“John, what is the number one take-away for people who read the QBQ! book or go through a ‘Personal Accountability and the QBQ!’ training session?”
I always answer, “Oh, that’s easy: I can only change me.”
Continue ReadingAfter 28 years of calling on senior executives, I want to scream …
STOP THE MADNESS! LOSE THE CONSULTANTS!
I just returned from speaking on “Personal Accountability and the QBQ!” in Europe. In my travels, I met several people who told me their employer currently has “change management” consultants* (Old joke: A consultant is someone who borrows my watch and tells me what time it is!) roaming their hallways, holding small employee meetings, and leading executives to and through mountaintop retreats.
And my guess is, the consultants are working from a definition of “organizational culture” that sounds something like this:
Continue Reading