PlaysWithTrucks

Category: Leadership

  • Listening to Understand

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    A reaction is a response, sometimes automatic. It’s an action or a thought programmed into our brains and triggered by a stimulus. When we’re faced with a situation, reactions happen. It’s important to understand they’re automatic, they’re not conscious efforts. And we shouldn’t base our actions on them. There are situations that require a swift…

  • Don’t get eaten.

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    This one is an appropriation of a Chinese proverb, often translated as “Riding a Tiger is Difficult to Dismount.” The quote has a few interpretations and translations, and the way I read it, it’s a cold reminder that when doing something new, something risky, something novel, we have to stay vigilant until it’s done. That…

  • Simple but Effective

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    Simple messages are sometimes the most effective. If you get good at producing consistent results, the questions about what you’re doing go away. If you’re not there yet, focus on consistent. Consistent isn’t standard, it’s not identical, it’s not perfect. It’s just being able to do the same thing, over and over again. Once you…

  • Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #208

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    First quoted by Grand Nagus Zek, this rule of acquisition is actually a solid leadership principle. Knowing when to ask the right question is a key trademark of successful leaders. Curiosity is what keeps us fresh, keeps us engaged, and keeps us learning. Curiosity also killed the Cat. Sometimes there are questions where it’s better…

  • The Power of Vision

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    Scott Duvall
    in , ,

    Every year at the PFMI, I teach a class about data. It’s a scripted show honed over almost a decade’s worth of learning and experience of working with data. If a student walks out with anything, I want it to be this: Data analysis starts with questions, not data. You can take any data set…

  • Original Creation

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    Not every message that lands on the board is a direct quote, a few of them are original creations. There’s a limited amount of space and a fixed number of letters I can use to create a message, leading to shortened quotes or lyrics that are randomly pulled from the middle of a song. Other…

  • The master of the colloquialism

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) is considered the greatest humorist the US has ever produced. His work “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is considered a Great American Novel for capturing the essence of the American style. A key to Twain’s writings was his mastery of the local language, the colloquialisms and speech of…

  • This isn’t the rocket guy

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch. -Jean Luc Godard (1930-2022) Godard was a pioneer of the French New Wave of cinema in the 1960’s, transforming movies by rejecting tradition and finding new ways of telling stories. The quote is a fun one for me. Whenever you’re…

  • Surprise Star Trek

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    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    This quote often gets mis-interpreted from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. The concepts of turning disadvantages into advantages is all over that treatise, and likely influenced the writers of Star Trek. Yeah, it’s another Star Trek Quote. Sorry. In “Loud as a Whisper”, from Season 2 of The Next Generation, a deaf negotiator joins the…

  • Sports Radio Leadership

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    by

    Scott Duvall
    in ,

    While I try to learn the history or provenance of every quote on the board, sadly this is one I don’t know. I first heard this saying from a sports radio host here in Chicago, proving that only most of AM talk radio is a veritable wasteland. The quote stuck with me and ended up…