Blame Game

April Jefferson worked with me and the DMS team today in a team session on dealing with blame cultures and behaviors. It was a swift and...

The Results of Lean Thinking Applied to Schedulon and A/V

-- Tony Markel A little over a year ago, we were failing to meet customer expectations when it came to A/V service.  In a three mon...

View from the Trenches

Like many people, I started life at the bottom of the business food chain.  My first job was as a dish washer.  I subsequently worked as a...

Not all those who wander are lost.

-- Erik Zempel (with Tony Markel) Sometimes you go looking for one thing and find another.   ZenDesk has been a great tool for us, but it...

VM's For Sale, Cheap!

Imagine a world where research, software development, and online learning rule. Imagine independently owned, yet centrally supported virt...

Stewardship

I was reading through the  One MSIS  guiding principles this morning and I came across a word I hadn't seen in awhile -- stewardship. ...

Knowing You Know or Just Thinking You Know

On at least two occasions in my life, someone insisted on wagering on a fact.  Both times, I won the bet.  There were other times in which...

Feeling Burned Out and Overwhelmed - Five Coping Strategies

This is a personal account of how I regain my productivity when I've dug myself into a productivity hole at work.  Hopefully some of w...

Iron Shrimp is Dead...Long Live Iron Shrimp!

In a dynamic organization, reorganizations are inevitable.  As people come and go and leadership strives to optimize the value of existing...

ABCs For Meetings

ABCs For Meetings Drew Montag I’m currently reading a military thriller (think Tom Clancy) by Richard Herman Jr., “Iron Gate”.   In...