By Clemens Rettich, on December 15th, 2011 
I don’t want a balanced life. I want an aligned life.
You want the wheels on your car aligned. When the wheels are even a little bit out of alignment, the ride is uncomfortable, the wear on tires and other parts goes up, and the vehicle works less efficiently. When the wheels are critically out of alignment the ride is unbearable, and your safety is at risk.
When things that matter in your business and your life are not in alignment:
there is conflict and discomfort; you, or your business, use more energy than you need to, and . . . → Read More: The One Thing That Matters: Alignment
By Clemens Rettich, on November 24th, 2011 
There is in the human soul a desire for reproducibility. Not reproduction, (we have that for sure!), but a need to reproduce things, perfectly and repeatably.
Traditional MBA programs are built on that desire; on the belief that the behaviours that constitute good management can be learned and repeated in any context. Those programs suggest, by making management a discipline, that if you get the basic skills down, you can manage a retail business or a bank or a restaurant, each with equal success.
The trouble is, it just isn’t true. But it seems that the desire to create . . . → Read More: A System or A Symphony?
By Clemens Rettich, on November 10th, 2011 
Information theory. Physics. Classical music & jazz. Monastic orders. The sciences of the brain and cognition. Statistics and probability.
Business Fundamentals.
Rules.
Each of these disciplines have rules at the heart of them.
So why do I find myself constantly going back there to think and act out of the box? Isn’t getting out of the box, out of the rut, all about breaking the old rules?
No. This is a complete failure of insight. We are not boxed by rules. We are boxed by habits, instincts, and unexamined emotions. One prejudice creates a prison of a box more . . . → Read More: Back to the Middle to Get Outside
By Clemens Rettich, on November 8th, 2011 
Ideas are easy. Consistency is hard.
I think that one of the reasons I return to that epigram so often is because of my music training. The business world has much to learn from the musical world.
In music we keep going back to the fundamentals over and over again. You keep practicing all the time. Inspiration and creativity matter, but if you are a professional, it is your chops that really matter. No one expects to get it right the first time. You make mistakes, but you keep practicing until you don’t make mistakes any more. Yes originality . . . → Read More: Play it Again. And Again. And Again.
By Claudia Waitman, on October 27th, 2011 
By: Claudia Waitman, President & CEO of Junction International
When I introduce myself to small businesses and explain what Junction International offers in terms of translation and cross cultural consulting services, I often get the response: “That’s great. But lucky enough for us, one of our employees speaks Spanish.” Or worse yet, I’ve even heard, “We used an online free translation site and then I tweaked it thanks to my high school French classes.” While all too common, these responses still make me want to scream!
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an . . . → Read More: Hola Equals Hello… But It’s Not That Simple
By Clemens Rettich, on October 21st, 2011 
<Start Devil’s Advocacy>Caveat lector.
I hate the term time management.
You can’t manage time. The word manage has the Latin word for hand (manus) buried in it. So you get the sense of something you can get you hands on, manipulate, adjust, turn, alter, carve, or julienne. And you can’t do a single one of those things with time.
We all get a chunk of it doled out in the light, and a chunk in the dark. Some of us use clocks that divide those experiences into hours. 24 of them. And we all get the same chunks. Depending . . . → Read More: Why Time Management Is a Phrase That Should Burn
By Clemens Rettich, on October 18th, 2011 
It has become a truism that many of us are too busy.
My trouble is that every time I hear a pronouncement like that I feel my feet cleaving and two little bumps pushing through my skull just at the hairline. The urge to advocate for the devil becomes strong. For example, when I hear someone say we should all be seeking balance in our lives I get like that… but that’s another article.
So really, are we too busy? Too distracted? Have we lost something important that we once had?
Reading What Happened To Downtime? The Extinction Of . . . → Read More: Give it a Rest. Downtime and Productivity
By Clemens Rettich, on October 10th, 2011 
Whether you are Canadian or American, it is not the exact date of Thanksgiving that matters as much as the commitment we make to express our gratitude for what we have been given.
My Thanksgiving list this year is long, but I’ll focus on four things I am grateful for:
That I have the opportunity to do only what I love every day. Two weeks ago I attended an evening staff meeting at the production facility of a client. In the few moments before I took my place at the front of the room, my client and I were . . . → Read More: Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving – My Gratitude List
By Clemens Rettich, on October 4th, 2011 
Engagement has become one of those nod your head buzzwords. We all suspect it’s a good thing, but most of us have no concrete understanding of what it means.
What engagement does means:
The feeling that we matter at work; that the unique skills and experience we bring to the team are valued, and would be missed if we weren’t there The deliberate act of engaging with employees to share their input and feedback to improve the organization. Done right, this leads back to #1!
The decades-long work by Marcus Buckingham and the Gallup organization have provided irrefutable evidence that the absence . . . → Read More: Tell Me I Matter & We Both Win
By Clemens Rettich, on November 25th, 2010 
Image by Clarita
With the holidays just a few weeks away, here are some basic tips to help make that holiday time your time…
Leave white space. Whether you are commuting to work, traveling to be with family, or scheduling social events, be generous with your time allocations. Leave white space around your commitments by not booking things tightly. Be clear and committed. This time of year can involve conflicting demands. Know where your commitments lie before the invitations and demands start to pour in. You can’t be everywhere, so make choices that underscore where your . . . → Read More: Holiday Time: Your Time?
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