Committee Sloths

Although the Committee Sloth is a creature once thought to exist only in prehistoric North America, recent evidence indicates it is now found on all continents. Slow-moving and showing little inclination toward creativity, Committee Sloths travel in herds although individuals have been known to break from the group if a box of donuts is nearby.

The Committee Sloth is known for several proclivities. The most characteristic is its tendency to volunteer for committees and then do nothing or next to nothing. Its habit of suggesting various approaches is especially irritating to other species, possibly because they sense the Committee Sloth will do no actual work if the Slothic idea is adopted. Committee Sloths fear darkness and rarely work late. They seldom respond to e-mail since typing involves an expenditure of energy. Deadlines have no effect on this creature due to a genetic immunity to shame. Although Committee Sloths accomplish little, they frequently bemoan their heavy workload.

There are numerous reports of Committee Sloths killing projects and assignments by sitting on them. These creatures may appear amiable but the cumulative effect of their practices poses a real danger to effectiveness and morale. If a quorum is required for a committee, the beasts can be lethal from a distance.

Turning Chrysler

Is Robert Nardelli building a dream team at Chrysler? An excerpt from Business Week:

Cerberus had been scouting talent even before it acquired Chrysler in May. In March, while it was bidding for the carmaker, its managers were talking to Nardelli, and later had headhunters stocking a pool of hot prospects. They approached Press a few months after. He met with Cerberus founder and CEO Stephen Feinberg over the summer, says a source close to the firm, and Feinberg made an impassioned pitch about joining a patriotic mission to save an American icon. Deborah Wahl Meyer, the former vice-president of marketing for Toyota's Lexus division who became Chrysler's chief marketing officer on Aug. 15, was approached by Heidrick in July, met with Cerberus, and negotiated a deal over two months. She couldn't resist the turnaround bid: "You only get a few chances in your career to do this."

Quote of the Day

Remember that the world's greatest leader washed the feet of His associates.

- Sign at Union University, a Baptist college in Jackson, Tennessee

"Six months of work in four days. And mono."

Need some entrepreneurial spirit?

Check out BusinessPundit's take on the wizard called Woz.

Wild and Sick

The story - and controversy - behind the upcoming film, Into the Wild.

McCullough on Leadership and George Washington

I've already read David McCullough's great book, 1776, but still found his interview with Charlie Rose to be fascinating.

Credibility and HR

The greatest mistake that can be made by Human Resources departments is to lose credibility.

Unfortunately, many HR professionals act as if they wish to do precisely that.

Among the credibility-destroying actions are:

• Acting like a paralegal for management. The wise HR department will be an honest broker who will admit when management has made a mistake and will lobby to correct poor practices. HR people who become toadies quickly earn contempt.


• Adopting a cynical attitude toward employees and their concerns. As an executive once remarked to me, "We don't have a personnel department. We have an anti-personnel department." Labeling some employees as whiners and troublemakers can result in a failure to listen when those individuals raise valid concerns.


• Failing to keep up with important changes in the law. The HR people need to know when the attorneys are on target or are being overly cautious. There are many legal defense strategies that have terrible management repercussions.


• Being too much of a cop instead of a consultant. There are times, of course, when conflict is appropriate but on most occasions HR should be an ally and not an adversary for the other departments.


• Failing to keep employee confidences. Gossiping should be treated as a cardinal sin in any HR department. One instance of breached confidence can damage an HR department for years.


• Focusing on turf instead of mission. HR departments that actively seek to prevent employees from getting management information from other sources only demonstrate their insecurity and limit the education of their workforce.

Much of the above can be encapsulated in a simple standard: It is more important to do right than be right. HR departments need the guts and insight to maintain that standard even if doing so means being willing to walk away from the job. An HR director who will do anything to hang onto a position has started to walk down a smooth and grassy path that leads to a very unpleasant place.

Crystal Balls

The always interesting Tim Berry on fear of business plans.

Late Bloomers, Take Heart!

Ninety years old and his first novel is coming out.

An excerpt from The New Yorker article on Millard Kaufman:

His alliance with McSweeney’s was a product of circumstance. “My literary agent, who was younger than me, had died suddenly, and I had nobody,” Kaufman said. He is now writing a second novel.

“Years ago, I was working in Italy, and Charlie Chaplin and his family came from Switzerland,” he recalled. “We were at a beach north of Rome, and it was a very foggy day and the beach was lousy. At about three o’clock it cleared up, and Chaplin said, ‘I’m going back to the hotel. Unless I write every day, I don’t feel I deserve my dinner.’ That made an impression on me.”

Quote of the Day

Experts ranked in serried rows
Filled the enormous plaza full.
But only one is there who knows
And he's the man who fights the bull.

- Robert Graves