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Showing posts from August, 2012

The Fable of the Toner Purchase

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As the toner supply in her home office started to run low, wise Ms. Owl placed an order. She needed to stock up for a long winter, so she doubled her normal order and submitted all of the proper forms to Jonny Badger, the supply clerk. When the requested toner did not arrive on the scheduled delivery date, Ms. Owl called Jonny Badger to determine the cause of the delay. "Banker Frog cancelled your order," explained Jonny. "Several other people in the village will also need toner, so banker Frog decided to bundle the orders to reduce the overall cost to the village." "When will I get my toner?" asked Ms. Owl. "Banker Frog is consolidating the orders now. We'll submit the larger order today. It should arrive by next Friday." "What should I do in the meantime?" asked Ms. Owl. "I waited to order the toner until I needed it - just as Banker Frog directed. Now, I've run completely out. Without toner, I w

To Be Good, Managers Must Have Good Meetings

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The other day, I was invited to attend a meeting with 11 top executives, the Big Wigs. The Big Wigs meet every Friday to discuss strategy. As a little wig, I was attending to fill the role of note taker. The topic of the day was about refreshing IT resources in the field. There was no meeting agenda. The meeting started 7 minutes late. One Big Wig had already laid out papers to work on during the meeting. Four of the Big Wigs sent their deputies to “cover” the meeting. The 2nd highest ranked Wig in the room began checking messages on his phone (or playing video games, I’m not sure which) after only 3 minutes. At the end of 60 minutes, I had not recorded a single meaningful discussion or action item. Not one. To hold this particular meeting cost the organization roughly $800 in salaries and benefits. We spent $800 to teach 11 Big Wigs that field reps are getting new laptops – even though all 11 knew that new laptops were on the way before the meeting started. I'm relaying