—and what it would take to get close anyway. Upon taking the helm at Starbucks in 2024, CEO Brian Niccol issued a rallying cry: “Back to Starbucks.” He wants to reclaim the “Third Place”—that essential social anchor between home and work – the original Starbucks’ strategy that had once made them the undisputed leader of […]
Q7-Lite: The One-Minute Tool That Reveals What Drives People
… and Unlocks Millions in Lost Productivity. Every company on Earth keeps pouring money into “culture initiatives,” “alignment workshops,” and the usual parade of buzzwords. And yet the underlying problem never changes: People don’t understand what truly motivates them – or anyone else. They think they know. Everyone swears they know. But when you put […]
Carney’s Leadership Communication Masterclass
How Mark Carney Turned a Diplomatic Apology into a Masterclass in Leadership Communication In politics as in management, what you say is rarely as important as how you say it. Tone, timing, and phrasing decide whether you calm a storm or start one. And few recent moments illustrate that better than Prime Minister Mark Carney’s […]
Case Study: When Leaders Self-Censor, Autocracy Wins
Last Friday, I posted a light-hearted, satirical #TGIF meme on LinkedIn — a classic painting re-imagined as ‘The Nightmare Before Anchorage’ with a one witty caption about the exhaustion of high-stakes leadership. Nothing targeting any person, ethnicity, or group. Within hours LinkedIn permanently deleted it, labelled it ‘hate speech’ and ‘bullying,’ and sent me the […]
And Now for a Light TGIF Thought…
Let’s kick off the weekend with some batshit-crazy news, courtesy of Donald Trump. On August 1, 2025, he canned Erika McEntarfer, head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, because her jobs report was not to his liking. He’s out here screaming that she fudged numbers to prop up Kamala Harris. No evidence, just vibes. I […]
Our House, Their Circus: Why Canada’s Speaker Election Gets It Right (and Why I’m Staying Canadian)
It’s moments like these that really crystallize why we Canadians operate on a slightly different wavelength than our neighbours south of the border. The recent, dignified election of Francis Scarpaleggia as Speaker of Canada’s House of Commons, especially when contrasted with the… shall we say, memorable… process that gave the U.S. House Mike Johnson in […]
What the Feds Could Indeed Improve—Without DOGE
Having explored in Part 1 how the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) represents a fundamentally flawed approach to federal transformation, let’s now turn to the realistic alternatives that could deliver meaningful, sustainable improvement. The Realistic Efficiency Opportunity Based on my extensive experience with organizational transformation across private and public enterprises, federal efficiency can improve dramatically—without […]
The Oasis of Progress: A Sustainable Path to Peace in Gaza
If you came here to read about effective management and leadership, don’t be surprised: the Gaza problem is not just about politics. Rather, it is a business case where the global progressive business community can apply its collective experience to help create a prosperous future for millions of people who have been neighbors for eternity. […]
Frogs as Lubricant: The Good, the Bad, and the DOGE
My guide on a tour of an ancient windmill, dressed as the 18th-century miller, explained with a nasty smile that he used frogs as lubricant. “Not the best lube,” he chuckled, “but widely available and virtually costless.” Simple and effective, like all ingenious things. Indeed, if cost-cutting is your only concern and “biotic resources” are […]
Making Americans Competitive Again (MACA)
Read the full text of Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order mandating the immediate termination of all U.S. hockey players involved in the recent 4 Nations tournament loss to Canada. By the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and in order to restore national pride, eliminate incompetence, and ensure future victories through […]