Ever wish you had a ‘get out of jail free’ card for all those ill-conceived, poorly run meetings to which you’re routinely subjected?

‘That’s why Mike Monteiro came up with meeting tokens—bumblebee-colored poker chips good for 15 minutes of a colleague’s attention, inscribed with a warning, ‘Don’t Waste My Time.’ Monteiro, the director of San Francisco-based Mule Design Studio, designed the tokens after tiring of disorganized and lengthy office meetings.’

He hasn’t started using them yet, but he’s definitely on to something.

What do you do to avoid/reduce meeting mania?

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Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: re_birf

Yet another article, this one from Australia, bemoaning the fact that women aren’t showing up in the executive ranks.

“How is it that women, who are at least as well educated as men these days, represent only 12 per cent of ASX 200 executive managers? Why have women been appointed as CEOs of just five ASX 200 companies since 2004?”

The numbers are just as bad in the US, even in cutting-edge Silicon Valley where you might expect them to be a bit better.

“Only 9 percent of companies in the county have promoted a woman to a top post, according to a University of California-Davis study of the 400 largest public companies in the state. Only 7 percent of corporate boards include even one woman.”

They don’t improve much in emerging countries, either.

“Women in Sri Lanka are better educated and hold more jobs than ever before. Yet most women continue to suffer from occupational segregation in the workplace and rarely break through the so-called “glass ceiling” separating them from top-level jobs and professional positions…”

So what about Russia, where the sexes have been equally educated for decades

“The number of women holding executive positions decreases moving up the position scale. Women traditionally prevail in the position of Chief Accountant (82%), but the position of Financial Director is primarily occupied by men (78% vs. 22% women). Other positions held by women include: head of Human Resources (62%), head or deputy head of Marketing and Sales (42%), Financial Director (22%). Meanwhile, top managers are mainly men: 96% of General Directors and 86% of board directors. Men have been prevailing in recent appointments to top executive positions (74%), which gives ground to conclude that they will continue to dominate executive positions in the future.”

Say what you will, globally there’s still a glass ceiling; policies are still formatted by men for men—while eliminating the flexibility their wives need to pursue a viable career; and all possible effort is spent talking of improvement while walking for the status quo.

Do you think this will change as Gen X and Y take over?

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Some of you may have read that ‘Siemens Power Generation Inc. has been fined more than $10,000 for safety violations in a wind turbine tower collapse that killed one worker and injured another.’

Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division investigated and found that ‘…workers were not properly instructed and supervised in safe operations, the technicians each had less than two months’ work experience and there was no supervisor on site. The agency says the workers were unaware of the potential for such a failure. Other safety violations included improper company procedures and failure to train employees in emergency rescue procedures.’

Not surprising, since companies constantly shortchange and skimp on all forms of training from safety to customer service.

Siemens says it has ‘made some changes, is reviewing the report and will make additional changes as needed…has brought in experts inside and outside the company to review the case.’

Typically, training, or the lack of it, is driven by cost factors and senior management myopia across industries and around the world.

But I really wonder if it the same attitudes will prevail in the UK post April 6 when The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 goes into effect.

‘The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 is a landmark in law. For the first time, companies and organisations can be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of serious management failures resulting in a gross breach of a duty of care.

The Act, which will come into force on 6 April 2008, clarifies the criminal liabilities of companies including large organisations where serious failures in the management of health and safety result in a fatality.’

Do you think that management should be held accountable for endemic practices that lead to employee deaths?

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Thanks to my friend Max Bondarenko for the use this picture.

And don’t miss my other WW—celebrate the difference!

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And don’t miss my other WW— the halls of power

 

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Good post over at lifehack.org about productivity and why it’s about more than time management.

Rather than rewrite it I’m going to link you up with some stuff I’ve written previously that dovetails perfectly with the idea of Luftmenschen (people who deal in the non-tangible: ideas, thoughts, dreams).

I’ve written about this before, starting with proof that multitasking is a figment of your overactive imagination or wish list; then on to the time to think to facilitate the dreaming that fosters innovation and happiness; why vacations are important, and, best of all, here’s a link to the only real, honest-to-goodness silver bullet that not only exists, but is already yours!

Are you a Luftmenschen?

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True leadership requires great communications and the hallmark of great communications is clarity of thought.That clarity applies to all communications—including insults.

When it’s necessary to insult someone, and at times it is—or at least it feels that way—your insults should be offered with the same clarity and a whole lot of class.

The need for clarity is obvious—you want the person you’re insulting, and anyone else who is cognizant of it, to not only know your opinion, but to be impressed with your elegance.

Any idiot can say, “She’s dumb” or “he’s a *%$# jerk,” but those insults have no real meaning.

In fact, the minute you resort to expletives to describe a person or action you prove yourself to be a person of small intellect and smaller vocabulary.

Clarity is the key—using the fewest words, while allowing no question as to meaning or intent, as is shown by these three historic figures.

Clarence Darrow: “I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”

Abraham Lincoln: “He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I know.”

Oscar Wilde: “He has no enemies but is intensely disliked by his friends.”

Additionally, when you’re insulted, especially by someone with clarity and class, you want to respond in kind as was done here.

George Bernard Shaw sent a note to Winston Churchill saying, “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend… if you have one.”

To which Churchill responded, “Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.”

No question as to what either thought of the other.

Mark Twain was a master of perfectly barbed clarity, “I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”

And before you think that the art or the clear and classy insult is a thing of the past, take a look at three modern examples,

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.” – Billy Wilder

“He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.” – Robert Redford

And I absolutely love this one,

“He had delusions of adequacy.” — Walter Kerr

Have you ever given or received a clear, classy insult?

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A few days ago, I was talking about lying over at Leadership Turn.

A couple of weeks prior Robert Irvine, who starred in ‘Dinner Impossible’ on the Food Network was fired for lying on his resume.

OK, lying isn’t unusual, the stats show that more than half do it and I’ve seen that estimate as high as 89%. But it’s still stupid.

It’s even stupider to use a lie that is so glaringly obvious or that can be so quickly checked on the Net that to accept it makes the hiring party into the idiot.

Irvine lied, I mean ‘embellished,’ his resume by ‘fabricating some of the more fantastic parts of his resume, including having cooked for Britain’s Royal Family.’

He goes on to say, ‘I am truly sorry for misleading people and misstating the facts.’

Still lying.

If he told the truth he would have said, ‘I am truly sorry for getting caught misleading people and misstating the facts.’

Have you ever lied or used spin to improve your work experience?

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In a post about the repercussions of sexual peccadilloes I said, “I’m also wondering how many other patrons of this current sting will be outed. If he’s [Eliot Spitzer] the only name made public then, to me, something else stinks a lot worse than his hiring a prostitute.”

Although I didn’t see the WSJ opinion piece until today, Alan M. Dershowitz, who teaches law at Harvard, provided thoughtful and cautionary commentary on the Spitzer happenings that go a long way to confirming that they do, indeed, stink.

“In this case, they wiretapped 5,000 phone conversations, intercepted 6,000 emails, used surveillance and undercover tactics that are more appropriate for trapping terrorists than entrapping johns. Unlike terrorism and other predatory crimes, prostitution is legal in many parts of the world and in some parts of the U.S. Even in places like New York, where it is technically illegal, johns are rarely prosecuted. Prostitution rings operate openly, advertising “massage” and “escort” services in the back pages of glossy magazines, local newspapers and television sex channels.”

There was a time when Americans had reasonable expectations of their privacy, but no more. European privacy laws run rings around ours, US laws are open to manipulation, and our leaders and courts condone actions here that they condemn in others.

Our infant mortality rates are sky-high, our poverty rate is the highest among developed nations, a new political or business scandal seems to erupt almost daily and the greed and creativity of US financial giants has shattered the global economy.

These are my opinions.

I’d like nothing better than for you to prove me wrong.

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“Secretaries for openings in college administrative areas. Good typing, word processing helpful. Able to interfere with faculty, staff, and students.” –Irondequoit, NY

Hmm, my typing is iffy, but my interference is brilliant.

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