I have always been fascinated by people who are top performers. What is unique about the person as an individual that helped them become a top performer? More

David Letterman made the Top 10 List famous. But this is one Top 10 List that you'll never hear on David Letterman. More

When it comes to today's bottom line, these are the best of times in the oil and gas industry. Because of greater world demand and geopolitical conflict, worldwide oil prices are higher than ever. Exploration and production opportunities that were once not financially viable are now attractive because of the high prices. Margins for refining crude oil into gasoline and other by-products is also strong in today's environment. More

I read a book quite a few years ago by John Guaspari titled "I Know It When I See It." It was a fable about a company named Punctuation, Inc. that manufactured punctuation products like commas, periods, apostrophes, question marks, etc. Their customers were lawyers who bought commas by the truckload to use after every "whereas" and "therefore" as well as comic strip artists who needed punctuation (#&?@%) in place of profanity in family newspapers. More

There were two outs in the ninth inning and the Astros were losing 5 to 4. The bases were loaded and the count to the batter was 3 and 2. One more strike and the season would be over without making the playoffs. A single might score two runs and would lock up a playoff spot for the Astros. There was much at stake with this next pitch. More

Most projects are on the cusp of failure at any time. So what are the costs of a poor quality project? More

What is a "healthy challenge?" To some a healthy challenge is running a marathon or riding the BP MS 150 to Austin. But that's not the type of healthy challenge I'm talking about. It's a feedback mechanism for organizations that will constructively challenge and test their line of thinking about a process, project, innovation or problem. A constructive challenge can be healthy since organizations, like people, need fresh and objective thinking around difficult decisions, changes or problems. More

I just had a birthday last week and I know I am beginning to get older. I'm beginning to get quite good at remembering the past well enough to see that history may just be repeating itself. I remember when I started my consulting business in 1989. We were on the tail end of a long standardization trend that had realized a lot of value for many organizations. Consultants like myself were helping companies try to break out of their standardization mindset with processes like Total Quality Management, Reengineering, Empowerment, Entrepreneurialism, etc. More