Also, on This Month’s Docket:

1). Famous Last Words – Rat Counts: A metaphor for our age.

2). The Pathology of Leadership Error in Crisis – Twelve leadership crisis response failure behaviors.

3). People Are Talking – Nice testimonials from clients, friends and disciples (perhaps like you).

4). Jim’s Wisdom – Maybe you should be using Federal Sentencing Guidelines as your incentive to prove ethical performance. Knowing how, when, and how long you’ll be behind bars is probably a better motivator to stay out of jail than your present ethics program.

5). Meet America’s Most Magical University – A visit to Minnesota’s Metropolitan State University. Maybe you should have gone to college here. You still can, and so can your children.

See you in September,

Jim

In this case, a metaphor for today.

“Rodent complaints are not an accurate indicator of the rat population in an area,” said the Chicago Streets and Sanitation spokeswoman after the city was named rat capital of America. The reason being so much garbage everywhere.

Originally published in USA Today on July 23, 2018, selected by Merrie Spaeth’s monthly newsletter, the BIMBO Memo, and it’s Bimbo winner of the month for July.

To subscribe to the monthly BIMBO memo contact Merri Spaeth at mspaeth@spaethcom.com

1. Surprise: Stems from the U.S. management culture developed over the last 40 years which stresses the invincibility of managers and leaders based on extensive monitoring and data collection to the exclusion of many traditional (historic?) management beliefs, actions, concerns and functions. Today’s prevailing attitude is that smart managers are unlikely to suffer a crisis.

The unintended consequence of this delusion is that much necessary readiness activity never takes place.

Part of the surprise crisis always brings is related to the almost immediate realization by these smart leaders that readiness has suffered in an environment of management omnipotence and over optimism about inherent response capabilities.

The lesson: The smarter they are the harder and faster they fall.

The outcome is: The refusal to believe that things are serious, i.e. not wanting to look too concerned in the eyes and gossip of peers.

"I’d like you to know that I think I have my issues resolved at work and we’re at least at a cease fire. I will save you the time and say that while it’s been painful, it’s been a tremendous learning experience. I’m confident it will end up a positive for both parties. No matter the case, your advice and good sense was instrumental to my navigating the treacherous tide."

-From one of my younger female up and comers navigating out of a tough spot

Looking to Transform Your Life? Or, help creating a new life for yourself? Want to get better where you already work? Or, need college credit for things you learned in life? Need to jumpstart your college education, again, close to home? Reached the point where you need a college degree but have a family, a couple jobs and it seems impossible?

Minnesota has just such a remarkable even magical place to help rejuvenate your life: Minnesota Metropolitan State University.

September 20, 2018: IABC Fellows 2018 Zoomcasts with Jim Lukaszewski participating: Episode 37 / Noon EST - Blending And Reshaping Internal And External Communication

October 7-9, 2018: PRSA ICON Conference: Panelist. Austin, TX. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER