• “GOOD LISTENERS TEND TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS, based on better-informed judgements which result from most productive dialogue.” Many people, especially executives & managers, are naturally inclined to speak their minds, treating conversations as opportunities to broadcast their own ideas, and/or spend more time formulating their next response than paying attention to what the other person is saying. Best listening & hearing tips for productive discussions are always: (1) Show respect, let the other person complete their thoughts and consider where they are coming from, before the tendency to ‘help’ by telling your solution; (2) Avoid the impulse to interrupt in order to simply speed the conversation along; (3) Pose questions rather than having your say; consider the 80:20 rule as a guideline – that 80% of good ideas usually result from 20% of dialogue. Teamwork, Productivity, Profitability all emanate from optimally effective communication. DCG presents Lunch & Learn sessions to employer/employee groups which have proven very valuable to companies. Call for guidance[McKINSEY]
  • “A FRIGHTENINGLY ORTHODOX MEDIA CULTURE created by overwhelmingly liberal news media, academia and technology companies… is an extraordinary Opinion issued by a federal appeals court judge last week: (1) attacking partisan bias in the news media, lamenting the treatment of conservatives in American society; (2) calling for the Supreme Court to overturn a landmark legal precedent that set the framework for modern defamation law which protects news outlets from lawsuits; (3) declaring that a 1964 Decision requiring public figures to show ‘actual malice’ to recover against a news organization for libel, was a ‘policy-driven’ result that the justices simply invented out of whole cloth, with no relation to the text, history, or structure of the Constitution; (4) that increased power of the press is so dangerous today because we are very close to one-party control of these institutions and threat to a viable democracy; (5) that bias against the Republican Party, not just controversial individuals… is a long-term, secular trend going back at least to the ’70s, and fundamentally un-American… The judge also specifically decried Twitter’s decision prior to last fall’s election to ban links to a N.Y. Post story (relaying allegation about Hunter Biden), citing it as an example of how Silicon Valley ‘filters news delivery’ in ways favorable to the Democratic Party… and further that social media companies are morally obligated to follow First Amendment standards allowing free expression with a diversity of view and are not absolved from engaging in what he termed Censorship.”    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/19/defamation-law-media-protection-477193
  • BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, STIMULUS FUNDS ARE FINALLY AVAILABLE TO FOOD SERVICE INDUSTRY SURVIVORS. Of the more than 110,000 restaurants/ bars/ caterers/ brewpubs & taprooms shut down by pandemic rules, those with up to $500K revenues in 2019 are eligible for up to $5M each; priorities first go to “women, veterans, or otherwise socially & economically disadvantaged… but the $28.6 billion grant will still only help offset about 10% of industry losses sustained from lockdowns.” [CFO DIVE -3/15/21] 
  • NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS ARE THE LATEST CRAZE. ‘NFT’ trading is something which is more or less unique, in the sense that it an NFT can’t be replaced by something different. Like a bitcoin, digital images of food (from Pizza Hut & Taco Bell), digital artwork, and the latest: Charmin toilet paper – which now offers “a series of uninspired JPGs and GIFs, most of them prominently featuring a picture of a roll of designed toilet paper, as pieces of digital ‘art’ actually being sold on the NFT exchange Rarible” (which donates proceeds to charity).  [FUTURISM.COM – 3/18/21]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: “Money may not buy happiness, but lack of it certainly buys misery…”

     I talked with a homeless man this morning and asked him how he ended up this way. He said, “Up until last month, I still had it all – plenty to eat, clothes washed and pressed, roof over my head, HDTV and Internet, a gym, pool, library, even working on my degree on-line. I had no bills or debt, full medical, dental, and benefits coverage.” I felt sorry for him, so asked “What happened? Drugs? Alcohol? Divorce? Oh no, nothing like that,” he said. “because of Coronavirus, I was unexpectedly paroled.”