Catalyst Consulting Group, Inc.

04/04/2025

"There is no such thing as a perfect leader either in the past or present, in China or elsewhere. If there is one, he is only pretending, like a pig inserting scallions into its nose in an effort to look like an elephant."

Shao-Chi Liu

04/01/2025

"The minute a person whose word means a great deal to others dares to take the open-hearted and courageous way, many others follow."

Marian Anderson

03/28/2025

"A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group."

Russell H. Ewing

02/13/2025

If you're a human, you have History and you have Habits. Neither are who you are.

08/23/2024

A new favorite quote:
"Never do anything half- assed."

05/01/2024

A tiny tidbit of my training, received decades ago, was this coaching:

Consider: MAYBE there’s something I’m not seeing.

I always find this useful. Deliberately creating for myself, that there’s more possible beyond what I already know.

A very wise person once offered this analogy:
“It’s like opening your refrigerator and instead of seeing what you expect...
(like eggs, milk, kale, marmalade,)
...you see the Grand Canyon.”

It’s usually valuable for me to discover things I haven’t been seeing. (Even if it’s bad news.)

02/05/2024

The irony.

I was invited, via LinkedIN, by a local, reputable university, to have a conversation with them about being a possible resource for them regarding their “Customer Experience” program.

I accepted their invitation, directly, via email (rather than via the meeting link they had sent to me.) I was given access to an online calendar, to select a time open on their side. I did so.

I received two follow-up reminders from them as well, prior to the scheduled time.

Instead of requesting that I call them directly or them calling me directly, they provided a Zoom call-in number and meeting ID number. (Not a video meeting.)

I arrived early and dialed in. I sat listening to……nothing.

I hung around for minutes, waiting. Past the agreed-upon start time. I heard another call coming in on my other line, so I hung up and took the other call.

My Customer Experience: POOR. Laughing loudly.

05/02/2023

Pandora's Box

Social media illustrated some of the perils of unchecked technology.

10/26/2022

Best feedback EVER from a Client (2 business partners):
Me: Are we going to continue working together in 2023?
Them: Of course! When you're 114 years old and you have been in your grave for a long time, we're gonna dig you up every Tuesday, so you can come to our call!
😂🤣😂

10/14/2022

Wow. What a difference.

Men who belonged to unions their entire career made up to $1.3 million more, on average, than men who never joined one, according to recently released research.

08/12/2022

Yes.

Oppositional energy is easy to create and spread. Once you pick a ‘they’, then it’s simply a matter of doing the opposite of whatever ‘they’ recommend. It’s a la…

06/12/2022

Well, I had to look up "Sentient."

Setting aside what's in the foreground of this story, (the odd engineer and his mental health, or lack thereof,) I find it interesting to consider "sentience" in an electronic device. A device filled with data, conversations, information, distinctions, pictures.

Things that may you go "Hmm."

Blake Lemoine, the engineer, says that Google’s language model has a soul. The company disagrees.