Dave's Don'ts
Origin of Dave’s Don’ts
I’ve worked in a number of different organizations and different types of organizations in my pre-consultant career. And I’ve visited many different companies while auditing and consulting. I have met and continue to meet a lot of top-notch talent and just all-around good people. But, I’ve also seen my share of bad and just downright boneheaded behavior. I take a lot of notes about the good and the bad and continue to learn from my observations. Around the turn of the century, I started a toxic behavior list that I affectionately refer to as “Dave’s Don’ts”. In effect, I am telling myself: “Dave, don’t ever do this!”. When I got the inkling to write a blog, I thought this would be a great source of material, and so this is how my blog was born. A good portion of my entries will be about toxic behaviors that I am reminding myself to avoid. (On the off chance that we may cross paths, I’m hoping that you will consider doing the same.) In other posts I may share a bit of my business or personal philosophy, but still based on a “Don’t”. And in yet other posts, I will share some specific operational and organizational excellence wisdom that I have come across in one medium or another. I like to share.
Why Don’ts?
I suspect that some of you may think “What’s with all the Don’ts? Why is Dave so negative?”. I don’t see this as negative at all. Do you like football? I do. Were you ever close enough to the action to overhear what the coach tells the backup quarterback when he needs to go in? (Stay with me, a point is coming.) You see, the game is on the line. The star has just taken a big hit and can’t return to the game. The coach still thinks the win is within reach, but circumstances have forced a change in strategy. Instead of telling his star what to do to win, he now switches to telling his backup what NOT to do to NOT lose. Semantics? I don’t think so. I think it is a matter of simplifying the game. Instead of giving the green quarterback a long list of what to do that he’ll probably mess up, the coach provides a short list of what NOT to do. This is much more manageable. And in football, ignoring the unlikely tie game, “not losing” is the same as winning! I strongly believe that this approach is also very powerful in business management and life in general. That is, I don’t need to get everything right, but there a few things that can really sink me if I get them wrong. (Think of the Jeopardy player that is way ahead but loses the game because of a bad gamble on the final question.) Plus, the list of don’ts is shorter and this improves focus. I’m sure that you have learned a few “don’ts” of your own in your travels through life. These are mine. I hope that you find some of them useful, or at least though provoking.
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