Are You Grading Your Work?

  In spite of institutional education’s desire to move away from grading, it works. Grading works with people who are motivated to achieve. Calling it only a letter grade is like calling marriage only a piece of paper. People who do things right know...

Do Ethics Matter?

 Did you catch the story about the “Wet Seal” chain of clothing stores? They are folding up. That’s not the story. When employees asked their managers why new inventory wasn’t coming in, they were told the stores were going to be...

Want to Fix a Business Problem? Start Here

  Last year I worked with a number of businesses experiencing problems. Some were huge problems. Recently, I tried to help the local community deal with a problem— without much success. Even though we all know what to do to fix problems, we often...

Sony Has an Ethics Problem

Let’s begin with the idea about making a movie about killing a foreign head of state. We’re not talking about a bit joke involving exploding cigars and Castro. The Interview is an entire movie about killing the leader of North Korea. That’s funny. No, no it isn’t.

When A Deep Hole is NOT a Deep Hole

  I have a friend who likes to go exploring in caves. He goes off into the mountains on weekends looking for interesting formations of rock and caves to explore. He called me a couple of weeks ago and was all excited about a big discovery he had...