The Economics of Union Activity

Supply and Demand. The first lesson of Economics, or at least I remember it that way. The most important lesson of economics as I remember it.  Maybe I’m remembering it wrong, but I think the issues of the supply and demand of labor need to be reinforced when we think about anything and everything that is going on in our world. And one of those things is union activity.  The issues at Starbuck, Amazon, UPS… the list goes on and on about union organization and in the media seems on the surface to be about wages, benefits, and the overall

3 Lessons in Effective Training from Inmates

My family and I had the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica this summer to serve with Voz de Liberta (Voice of Liberty).  They are “a non-profit NGO that is dedicated to sharing the message of hope to prisoners, former prisoners, their families and victims throughout the country by providing comprehensive assistance.”  It was amazing to see the work they are doing, in particular in the APAC (faith-based) prison they run.   Through my time there, I found that the prisoners taught me a thing or two about how to do training well:  The experience in Costa Rica flipped the way

How to conduct an effective one-on-one meeting

I’ve been experimenting with the Ink and Volt One On One Pad to help me organize my thoughts.  I organize around these 4 four pillars:  I use our Insightly software to refresh my memory on what everyone has going on with the first two (the software calls these “Projects” and “Opportunities”) before the meeting. I record these things on the Ink and Volt pad.  I also take a look at each person’s task list in Insightly before the meeting.  Doing this always makes me keenly aware of how on top of it everyone on our team is.  They are always

Mom, I’m Bored

“Mom, I’m bored,”  said one kid from the backseat after we told them NO MORE DEVICES on a road trip to kick off the summer.  You see, devices for them create the stimulation that makes them, well, crazy.  So after allowing them on the first leg of the trip without any constraints, we put a cease and desist order out on all devices and prayed we wouldn’t all kill each other over the course of the next hundreds of miles.  Our trip began with a desire for our kids to see all 50 states before our oldest leaves for college

6 Tips to Help You Unplug for Your Vacation

With 4th of July being the unspoken week of summer vacations, it’s time to consider- does anyone every really truly go on vacation now days? By a true vacation I mean no work is done. None. No emails, no voicemails, no finishing up a project, starting a project or even thinking (and therefore procrastinating) on a project. In a world of constant connectedness, I’d venture to guess most people don’t actually unplug completely from their work. According this article, more than half of Americans plan to work while on vacation. But if you are headed on vacation or on vacation