As we get older, it’s interesting what we recall from our youth and the impact it had upon us – even if we didn’t know it at the time. For me, I was blessed with having several teachers who supported me and influenced me a great deal. There was Ms. Blair, my 3rd grade teacher….
The art of debate has devolved. No longer is it used as a tool of discovery, understanding, reconciliation, and progress. Today, it is a tool used to beat one another into submission – with the wholesale surrender of the beliefs and values held by one party over the other being the goal. What’s worse, the…
I would find it hard to believe that any successful person achieved that success without having at least one mentor along their journey – someone who was instrumental and influential in the life journey of the person being mentored (the mentee). But what is mentorship? Mentorship is a semi-formal relationship between someone who has wisdom…
There are very few people that actually enjoy meetings. I have never heard anyone say, “I can’t wait for the meeting this afternoon” unless it’s followed by “I won’t have to eat at my desk.” Certainly, the people who are called to attend a meeting largely lack enthusiasm are energetic unless they, or their project,…
In this episode of State of Readiness, we interview Carl Kirpes, responsible for Crude Oil Strategy & Analysis at Marathon Petroleum Corporation. Carl and I met some years ago at an annual conference of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers when he was just graduating from Iowa State University – and we have stayed in…
