I love cinnamon rolls.  In fact I probably am a bit obsessed with them.  Fortunately a nearby grocery store carries the best cinnamon rolls.  But you see I only really like one type of cinnamon roll.  The kind that is “wrapped.”  (It’s the kind where you take a strip of dough and roll it like a fire hose.)  Now the grocery store doesn’t always carry this type.  They seem to alternate between two different kinds.  Well I kept buying the non-wrapped cinnamon rolls.  I thought “oh these will be just ...

Volunteers are special people.  They agree to do a lot of work that you and I would only do if someone paid us.  They save organizations, time, money, benefits, energy and a host of other things.  Often they are our biggest supporters. Yet we don’t always treat them that way.  We can easily lose sight of what drives them, what motivates them.  This isn’t a condemnation of us.  We often have good intentions to work with volunteers, but we are busy too.  And sometimes volunteer things get pushed to the bottom… When this ...

Most of us don’t have the luxury of working from home.  Most of us are still trapped in the cubicle farms or factory floors.  Of course that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.  But many times it is.  Besides all of the usual hassles and issues of working with others (to err is human!), there is something I think we overlook – noise. I was thinking about that today as I was having a hard time concentrating.  In my current consulting role I spend a lot of time in a cubicle.  Why?  Because sometimes there is no better way to ...

Permission marketing is what is driving the success of the internet.  At least that’s what I believe.  For instance, I think that it’s an honor you are reading this post.  I don’t think I have the right to cram things down your throat.  And I believe it literally costs you something to pay attention to what I am writing (or else why do we say pay attention?) I don’t have a right to any of that, I need to seek your permission (verbally or otherwise) to earn the privilege of ...

Even in the days of instant email, instant videos and instant oatmeal, some things are just too slow. this weekend I ordered a new mouse for my computer.  My old mouse, which I have owned for more than a decade, finally died.  So after much deliberation I finally settled on a Logitech G500.  I had considered a more expensive Logitech mouse, but decided it wasn’t worth the $30 or $40 difference. Well Amazon “knew” I was looking at mice and today sent me an email announcing a sale for ...