Tag Archives: Consulting

The Ocean

Ocean Road

There is an old Italian proverb that I don’t expect you’ve heard although you’ve probably experienced.  It goes like this:

“Tra il dire e il fare, c’è di mezzo il mare.”

For those of you who don’t speak the language, roughly translated it means “between saying and doing lies half the ocean” and like many old proverbs, this one has endured because it’s spot on.  There are lots of great ideas that have amounted to nothing because of the ocean, that vast space between saying and doing.  We need to navigate those waters or drown. Continue reading

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Filed under Consulting, Thinking Aloud

Look!

The hardest thing to do is get yourself into someone else’s place. That’s true whether we’re talking about social issues or business. I’m always fascinated by how people “with” criticize the desires of people “without” because what often comes through loud and clear is a total inability to see the world through other eyes. Yeah, I might be thinking of the health care discussion, but I might also be thinking of the customer service person who just wants to get the caller off the phone or the boss who can’t understand why an employee who can’t play their bills feels resentful when the boss gets a bonus and they don’t. Continue reading

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Find A Chair

American City Diner

Two of us sat down for a breakfast meeting this morning. We sat in a booth big enough for six awaiting the third member of our group. Before he got there, the two of us joked about on which side of the booth he would sit. Would it reflect on which of us he preferred? Maybe it was about who he’d rather watch eat? As we talked, up walked our friend. He smiled, said hello, and gave us the answer. Continue reading

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Filed under Consulting, Helpful Hints