Hello and welcome to another edition of State of Readiness. I am your host, Joseph Paris.My guest today is Ben Guttmann, Author of “Simply Put; Why Clear Messages Win―and How to Design Them.” We start the conversation going back to high school where Ben was fortunate enough to have attended a high school that had...

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When was the last time you played Jenga? Maybe you set it up with your kids on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or maybe you idly played it with friends at a brewery. Either way, after you built up this precarious tower of wooden blocks, you had one goal: to keep it from falling down. As...

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I produce three podcasts.  What started as just a little bit more than a hobby has developed into a few platforms that serve a variety of interests; each unique from the other, but all related in that they are all about business and business goings-on. The longest-running podcast that I produce is “The Outliers Inn”...

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Every leader should design and communicate how they want to make decisions. Making it clear what you care about, what you need to know about, and what you’re tasking others to move on will help minimize confusion about who should be making which decisions. It also helps clarify when you as the leader can be...

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Summary.   Critical thinking is the ability to analyze and effectively break down an issue in order to make a decision or find a solution. At the heart of critical thinking is the ability to formulate deep, different, and effective questions. For effective questioning, start by holding your hypotheses loosely. Be willing to fundamentally reconsider your initial...

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As my company grew, I’d periodically be accused of making decisions slowly. I couldn’t figure out why, until one day it dawned on me: While employees thought they were asking me to weigh in on a choice that had to be made, I thought they were making small talk at the coffee machine. It wasn’t...

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Cindy Solomon | The way we work Could this meeting have been an email? The phenomenon of “calendar creep,” where meetings completely take over your work days, is wasting time, energy and productivity — but you can take back control. Leadership expert Cindy Solomon shares her five tips for clearing up your schedule and getting...

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“Building a plane while flying it” or some variation has been used to describe situations in education (2011), education (2016). education (2017), health care, medicine, ride-hailing startups, business strategy, even fluffier business stories, and…this. And long before earning broad criticism for its use in tech, the phrase was vividly illustrated in an ad for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) that has since been appropriated for all...

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Leaders today need to revisit an overlooked skill: asking questions. In my 40 years as an executive and advisor in Silicon Valley, I’ve often seen leaders assume that people look to them for answers — bold assertions that build people’s confidence in their competence. But in reality, that kind of approach erodes trust, especially at...

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The effects of the global pandemic have been transformative on a scale and in a way not seen in most people’s lifetimes.  Perhaps the most dramatic transformation is how quickly society, as a whole, has moved from engaging in close proximity to one another to being more distant; heavily relying on telephony and digitalization in...

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How do the world’s best leaders and visionaries earn trust? They don’t just present data — they also tell great stories. Leadership consultant Karen Eber demystifies what makes for effective storytelling and explains how anyone can harness it to create empathy and inspire action. Click to listen to Ted Talk…

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Topic:  Okay, the notion was noble, but the presentation might have been better.  If this was an episode of Master Chef with Antlerboy and JP being the wanna-be cooks, we would certainly have presented a repulsive-looking dish, but it tasted darn good. So here’s the story;  Antlerboy and JP had noticed that all of the...

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In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on November 19,2008, Rahm Emanuel was quoted as saying; “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.  And what I mean by that [is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not before.” He was referring to the crisis that was...

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As working from home become part of a new normal and social distancing is something the world has to learn to practice, virtual meetings are replacing physical meetings in every business of every kind. It could be said that virtual meetings can be painfully boring but, at as Andy Molinsky, writing the Harvard Business Review...

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Cindy is as self-made a person as anyone I have ever met.  After graduating high school and not having any particular skills that were as yet discovered nor the grades or money to get into University, she joined the United States Navy as an enlisted person.  Perhaps she knew, and it’s just as likely she...

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The art of debate has devolved.  No longer is it used as a tool of discovery, understanding, reconciliation, and progress.  Today, it is a tool used to beat one another into submission – with the wholesale surrender of the beliefs and values held by one party over the other being the goal. What’s worse, the...

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I took a break from writing in August so that I could develop and refine a new Masterclass and Workshop for Emotional Intelligence (sometimes referred to as EQ).  Among the reference books that I used was “The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book“.  Written by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves, it was one of the first books...

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Topic: Business Owners get the leftovers and – unrelated – how it sucks to get old and looking for a job. The issue has been settled.  The Outliers Inn will no longer take reservations, but rely solely on walk-ins.  From this day forth, we will rely on the eccentricity of our audience and their eclectic interests,...

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One of the frequent criticisms that Lean Practitioners face in teaching Lean Thinking and its Leadership is that the language used can be confusing or exclusive. Whilst terms such as Kaizen and Kanban might have become well established across industry and geography, terms such as Kamishibai, Kaikaku and Yamazumi (please see the end of the...

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This article reveals the major changes that will affect every aspect of how a particular firm operates — from the services it offers to the structure of the organization.  As told from the perspective of a CEO and her executive team, the author asks them to think through their communication plan, and what was asked...

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Radio and TV veteran, Chuck Nice has a real passion for science communication and comedy – and means that technology should work for us, but what happens when it doesn’t? In this entertaining TED Video, he explores the unintended consequences of technological advancement and human interaction — with hilarious results. Watch the video

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The Words Matter Movement involves being a practitioner of careful, thoughtful and deliberate positive communication. It is so easy to speak without thinking. To not genuinely listen and connect with people. When words are used in the wrong way it can be devastating. Words are container of power. So, how are you using yours? Words...

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What if you knew what your coworkers really thought about you and what they were really like? Ray Dalio makes the business case for using radical transparency and algorithmic decision-making to create an idea meritocracy where people can speak up and say what they really think – even calling out the boss is fair game....

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Let’s reconsider the power of words for a moment, as the Guardian challenges the phenomena of business bullshit. A certain amount of empty talk is certainly unavoidable when humans gather together in large groups, but the kind of bullshit through which we all have to wade every day is a remarkably recent creation, this articles states....

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Welcome to Episode 18 of the Outliers Inn podcast: Communication and Leadership. Topic:  Join Antlerboy and JP as they speak with Phil Gerbyshak, an expert in communications.  Listen to the lively discussions on the critical importance of efficient and effective communication that is necessary for being a successful leader.  Listen to the importance of everyone knowing that...

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Having received numerous national and international awards for his social improvement efforts, social psychologist Adam Galinsky teaches people all across the globe how to inspire others, speak up effectively, lead teams and negotiate successfully. He has also co-authored the critically acclaimed and best-selling book, Friend & Foe, which distills his two decades of research on leadership, negotiations, diversity,...

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Most people fear change in the workspace, because they tend to attach negative connotations . But who says it needs to be so hard? Organizational change expert Jim Hemerling practices smart ways to deal with, and grow from, the unavoidable and accelerating change transformations taking place at work. He means that adapting your business in today’s constantly-evolving world...

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How often have you faced issues in effectively communicating a well formulated strategy to the right stakeholders? Understanding organizations’ strategic plan by all who are involved in the execution is as important as optimally creating it. A well-orchestrated process must be in place to facilitate better understanding of the strategy and the specific roles to be...

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Business language is full of jargon.   Even worse, much of the jargon means different things to different people.    And the place where these problems loom largest is around strategy and how it should be executed. The word strategy itself has many meanings.   The phrase strategic plan has even more interpretations.   Then there are words like...

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You have won the lottery in Norway,  you have a long lost uncle in Lagos who has died, you have a long lost friend marooned in a foreign country and the favorite your bank account details need to be verified.  Yes, this is spam mail or junk mail and it clutters our inboxes and fills...

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