Rick Brenner

Subject Matter Bullying Most workplace bullying tactics have analogs in the schoolyard — isolation, physical attacks, name-calling, and extortion are common examples. Subject matter bullying might be an exception, because it...

Subject Matter Bullying (SMB) can be difficult to identify because a degree of subject matter mastery is required. While ordinary bullying often focuses on issues unrelated to the subject matter of the work, SMB often looks like ordinary work. In SMB, the bully uses the work to torment the target.

Yet More Ways to Waste a Meeting Experts have discovered that people have been complaining about meetings since the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE). Just kidding. But I'm probably right. As an aid to future archaeologists I offer this com...

Imbalance of power is a defining element of bullying among children, where power is largely based on age & size. These factors are dominant, in part, because a child intent on bullying another child can easily assess the power of potential targets by visual observation. Adults are different.

Yet More Ways to Waste a Meeting Experts have discovered that people have been complaining about meetings since the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE). Just kidding. But I'm probably right. As an aid to future archaeologists I offer this com...

In the workplace, when the bully takes steps to conceal the bullying, careful definitions of bullying have little relevance for the effectiveness of anti-bullying policies, because secrecy limits policy effectiveness. In covert bullying, the degree of power imbalance has little direct effect.

White-Collar Contractor Sabotage Modern firms in competitive, dynamic markets draw on many types of employer/employee relationships, including contractors. By providing privileges and perks preferentially among these different types,...

New issue of my newsletter today: "White-Collar Contractor Sabotage": Firms in competitive markets have many types of employer/employee relationships. By providing privileges and perks preferentially among different types, they risk creating resentments that can reduce effectiveness.

Our Last Meeting Together You can find lots of tips for making meetings more effective — many at my own Web site. Most are directed toward the chair, or the facilitator if you have one. Here are some suggestions for everybody.

If you know you’ll be late for a meeting, tell the chair and provide an estimated time of arrival (ETA). The chair can use your ETA to re-order the agenda. Don’t make the others wait for you.

A scientifically accurate atomic model of the external structure of the SARS-CoV-2 virus

The US will no longer cover COVID vax for most everyone under 65. If you’re 65+ & thinking you’re unaffected, re-think. Bc each new host is a chance for the virus to mutate, part of the protection of the 65+ came from protecting the under-65. All those new hosts under 65 are now threats to the 65+.

How to Make Meetings Worth Attending Many of us spend seemingly endless hours in meetings that seem dull, ineffective, or even counterproductive. Here are some insights to keep in mind that might help make meetings more worthwhile — and ...

Unless you agree in advance — explicitly — about how to run the meeting, most people assume that it will be run their way.

A Bactrian camel

New issue of my newsletter 5/28: "Mismanaging Project Managers: Leadership": Project managers are usually accountable for project performance. But Senior Managers escape notice when they interfere with the project managers' ability to lead their teams. Some tactics they use when intervening.

Using the Parking Lot In meetings, keeping a list we call the

A brief end-of-meeting review of the parking lot should assign each item to someone to follow up. If you don’t do the parking lot review during the meeting, you’ll have to do it later, when people might be far more difficult to reach.

How to Make Meetings Worth Attending Many of us spend seemingly endless hours in meetings that seem dull, ineffective, or even counterproductive. Here are some insights to keep in mind that might help make meetings more worthwhile — and ...

If the length of a team meeting, in minutes, divided by the number of people attending, is 4 or less, then: 1- the meeting is too short; or 2- way too many people are attending; or 3- way too many people have speaking roles; or two or more of the above.

How to Make Meetings Worth Attending Many of us spend seemingly endless hours in meetings that seem dull, ineffective, or even counterproductive. Here are some insights to keep in mind that might help make meetings more worthwhile — and ...

In meetings you’ll be assigned fewer action items if you actually attend. People dole out work more freely to those who aren’t present to object or raise questions.

Discussion Distractions: II Meetings are less productive than they might be, if we could learn to recognize and prevent the most common distractions. Here is Part II of a small catalog of distractions frequently seen in meetings...

The chainsaw rule: If you wouldn’t do it while using a chainsaw, don’t do it in a meeting.

Layoff Warning Signs: I One of the better career moves you can make is leaving your current position before your employer conducts layoffs. When you choose the time, you aren't under pressure and you make better decisions. H...

3/3 Eleven conditions that suggest layoffs may be imminent: \#9- Sudden executive departures, especially for hazy "new opportunities;" \#10- New executives have finance focus, not product or service focus; \#11- Those with expertise in company's core offerings leave to start their own enterprises.

On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: I In most organizations, most of the time, the plans we make run into little obstacles. When that happens, we find workarounds. We adapt. We flex. We innovate. But there are times when whatever fix we t...

5/ Plan-hostile environments arise when we confuse uniformity with fairness. Doing so risks creating indefensible situations. For example, requiring two days per week of presence in office is senseless when nearly all meetings are videoconferences. Uniformity must bow to common sense.

Layoff Warning Signs: I One of the better career moves you can make is leaving your current position before your employer conducts layoffs. When you choose the time, you aren't under pressure and you make better decisions. H...

2/3 Eleven conditions that suggest layoffs may be imminent: \#5- Bad news or a convenient scapegoat arrives or becomes evident; \#6- Reliable information from your network; \#7- Layoff rumors are intensifying; \#8- Reorgs and consolidations render make layers of middle management redundant;

On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: I In most organizations, most of the time, the plans we make run into little obstacles. When that happens, we find workarounds. We adapt. We flex. We innovate. But there are times when whatever fix we t...

4/ Plan-hostile environments arise when we focus on project health at the expense of employee well being. Projects cannot succeed when employees burn out, leave, or fail in place. Attend first to such practices as bullying, favoritism, discrimination, and toxic conflict. Project health will follow.

1/3 Eleven conditions that suggest layoffs may be imminent: \#1- The company's market position is weak; \#2- The company has announced they are developing a "performance action plan;" \#3- No raises or bonuses this year; \#4- A hiring freeze is in place, especially when "effective immediately;"

On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: I In most organizations, most of the time, the plans we make run into little obstacles. When that happens, we find workarounds. We adapt. We flex. We innovate. But there are times when whatever fix we t...

3/ In plan-hostile environments scope creep thrives. Project scope expands, for example, when we combine a troubled project with a healthy one, hoping to cure the troubled project. Scope expands because we must now do both projects AND replan the combined project.

Mismanaging Project Managers: Mechanics Most organizations hold project managers accountable for project performance. But they don't grant those project managers control of resources. And some Senior Managers escape accountability for their...

New issue of my newsletter out today: "Mismanaging Project Managers: Mechanics": Most organizations hold project managers accountable for project performance. But they don't hold Senior Managers accountable when they interfere with project work. Here are some issues worth looking at.

Layoff Warning Signs: II Layoffs often signal their arrival well in advance, if you know what to watch for. Some of the indicators are subtle and easily confused with normal operations. Here are three more indicators that lay...

Layoffs often signal their arrival in advance. Long before most management teams reach consensus that they must impose massive force reductions — layoffs — they deploy a series of measures that they hope will delay those reductions or reduce the likelihood of layoffs.

On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: I In most organizations, most of the time, the plans we make run into little obstacles. When that happens, we find workarounds. We adapt. We flex. We innovate. But there are times when whatever fix we t...

2/The fundamental issue in plan-hostile environments is that the lifetime of any knowledge of the plan's environment is much shorter than the time required to develop the plan. In effect, the organization is unable to cycle through its OODA loop fast enough to execute the plan.

On Begging the Question II Some of our most expensive wrong decisions have come about because we've tricked ourselves as we debated our options. The tricks sometimes arise from rhetorical fallacies that tangle our thinking. One...

Since about 1990, there has been growing use of a construction similar in form to the phrase "begging the question," but entirely unrelated to its meaning. The form, "begs the question," used in a context in which it means, "raises the question," can create confusion.

On Planning in Plan-Hostile Environments: I In most organizations, most of the time, the plans we make run into little obstacles. When that happens, we find workarounds. We adapt. We flex. We innovate. But there are times when whatever fix we t...

1/ In plan-hostile environments executing most kinds of plans — strategic plans, project plans, employee development plans, whatever — runs into serious trouble. Few plans can be executed as intended. Replanning and rescheduling are common. Conventional project management fails.

On Substituting for a Star Newcomers to work groups have three tasks: to meet and get to know incumbent group members; to gain their trust; and to learn about the group's task and how to contribute to accomplishing it. All can ...

When a task-oriented work group has a member who's a Star, and when that star is reassigned, someone must cover the ground the Star was covering. The group then enters a Tuckman Forming stage of development. And from there it will enter a Storming stage.

A Framework for Safe Storming The Storming stage of Tuckman's development sequence for small groups is when the group explores its frustrations and degrees of disagreement about both structure and task. Only by understanding these...

The Curmudgeon Team is a subgroup of a team. Its job is to strengthen the team's conclusions and results by raising thorny issues that cause the team to examine the path it's about to take, so it can make adjustments. The Curmudgeon Team helps the group avoid disasters by giving it an early warning.

A Framework for Safe Storming The Storming stage of Tuckman's development sequence for small groups is when the group explores its frustrations and degrees of disagreement about both structure and task. Only by understanding these...

In small groups, some members have ambitions to become effective leaders; some have the leader's talent and skills; and some have the leader's disposition. Trouble comes when ambitions, talent, skills and disposition reside in different people. In the Storming stage we learn who can provide what.

A Strangler Fig in Australia

Next issue of my newsletter for 5/21: "Mismanaging Project Managers: Mechanics": Most organizations hold project managers accountable for project performance, including the actions of Senior Managers. Here are some accountability practices worth looking at. ChacoCanyon.com/pointlookout...

A Framework for Safe Storming The Storming stage of Tuckman's development sequence for small groups is when the group explores its frustrations and degrees of disagreement about both structure and task. Only by understanding these...

A feud-by-proxy in a group is a feud in which at least one of the feuding partners is absent -- not a group member. Recognizing the problem might be possible, but resolution is not. To make any progress, the group will need to redesign its task activity around the feud.

A Framework for Safe Storming The Storming stage of Tuckman's development sequence for small groups is when the group explores its frustrations and degrees of disagreement about both structure and task. Only by understanding these...

The main benefit of the Storming stage is its ability to encourage disclosure of beliefs, biases, agendas, and practices that might threaten the group’s effectiveness. For example, in Storming we might register our discomfort with the group's inability to conduct civil, respectful debate.

Working with the Overconfident A cognitive bias known as the Overconfidence Effect causes us to overestimate the reliability of our judgments. Decisions we make based on those judgments are therefore suspect. But there are steps we...

New issue of my newsletter out today: "Working with the Overconfident": The Overconfidence Effect, a cognitive bias, causes us to overestimate the reliability of our judgments. Decisions we make based on those judgments are therefore suspect. But there are steps we can take to mitigate this risk.