Tripp,

I have followed your writing for a few years and marvel at your intrepid syle. As you suggest here and in other articles and blog posts, the opportunity for improved performance are virtually everywhere in most businesses, if only managers were willing to rethink the time-worn practices that now greatly limit both individual and enterprise performance.

Business isn't easy, and yet the fire fighting that consumes most managers is quite often (though unknowingly) of their own or their company's making. If they would only momentarily step out of the smoke and flames of day to day activity and take a systems perspective in order to see more clearly what's going on, the clarity this would provide could be the necessary first step on their path to more effective operations and more enjoyable work.

I've thought of commenting before, but your closing comment in this article made it necessary. You say, "Better designed work always improves performance." At DesignedWORK (www.designedwork.com), we prove this everyday.

Best wishes on your continued success.

Jim Pepitone, Managing Partner (james.pepitone@designedwork.com) and (www.linkedin.com/in/drjimpepitone/)

Just reading some History, I would like to quote four recognized leaders: Enrico Mattei, Epaminondas, William T. Sherman, George S. Patton. All of them were quite unfortunate in their adventures and, while the latter three fought their battles on battlefields, the former fought his battles at stock-exchange level. But they were all in favor of effectively using local resources, they were all against any kind of "colonialism", they were all very close to their combatants, they fought among them. Colonialism doesn't only meaning managing or exploiting "colonies", it also means make a "colony" out of any industrial / economical process, and of its people, who deserve instead full independence. Thank you.