A friend of mine recently questioned my use of the word “empowered.” He expressed surprise that it was in my vocabulary and wondered if I would next be using “incentivize.” After a judicious search in an etymological dictionary, I sent him a link with the information that “empower” had been used by John Milton and … More Words That Drive Us Nuts
For me, one of life’s great mysteries is the existence of workaholics. Let’s face it: With the exception of composing a great symphony, finding a cure for cancer, or selling used cars, the daily work most people are engaged in is just not all that engaging. Work as such is not the sort of thing … More The Strategic Plan
Over the entrance to the library at the University of Colorado, where I was a student in the 1960s, is the inscription, “Who knows only his own generation remains always a child.” It seems a fitting motto for a library. The University of Alberta, where I worked as a librarian for forty years, also has … More The Corporate University
A few years ago, when I was having dinner in a restaurant with my wife, I got up to go to the rest room, which was at the end of a long corridor. A slightly stooped, grey-haired old man was coming toward me, and I moved to one side to let him pass. He moved … More The View in the Mirror
I have come up with a new management theory that will revolutionize the workplace, transform management-staff relations, save billions of dollars, and turn the economy around. I call my theory Total Reality Management (TRM). The entire thing is based on four basic rules for managers, three do’s and one don’t, with accompanying exercises. Here are … More Total Reality Management
Many years ago, a young colleague of mine died suddenly from an aneurism. Everybody was shocked. I went to a friend’s office to tell him. “Did you hear about S.?” I asked. He hadn’t. When I told him about her untimely death, he looked at his watch and said, “Well that lunch date is off.” … More Staying Calm
By now it must be dawning on any careful observer of the American political scene that Donald Trump might actually win the presidency. This horrifying possibility seems increasingly plausible. Until recently, I was happily convinced that Trump’s nomination would be a gift to the Democrats. Now that his nomination looks inevitable, I am not so … More President Trump?
The Donald Trump phenomenon can be seen as a white working class revolt against the Republican establishment. That establishment has championed small government, tax breaks for the rich, privatization, and deregulation. The establishment’s only attention to the increasingly impoverished working class—indisputably devastated by the loss of manufacturing jobs to globalization—has been to exploit its fears … More Idiocy Across the Political Spectrum
Bernie Sanders has done it again. He compared poverty in Baltimore to conditions of Palestinians in the West Bank. (http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/339308/bernie-sanders-compares-poverty-in-baltimore-to-conditions-in-palestine/) Connections have been made between the besieged African American community of Ferguson, Missouri, and the Palestinians under Israeli occupation, but those connections were made by Black Lives Matter protestors. That a mainstream politician and serious … More Bernie Sanders and the Palestinians
In the statement of principles of IFNOTNOW, an American Jewish organization opposed to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, is the claim that there are as many ways of being Jewish as there are Jews. (http://ifnot.net/about-us/our-principles/) This claim is exaggerated, but it contains a kernel of truth. Because no one central Jewish authority … More The Diversity of Jewish Opinion
No Harm Spilt 