by Nick Jacobs

A few weeks ago, it was my pleasure to have lunch with a 68 year old, retired CEO who had, in fact, seen it all. Let me begin by cautioning you that his suggested management decisions might not fit very well in the hospital setting, but, as you will read, they are just FUN.

Example Number One: A group of PhD's assigned to create specific technology that would change the face of imaging were occupy a beautiful, new building in the middle of a wooded industrial park. Our veteran CEO is called to the task of straightening up what appears to be a hopeless situation, a total lack of productivity.

He enters the conference room filled with superior talent and queries them as to their accomplishments. After about 45 minutes of unsuccessfully attempting to uncover some project that they have brought to fruition, something that is useful, he leaves the room, goes to the master mechanical room and pulls the main circuit breaker. All power is now off in the building. At this point he goes to his office and begins to work with paper and pencil.

Within a few minutes there are several PhD's asking him what they are supposed to do without computers, lights or air conditioning. His reply was, "Whatever you want to do, you're not accomplishing anything here anyway." To which they continued to query him. He explained that, "As long as they weren't coming up with anything that was productive, he couldn't afford to keep the electricity on, and, for all he cared, they should go outside and sit in the grass."

The power was not reinstated until two days later, and it was about ten minutes after that the group revealed some meaningful ideas that resulted in such progress that they eventually landed literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of contracts.

Example Number Two:

He was called into a company filled with engineers who did not talk to each other. There was a long hallway with engineers on both sides, but, except for an occasional bathroom stop or a nod at the coffee pot, there was no conversation between offices. Our CEO observed that situation for about two days, went to the main server area and had the local e-mail turned off. Almost immediately the engineers emerged from their dens and began to talk to each other. It took him six months, but the discontinuation of the e-mail was the tipping point that allowed progress to begin.

My Inspiration: On Friday I called a group of managers together, handed each of them an envelope with their name typed on the front and a pink piece of paper inside. I asked them to hold the envelope up to the light. One sheepishly responded that, "It looks like a pink slip." To which I replied, "It is." Then I said, "It's a pink slip of blank paper, but consider this a dress rehearsal for next month. If we, as leadership, do not get our act together regarding our perceived productivity, we will all be replaced."

I'll let you know how that one turns out, but it certainly created some serious flow of conversation.