Five frogs are sitting on a log. Four decide to jump off. 
 Question:  How many are left?
Answer:  Five.  (Because there is a difference between deciding and doing.) There are a lot more people “deciding” to implement Activity Based Management (ABM) than there are people actually “doing” ABM. A January 1999 survey of people who attended 1998 American Management...

My wife, daughter and mother-in-law love to put together jigsaw puzzles.  Working together, they can assemble a 1,000-piece puzzle on the kitchen table in just a few hours. When I asked them how they do it so quickly, they responded “It’s easy. We just put together the pieces to match the picture on the box.”  In...

“Poor Pass Costs Frogs Relay Title” This newspaper headline recently caught my interest. Texas Christian University’s Horned Frogs 4×100-meter relay team was on its way to a national championship and possible collegiate record. But while leading the final race, the last two members of the team failed to cleanly make the third and final handoff....

Does lifting a barn sound like an impossible task? Well Herman Ostry, a farmer in Bruno, Nebraska did it. And so can you. Shortly after buying a piece of property, a nearby creek flooded, covering Mr. Ostry’s new barn with 29 inches of water. Herman half-jokingly said to his family, “I bet if we had...

Every year as winter wanes and spring approaches March Madness afflicts millions of people.  You’re probably thinking of the annual thumping of basketballs, squeaking of sneakers and the roar of the crowd.   Instead I’m talking about the business form of March Madness.  Senior managers from hundreds of companies begin to yell in late March and early...

“What one thing would you like to change in your wife or husband?” This question is guaranteed to initiate a lively discussion at any gathering of husbands and wives. After an initial group response of nervous laughter, individual answers tend to fall into one of the following three categories: The Pious Response … “I wouldn’t...

When teachers want students to grow, they don’t give them answers —- they give them problems! One of my favorite segments on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show was Karnack the Magnificent. Dressed as a fortuneteller, Karnack would first read an answer and then guess the question. For example: Answer: Love notes on a 13-column pad. Question:...

One night, a group of thieves broke into a jewelry store. Instead of stealing anything, they simply switched all the price tags. The next day no one could tell what was valuable and what was cheap. When the thieves returned the following day posing as customers, the expensive jewels had suddenly become cheap, and the...

Can one person make a difference to the productivity of an organization? To answer that question, consider the case of Jean Whitcomb, a zealot for Activity Based Management (ABM). Jean’s boss, the hospital administrator, promoted her to Manager of Radiology. She told him, “I’ve never worked in that area before.” His response was, “That’s okay. I’m sure that...

Church attendance of American men is steadily declining. According to Barna Research Group, the 43% who went to church at least once a month in 1992 dropped to 28% by the end of the 20th century. Barna’s study revealed that most unchurched men believe church involvement does not offer any value. When asked to define what...