I recently presented “Managing Workplace Conflict” to front line managers at a medical conference in Sarasota.  By sad coincidence, just the week before an office manager had been shot and killed by an employee who was anticipating being fired.  Health care workers are at a higher risk than most.  They are exposed to the patients, the families, the public and their own.  But no worker is immune.

News reporters have an uncanny way of interviewing someone who “never saw it coming.” This compels me to set the record straight.  It’s true that some risk factors are invisible.  Many abuse alcohol or drugs, come from violent homes, or have trouble with authority.  Bur more often the troubled worker has given signals of high risk that have gone unaddressed.    They may start by intimidating coworkers with verbal a ...

On a recent visit to Scotland I noticed several hill ridges with wind turbines. It got me to thinking about energy production. According to some sources, the US is ranked third worldwide in wind generated electricity capacity, behind Germany and Spain, both vastly smaller countries. Turbines require high up-front investment costs and relatively low long-term maintenance costs. Understandably, wind turbines are limited to areas that have constant flow of non-turbulent wind. Wind projects have been providing energy for agriculture and rural areas for some time. Ideal locations for turbines are on ridgetops, near shores, and offshore. While Florida has many miles of shoreline and vast offshore areas, it may not be ideal for wind turbines because of its seasonal turbulent weather. There are many other areas in the US that are ideal and the grid system of energy distribution means larger areas can benefit from wind energy.

Which brings me to think of Florida& ...

I’m making a concerted effort not to take an apocalyptic view of the times.  They are what they are.  True, service isn’t what it used to be, but we really need a lot less of it – self serve pumps, microwave dinner, bill payment on line, direct deposit, tickets to anything on the internet.  If I don’t want to interface with those annoying humans (oh, wait, that’s MY species) I really don’t have to.  I can choose for my contact time to be with people I like…or should I say &ld ...

I’m surrounded by aging issues.  The CFCC Public Policy Institute is wrapping up its recommendations for a community response to access to health care.  The Gerontology Symposium speakers today spoke about the aging population, the Baby Boomers, and the “waves” of population shifts.  Baby Boomers (like me) will be a force to be reckoned with as we will be more educated, more demanding, live longer, be more likely to do more things after/in retirement, and the information goes on and on.  I’m turning 60 next year and I think ...

Today I visited teslamotors.com and was impressed!  Tesla Motors is an up and coming California startup developing and producing the first truly high performance electric sports car (see http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1 ). The car, the Tesla Roadster, is making quite a stir. The Tesla Roadster is capable of 0-60 acceleration in close to 4.0 seconds and has the completely cool sports car look, matching its world-class performance. The look and performance place it in the same rarefied strata as legendary $300,000 autos bu ...

In a recent online chat with our business school team, worldwide directors noted the importance of delivering both “hard” and “soft” skills knowledge to business students.  Many of the directors (who also happen to be in my generation) believed that we do not place adequate emphasis on the development of people skills in educating our future business leaders.   Younger directors didn’t particularly perceive a problem and thought we needed to place more emphasis on the hard skills courses (statistics, research, etc.)  To our d ...

I don’t need an alarm any more. With the promise of spring came an intruder in the early morning hours and continuing throughout the day. A bright red cardinal has taken possession of a particular branch of my trimmed crepe myrtle and gazes at my office window nearby. At random intervals the cardinal takes rapid flight straight into the window, strikes it sharply with his beak, then again, then again, and flies back to the branch. This three part attack on the window pane occurs for quarter and half-hours at a time. I’ve done the on-line research on this pesky bird and have tried the suggested remedies. Sheets of tin foil hang at random heights in front of the window, silhouettes of hawks are taped to the window pane, a plastic owl sits nestled in the knuckles of the same crepe myrtle. None of these has deterred the bird. It seems that the male cardinal, in a territorial battle, has discovered the male invader in my window. That primal instinct does not acc ...

Newscasters have commented abut how poised the Virginia Tech witnesses are in their accounts of the event.  Certainly they are courageous.  Some had the presence of mind to document with cell phone photos.  Others took desperate measures to survive.  No doubt, some of the quiet composure is the effect of shock and trauma,

But, I wonder if some of the objectivity of the accounts is fortified by the generation's exposure to violence, the media, and the plethora of crime scenes processed and autopsies performed on prime time television nightly.  I admit I am one who can watch every version of Law and Order and every city of CSI until I believe I could process a crime scene myself.

Is anybody with me?

Who hasn’t been to a garage sale? Until recently I had been to maybe a handful–although I held a few huge ones preparing for big moves. A newfound delight, I am deriving heaps of pleasure and finding wonderful treasures by going to yard/garage sales and flea markets. I don’t think Marion county is any different than many others when it comes to the reprocessing of goods and discards. What does surprise me is that second hand merchandise is the lifeblood of many, many "merchants." The professional buyers scramble to garage sales early Friday morning and scoop up anything they believe will resell at flea markets, thrift or consignment stores, or on ebay at a higher price.

As I see it, the business of second-hand goods serves many useful functions. It provides a source of income to people willing to buy and sell in what I would consider a precarious environment, made that way by the unpredictableness of the avai ...