Markovitz Consulting

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Why Having More Meetings Is Not The Answer

Markovitz Consulting

One of the participants in my Conclusion Trap class was grappling with a persistent problem at her company: their website regularly crashed after upgrades. She believed that one of the primary drivers of the problem was poor communication between two teams. The solution was obvious—schedule additional meetings between those two teams. Along with spending more money on technology, adding meetings to everyone’s already overburdened schedule is an example of conclusion jumping at its finest.

Meeting 278
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Problem Framing Is More Consequential Than You Might Think.

Markovitz Consulting

In 1971, President Nixon declared a “war on drugs.” In 2017, President Trump declared a “public health emergency” to battle the opioid crisis. These two declarations were essentially about the same thing: dealing with the financial, emotional, and social scourge of drug abuse that was destroying individuals and communities. But the framing of the problem—a “war” versus a “health emergency” makes a huge difference in the countermeasures that citizens, politicians, and communities are ready to con

Exercises 113
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What is a Healthy Company?

Markovitz Consulting

What is a healthy person? We can argue over specific metrics, but we’d all agree that we have to account for physical as well as mental/emotional health. What is a healthy organization? As with individuals, there will be disagreement over metrics, but clearly we have to consider financial performance, internal stakeholders (employees), and external stakeholders (community).

Company 124
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I'm Teaching an Open-Enrollment Time Management Class on Apr 17-18

Markovitz Consulting

How often have you started your workday with a clear plan and objectives.but by the time you pull your head out of your inbox it's lunchtime (or later), and you haven’t actually accomplished anything important? Do you lose precious time hunting for files or emails? Do you wake up at 2am panicking about something you forgot to do? It doesn't have to be that way.

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One Easy Way to Squander Time, Money, and Credibility

Markovitz Consulting

Just in case 2020 wasn’t challenging enough for you, here’s a brilliant example of how to waste time, money, and credibility in 2021. The HR department at a company approached me recently about teaching employees process mapping. This company recognizes the utility of process mapping in continuous improvement and decided that a class would be a good place to start.

Training 187
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Pay Attention to the Trenches, Not the Stars

Markovitz Consulting

Prior to the Super Bowl last Sunday, you couldn’t pick up a sports section without reading about the duel between Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time, and Patrick Mahomes, the best quarterback in the game today. But it turns out that the battle between the two big name quarterbacks was much less important than the battle between the Chiefs’ offensive line and the Buccaneers’ defense.

Sports 230
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Why Your Productivity Hacks Don’t Hack It

Markovitz Consulting

(Note: a modified version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. You can read that version, with more links to related articles, here.) ———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Leaders in organizations are always seeking to improve employee productivity (including their own). All too often, that quest goes no further than time management training provided by the HR department.