Tag Archives: Communication
Healthy Societies Are Efficient
Efficiency isn’t everything, but healthy societies and people need it. If you want the deep explanation of why that’s true, read about Charles Darwin’s observations of birds (finches) on the Galapagos Islands off the coast of South America. Each island … Continue reading
Three Tales from Amtrak
In the early 2000s, I worked for a year as an IT contractor at Amtrak’s headquarters in Washington DC. My experience there showed one of America’s greatest problems, as well as its solution. The U.S. federal government created Amtrak in … Continue reading
We Don’t Always Need to Talk
“We need to talk.” Those words inspire dread. They usually portend something unpleasant. At home, your spouse might be angry because you forgot to take out the trash. At work, your boss might scold you for neglecting to put cover … Continue reading
Remain Calm, Even If All Isn’t Well
It’s easy to remain calm when everything is going well. But it’s more important to remain calm when everything isn’t going so well. One way I’m lucky is that I have friends and family members who disagree with me about … Continue reading
Job and Culture
In yesterday’s blog post, I referred to “automatic pilot.” And as often happens when I write, I wondered if I needed to explain what it was. Any readers who didn’t understand “automatic pilot” would have missed my point. Suppose that … Continue reading
Dialogue Is Not Harmful
“There’s a lot of difference between a reasoned discussion and a screaming match.” Continue reading