you really should know about effective service improvement.

Thanks to Nicholas Bate for pointing me to James Lawther.

Kathy Mattea sings "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive".  My grandfather left Cadiz alive.

I love charts like this.  I could never present such an estimate.

More here.

Excerpt:

So here’s the bottom line: health care spending will likely continue to add to the overall deficit of the U.S. unless one of two things happen: 1) government and private payers simply pay less to providers or 2) providers charge less. Still, it does not alter dramatically the underlying math: health care spending is a matter of volume x price. If efforts in the ACA and private sector simply adjust what’s paid (prices) without addressing volume (utilization), deficits associated with health care spending will continue to play a greater role in the federal spending gap between revenues and expenses.

Remember one of Rumsfeld's Rules:

If scientists studied more important things they would look at the effects of a haircut on productivity.  Next they would study human output after a shoe shine.  And the creative capacity of a person smoking a fine cigar. 

The ability of an individual to solve complex problems while taking a hot shower. 

The negotiation skills of a person after a good cup of coffee.  The effect of a glass of wine on conversation.

How a freshly starched shirt and sharply creased dress pants improve presentation skills.

Important subjects.

You have a school full of children and are warned that in less than a half hour a tornado may hit your location.  What do you do?

The awesome power of mother nature is a constant reminder of how small we truly are.

Prayers to the residents of Moore, Oklahoma.

People are smarter than laws:

"'We wouldn't have anticipated that there'd be demand for these types of band-aid plans in 2014,' said Robert Kocher, a former White House health adviser who helped shepherd the law. 'Our expectation was that employers would offer high quality insurance.' Part of the problem: lawmakers left vague the definition of employer-sponsored coverage, opening the door to unexpected interpretations, say people involved in drafting the law."

The law of unintended consequences:

"As noted, employers are already reacting to ObamaCare. In fact, there was a huge shift to part-time employment in the fast-food industry beginning in January. The reason: ObamaCare will employ a 12-month “look back.” That is, in deciding whether a worker is full-time or part-time next January (when the mandate becomes effective) the government will look at the average weekly hours worked in the previous year.

One fast-food restaurant owner I talked with (owning 100 franchises) told me that the average workweek for their employees has been reduced to 25 hours this year–compared with 38 last year."

Update:  Chicken, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, Sweet Baby Ray's and Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk.  Molson Canadian for strength.  You are very welcome.

The proper removal of rhododendron.

I spent the day outside yesterday.  The weatherman called for storms, so it was a beautiful day.  Flats of flowers were procured and planted, flower boxes were filled along with the odd assortment of flower pots we've collected over the years.  I purchased a power washer (doesn't everyone need a power washer?) and new mower blades, tore out a tired old rhododendron, trimmed some bushes.  I weeded and mowed and tinkered and puttered and did almost everything I could do to stay outside.

Nothing monumental was accomplished but maintenance and improvement was achieved.  Things look a little less winter-torn now.


Tim: "Now that I'm 50, I'm greeting everyone I meet. . .because I know it irritates them."

Tim came over and smoked a cigar with me.  We chatted easily and reminded ourselves that we could have had the same conversations - did have the same conversations - twenty-five years ago.


There's a story here somewhere.

The birds seemed to notice a more permanent change to warmer weather as did the squirrels and cats and few other animals going about their business in the sun.  Even the smell in the air was different, shifting from the damp early spring battle for life to the reassuring warm earth and grass and floral smells.

Everything seemed nicer outside yesterday.  The weatherman calls for storms today.  I think I'll head back outside.

It was the '80's when bad videos so often accompanied good songs.  Rod Stewart in the courtroom with "Love Touch":

The perfect meeting?

Execupundit offers suggestions for surviving the bad meeting.  My favorite:

"Ask yourself what Theodore Roosevelt, Margaret Thatcher or Abraham Lincoln would do and act accordingly."

What I usually do:

"Excuse yourself to take a call and then don't return."

Of course, this topic always leads me to the best meetings, which are so often no meetings, but can be constructed from the following elements:

Something to Discuss - If we are just imparting information, there is no need for a meeting.  If we have something to discuss - a decision to make, options to consider, actions to take - then a meeting might be in order.

A Good Agenda - For me a good agenda imparts information; it briefly lays out not just the topics but the relevant facts being considered as part of the discussion.  I once started a meeting with an overview of the client's situation (which wasn't good) and had the plant manager tell me:  "oh, it is going to be one of those meetings."  In my mind, I failed in preparation for the meeting because I didn't make the circumstances known as part of the advance agenda.  I surprised him.

The Right People - The best meeting accomplishes something, and there is no better way to accomplish something than by having the right people in the meeting.  Who are the right people?  People who can - and will - make decisions. 

Meeting Leader - The best meetings will have someone who leads the discussion toward decisions.  Someone should be in charge of the meeting.  That person oversees the development of the agenda, ensures that good information is on hand, and efficiently and effectively guides participants in the room toward a conclusion.  The greatest compliment I ever received from a client was from a new client who, after a two hour meeting (long by my standards) told me that the short meeting was refreshing and helpful.  He explained that the previous consultants would "hold" them all day for meetings.  A good meeting is not rushed but does have sense of urgency and progression to it.  It respects the participants' time.

Follow-up - A good meeting will have follow-ups.  They should be reviewed in the meeting and then followed up quickly.

Related posts:

Meetings like Google and Apple.
The meeting people - a business fable.
So you have to run a meeting.
One hour. . .tops.
Four lists to learn.
Signs that your meeting could be improved.
Useful meetings.
On meetings and arrival times.
How to call a meeting Deadwood style (100% NSFW because Al Swearengen is talking).

Paul Krugman is on vacation this week, but pauses (do you pause from vacation?) to wonder what the fuss is all about:

"Except it seems that there weren’t actually any scandals, just the usual confusion and low-level mistakes that happen all the time, in any administration."

things are not good.

Thanks, David.

bookofjoe puts things in perspective:

"When I get emails or phone calls or texts from people telling me about how important something is — and how I must respond RIGHT NOW — my first reaction is always to snicker.

Gimme a break. 'Can't intubate can't ventilate' — that's urgent.

The rest is piffle and very small beer and can just wait until I'm good and ready to deal with it.

Unless you've stood over a patient's increasingly cyanotic face, unable to intubate or ventilate, while the O2 sat meter's beeps get lower and lower and slower and slower, and felt the sweat running down your butt crack, you have no idea what "right now" really means.

Rule of thumb: In otherwise healthy adults, permanent, irreversible brain damage begins after five minutes of hypoxia.

In children, or adults with compromised pre-existing physical status, less. Sometimes significantly less.

Trust me on this."

Made in Detroit:

we haven't spent the time or effort necessary to understand it.
we want it to be.
that makes us look smarter.
we don't want to try to explain it.
certain details don't fit neatly into our preconceived notions.
we're in a hurry.
we're lazy.
then you need to hire us to figure it out.

And other random wisdom from Execupundit.

John is in Lexington, Kentucky interviewing.  He sent me the above picture from the menu of a local establishment.  I told him to buy a shot of the Pappy Van Winkle to say he had tasted it.  He replied that he had no intention of spending $60 on a glass of bourbon.  Later in life he will learn that we regret what we did not do far more than what we did do.  Missed opportunities.

"I say the following not as an old codger painting his youth in roseate hues that never were, but as serious sociology: We kids could get up on a summer morning, grab the .22 or .410, put it over our shoulder and go into the country store for ammunition, and no one looked twice. We could go by night to the dump to snap-shoot rats, and no one cared. We could get our fishing poles—I preferred a spinning reel and bait-casting tackle—and fish anywhere we pleased on Machodoc Creek or the Potomac. We could drive unwisely but joyously on winding wooded roads late at night and nobody cared."

Read on at Fred on Everything.

We are living in the world of safety.  Safety is the excuse for not allowing freedom.  It is a dangerous time.

Thanks, David.

found at KA-CHING!, while laughing.

Michael Wade is the prose laureate of the blogging world.  Here he is, dead on, looking at the effect of travel on business:

"Examining a training proposal to conduct a workshop in a relatively remote location. Travel time is a concern as well as sufficient rest. [The trainer needs enough time to be rested for the class.] I've never been on a lengthy business trip that was without expenses beyond the usual parameters so those calculations can be rough."

Read him daily and you will grow wiser.