Pillar1-Mindset ⁽¹⁰⁾

No HR, no process, no lawyer on the phone — just a decision that couldn't wait. #Pillar1-Mindset When I started U-Flow I was involved in every hire. I didn't have the money for an HR person, or really the need for one. It was just…

Your team can't hide from your nervous system — and you can't hide yours from them. Watch a baseball manager on a bad night. His best pitcher — the guy he's paid millions to get outs — just gave up three runs in an inning.

Why the gap in most industrial operations isn't a strategy gap — it's a behaviour gap. Most improvement efforts in mid-market industrial companies start the same way. Leadership offsite. Whiteboard session. A new set of priorities written on a flip chart and photographed for the…

Holiday's 37, part four — the last nine. Points 29 through 37: legacy, mastery, and knowing when to walk away. With one I'd argue against in a small market. This is the last of four. Over the past few weeks I've run Ryan Holiday's "37…

Holiday's 37, part three. Points 20 through 28 — the ones that hit hardest once you're the one signing the cheques. With one I'd argue against on the floor. The first nine covered how you carry yourself early on. The second batch — points 10…

A couple of weeks ago I ran the first nine of Ryan Holiday's "37 Pieces of Career Advice I Wish I'd Known Earlier" through 25 years of capital projects, plant floors, and turnarounds. The verdict then: more translated than I expected, some needed reframing, one…

Getting through the grind isn't about grinding harder. It's about knowing when to laugh. MBA school has a lot in common with running a $20M fabrication shop. Long hours. Relentless pressure. The creeping sense that you've been in the same meeting for three weeks. Late…

Ryan Holiday wrote 37. Here are the ones that hold up on the plant floor — and one where I'd push back. A few years back I came across a piece by Ryan Holiday called "37 Pieces of Career Advice I Wish I'd Known Earlier."…

Why your to-do list is lying to you — and what to do about it In this article I'm going to talk about time management. Wait. Do I have time for this? Honestly, I'm not sure. I've spent fifty years reading every productivity book, methodology,…

The rejected order didn't break us. What we did in the next hour decided who we became. Years ago, at a specialty manufacturing company I ran, we welded an order using a part we'd specified ourselves — and the part was too thin. We knew…