Do not believe what you hear from people.

They do what they want to do, despite being presented with the evidence that an opposite or alternative behavior or thinking is better.

They say what they say, but action speaks louder than words.

What institutions/organizations do inside their walls manifest outside in the most flagrant way.

What institutions/organizations project outside their walls reflect what they do inside.

How are they inside/ how they are outside?

Is there a dissonance? an asymmetry? a camouflage? a game of smokes and mirrors? 

Too much hype, no credibility. Too serious, no creativity. Too scared to play, they run around in circles, no clear way forward.

What comes around, goes around. 

It is not because of lack of trying but they trying the wrong kinds of things. 

It is not because they lack persistence; they persist on maintaining those things that should be discarded long time ago.

It is not because they lack the good heart to serve, benevolence is not enough.

People trust on the basis of actions, never on promises or empty commitments.

Seriously? Yes, this has followed me throughout my career. Any time you bring that added enthusiasm in all your conversations, which I would do most of the time, things just fall into place.

I remember when I was working in a government organization, they were hiring for the HR Director. I heard it was quite an intense process. I heard who eventually landed with the job. She was brimming with a lot of enthusiasm and she stood out from the competition.

Enthusiasm is contagious, so it says. 

All things being equal in intelligence, experience, knowledge, competencies, the next step is who has a lot of energy and enthusiasm for this job/business? 

That is one defining quality that can really create a huge difference.

Why is it that negative critics always dominate the conversation about a brand, company, organization, or product while the rest of the happy, satisfied, and loyal customers are not heard from?

According to a study done in Texas, negative feedback is 11th times likely to be dominant than positive, satisfied comment. This 11 dissatisfied people will then talk to at least 5 (average) other people about their dissatisfaction.

This goes to show that perception is malleable and can be shaped on the basis of who is doing what to whom. Word-of-mouth works if it's positive, it could be fatal if it's negative and totally based on misinformation and has the purpose to damage the reputation of your organization, brand, or products. To say, in this world we live, going viral- can be both a bane and a boon.

The lessons in corporate and management history suggest that we need to take a stock, monitor, evauate, and strategize how we are projecting ourselves out there, what kinds of things are being said about us, and how we can favorably turn those conversations to our favor and advantage. 

This is not about propaganda or fake news, this is an honest-to-goodness management of public relations. If you can't control how you want to be perceived, some one will create it for you and that is the least comforting things as an idea.

When was the last time you heard from a delighted customer? Why don't you toot your own horn, and harvest your own successes and achievements. You are not making it up, there is social proof on every thing that you will declare out there. What is worst is that the deluge of uber-the-top negativity has been allowed to poison the minds of those who are just fence-sitters and observers? There is so much on the line here.

That has to stop and you can make concrete, tangible, and long-term commitment to making it work. If you can post your comments on Facebook and Twitter account everyday, you can do more on this area than just being passive and reactive. 

I called the bank one day hoping to speak to a banker about my lack of access to my online account.

I called the toll number and I got these options:

Press 1: For banking hours and locations

Press 2: Credit card questions

Press 3: For loans, insurance 

Press 4: for other products


Press 5: for loss of card, etc.

Press 6: For online banking

I pressed 6 I got led to a number of options


Please dial your number

Please dial your birth date followed by a # key

Oopps, sorry I didn't get your number, try again.

I tried again and then the line went dead.

Can we just  talk to another sane human being who has a moderate level of intelligence, can understand our frustrations, and can handle our issues adequately?


Enough of these robocalls!

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A few years ago, I was a victim of the 'management by walking around' practice. Having been a staff myself, it confused me tremendously why management and executives have to do the rounds by walking around, pretending to be really curious and interested of personnel's work. What exactly can be derived by walking around the hall other than disturbing staff' precious time focused on real work and getting into chitchat with those that have nothing to do at the moment.

Visibility is good when there is a strategic purpose to visibility. Visibility alone is nothing.

Creating real genuine interpersonal relations is good but when it gets down to work, your boss is not your friend and vice-versa. 

Also, this family vibe in many companies and organizations is also fake. This is not a family relation, this is business and you have a job to do and will get appraise at the next six-month mark. 

There is a tremendous waste of monies and time on team building exercises meant to look like everyone is having a happy time, fetching water, building sand castles, catching people up when they fall, rappelling down ravines -all in the name of team work. There is no team work in that superficial encounters. 

Real team work is about solving real problems and challenges as a team and experiencing satisfction from joint accomplishments.

He found me cutting some papers for my program activity for children. "This is work," I told him and he said, "good job," and turned around.

Nuf said. 

What is communication without strategic purpose?


It is like a cymbal being beaten incessantly without rhyme or reason.

It is the spam you don't want to receive.

It is the advertising in the television that you want to skip when it's on.

It is your company newsletter that is telling all the good news but not taking time to consider what bad news needs to be communicated too!

It is the talking without the regard for the needs of listeners.

It is empowering to talk and communicate in itself without the higher purpose of fulfilling one's life mission or organizational mandate.

Stop wasting your resources on one-way communication. It is good to build skills on communication but without alignment to the strategic objectives, it becomes a self-development crusade. It is just 'good-to-have.'