Leadership, teamwork, democratic workplace
I was going to entitle this blog. “Missionaries of Imperatives!”, but then, most readers will agree, it was a good choice not to. A bit too many syllables and unhappy memories of diagramming sentences. OK, to what do I refer? Those injunctions/mandates to: Smile! Enjoy! Have a Nice Day! Co-Exist! Be Happy! And, finally, Pay…
Sometime ago, the Media Lab at MIT worked on something called the Jerk-O-Meter app. No, it was not something to alert American tourists talking too loudly, or to set off an electric alarm when someone’s smoking a cigar in an elevator . No, too bad, nothing like that. Rather the J-O-M was to listen in…
A benefit for me, besides entertainment, of reading fiction is that authors describe situations which may be familiar to us but ones we have failed to articulate. The writer puts into words the ineffable in our lives, those interactions that leave us puzzled or wondering “What was that about? Here are two examples, both from…
The word, bumptious, has found recent currency, mostly in political discourse, but the Trumpian allusion is not what I’ve in mind. Nor will this be a plea for others, always others, to be kinder and more considerate. Rather, I’ll explore the seeming lack of courtesy (rudeness) which is central to being bumptious. What promotes rudeness?…
Saul Zabar’s death on October 7 2025 at age 97, brought back memories of my interviewing him about his unique leadership of Zabar’s – the incomparable grocery/deli at W. 80th and Broadway. Over numerous decades, under Saul’s leadership, the store drew thousands of Manhattanites and tourists. As one food critic put it, “on Saturdays…
Once in winter, a flock of wild turkeys made its circuitous way across farmlands and through forests. There were two dozen, young and old. One turkey, Tom by name, somehow mangled his foot and could not keep up. He called to the flock and asked them to slow down, but no one responded. When the group…