in·dif·fer·ent: adj. (1) having or showing no interest, concern or feeling; (2) uninterested, apathetic, or unmoved; (3) detached; (4) lacking emotional involvement. Indifference. We are all indifferent about one thing or another. I enjoy going to Barnes & Noble every chance I get to check out the latest books and CD’s. My wife Sue is indifferent to...

Have you ever played “Three Truths and a Lie”? It’s a great icebreaker for groups of people who don’t know each other. At the opening of a workshop I ask each participant to write three truths and one lie about themselves. Each person takes turn reading their four statements to determine if others can guess...

Have you ever had a stress test? The doctor puts you on a treadmill going nowhere. Then they raise the pace and incline to see how much stress our heart, mind and body can take. A stress test exposes our strengths and weaknesses. Stress tests our limits. Such is the case that followed September 11,...

Mom told me, “Sit up straight“. If I came home late, Dad would say, “Tell me where you’ve been with a straight face.” Coach told me, “Straight arm your tacklers.” My pastor encourages me to “Walk the straight and narrow.” And when confronted with major decisions, my wife reminds me to take time to “think...

I recently asked eighty electronics’ distributors at a Las Vegas convention to answer three questions before we began an Activity Based Management (ABM) workshop… Have you ever had a brush with fame? Who are your heroes? What would you do in your business if success were guaranteed? Their responses provided me a quick insight into...

“If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge.” (1) Political scientist James Wilson and criminologist George Kelling co-authored a March 1982 cover story in The Atlantic Monthly titled “Broken Windows”. They argued the best way to fight crime is to fight the disorder...

The proper way to get lean is not instinctive. Most people try starving themselves while running on a treadmill. But if you go to any health club and walk into the cardiovascular room, what do you see? At my gym, you’ll see lots of people on treadmills, StairMasters and elliptical trainers. Notice that the vast...

“Not long ago, accounting was boring”, said the front page of the February 6, 2002 Wall Street Journal. “With the profession facing a credibility crisis, a wide array of critics – from members of Congress to small investors to officials of the big accounting firms themselves – have begun calling for a major overhaul of the...

Blessed is the man who can take bricks thrown at him and build a strong foundation. Sometimes I feel critics are like needles in a balloon factory, simply looking for an opportunity to “pop” my project, “blow away” new ideas or “deflate” recent accomplishments. On the other hand, Norman Vincent Peale says, “The trouble with most...

I just finished watching the World Series. Baseball is a game loaded with conventional wisdom, axioms and strategies so time-honored that they are accepted without question. But what if everything players have been taught since youth really are not true? What if the tactics some baseball managers rely on to shift percentages in their favor...