Sometimes, people and companies become so engrossed in their efforts that they lose sight or focus on basics. Basics of common sense, good advise, time tested morsels of wisdom, and, yes, even some humorous parables that can provide in valuable consideration and reflection.
Hope you enjoy the following and that you will periodically return when your mind screams for a few minutes away from the grind.
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Whac-A-Mole
A great arcade game,
bt a terrible operating condition
Call it reactive management (i.e. always in firefighting mode).
We call it Whac-A-Mole Syndrome.
- Tom Troll, PTaxEval
Replace Chaos with Process
What we learn from lessons learned
is that we don’t learn from lessons learned.
Black
If it jams, force it.
If it breaks, it needs replacing anyway.
Lowery
I have not failed.
I have just found 700 ways that won’t work.
Thomas Edison
Nothing is ever done until everyone is convinced that it ought to be done,
and has been convinced for so long that it is time to do something else.
M. Crawford
Productivity is never an accident.
It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.
– Paul J. Meyer
Some mistakes are too fun
to only make once.
- Beers Law
There is never enough time to do it right,
but there’s always enough time to do it over.
- Jack Bergman
Too many people = lower profit
Too few people WITHOUT proper tools
= lower productivity
= lower job satisfaction
= higher turnover
= constant retraining
= lower profit
— Common Sense
It is always easier to talk about change
than to make it.
- Alvin Toffler
Prediction is difficult –
especially about the future.
Yogi Berra
You got to be careful if you don’t Know where you’re going
because you might not get there.
- Yogi Berra
When you come to a fork in the
road, take it.
- Yogi Berra
Planning without action is futile
Action without planning is fatal.
- Unknown
Planning is a process of choosing among those many options.
If we do not choose to Plan, then we choose to have others plan for us.
- Richard L. Winwood
The more time you spend on reporting on what you are doing, the less time you have to anything.
Stability is achieved when you spend all your time eporting on the nothing you are doing.
- Cohn’s Law
“Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here? asked Alice
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get.” Said the Cat
“I don’t really care where.” said Alice
“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.” said the Cat
– Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.
- Peter Drucker
Planning is an unnatural process.
It is much more fun to do something.
The nicest thing about not planning is
that failure comes as a complete surprise,
rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression.
- Sir John Harvey
Some mistakes are too fun
to only make once.
- Beers Law
Nothing is particularly hard
if you divide it into smaller pieces.
Henry Ford
Obstacles are those rightful things you see
when you take your eyes off your goal.
- Henry Ford
If everyone is thinking alike,
someone isn’t thinking.
– General George Patton
The leak in the roof
is never in the same location as the drip.
- Cannon
There cannot be a crisis today.
My schedule is Already full.
- Henry Kissinger
The key is not to prioritize your schedule,
but to schedule your priorities.
– Stephen R. Covey
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to Worse.
– Murphy
If everything seems to be going well,
you have obviously overlooked something.
– Murphy
Whenever you set out to do something,
something else must be done first.
- Murphy
Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.
- Henry Ford
Don’t tell people how to do things.
Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with the results.
– General George Patton
Leaders think and talk about solutions.
Followers think and talk about the problems.
- Brian Tracey
The greatest problem in communication
is the illusion that it has been accomplished.
- George Bernard Shaw
Most conversations are simply monologues
delivered in the presence of a witness.
- Margaret Miller
An organization’s ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly
is the ultimate competitive advantage.
- Jack Welch
If you fail to make an investment that you need to make,
you risk paying for it without ever getting it.
- Henry Ford
You can’t build a reputation
on what you are going to do.
- Henry Ford
You will only be remembered for two things:
the problems you solve
or
the problems you create
Mike Murdock
There is nothing so useless
as doing efficiently
that which should not be done at all.
- Peter Drucker
As to the future, your task is not to foresee it,
but to enable it.
– Antoine de Saint Exupery