Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on May 29, 2011. As city, county, and state budgets are being discussed and finalized around the country, one thing is clear: those who allocate resources are asking the wrong questions. As a result, recipients of government services are being short-changed because resources are [Continue Reading…]
Budget Cuts: Why Fire Departments and Police Departments Need to Change the Question
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Reality Check: How to Stop Trying to Square a Circle
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on May 27, 2011. The world has changed in major ways in the last few years, with important implications for organizations. Despite the resulting upheaval in virtually all major areas of life and business, many people continue to cling to the notion that things [Continue Reading…]
Assumptions Have Expiration Dates
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on May 16, 2011. Last month I was a judge for the International Collegiate Business Strategy Competition, which required graduate and undergraduate students to compete against each other in starting and running a business using a sophisticated computer program. One of the most important [Continue Reading…]
How Public Safety Professionals are Shooting Themselves in the Foot
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on May 1, 2011. When the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported recently that Long Beach’s Chief of Police had vowed that the police would “get the job done” regardless of what they were tasked with doing in the face of drastically reduced resources, I had [Continue Reading…]
Why “Proportional Sharing” Is an Ineffective Resource Allocation Strategy
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared as a guest column on Dr. Alan Weiss’s Contrarian Consulting blog on March 20, 2011. Times are tough. Government entities at all levels are scrambling to balance their budgets, which in most cases means making hard choices about how to allocate resources that are scarcer than ever. One strategy that [Continue Reading…]
Consequences of the “It’s Just My Job” Syndrome
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on February 28, 2011. Editorial changes were made here. Are you one of those people who, when others thank you or pay you a compliment about your performance, reply, “It’s just my job?” Have you ever been on the receiving end of that assertion [Continue Reading…]
Are You Treating the Symptoms or the “Disease?”
November 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Note: This post originally appeared on my Optimize Business Results blog on January 19, 2011. Editorial changes have been made here. On January 18, 2011 a high school student in Gardena, CA brought a loaded gun to school in his backpack. During the third period class he dropped the backpack on a desk, causing the [Continue Reading…]
14 COMMON MISTAKES MADE BY NEW (AND NOT SO NEW) FIRE CHIEFS
October 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
After working with four new fire chiefs over the last six years, I’ve noticed some dysfunctional patterns of behavior that, if not corrected, have a significant negative impact on the new chiefs’ ability to create and maintain their departments’ forward momentum. Based on my observation and experience, here are fourteen of the most common mistakes: [Continue Reading…]
