Blog
Know What Matters: Baseball, Boundaries and the Astonishing Beauty of Things
The poet Robinson Jeffers[1] worried that people increasingly failed to engage with the world or to ...
Make a Decision and Act: An Ode to Star Trek and Stoicism
Growing up, I enjoyed the science fiction movies Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Star Wars, and television ...
Train or Hire? Both.
During my career in forestry, I learned that managing trees is about managing people. Forest resource ...
Checklists Improve Results, Reduce Errors and Save Lives
Four years ago, in September 2017, spacesuit technician Joseph Schmitt passed away at 101. The Economist ...
Brooks on Books: What are You Reading?
When visiting family or eating with friends (or interviewing job candidates), I often ask “what are you reading?” ...
Is This Meeting Necessary?
According to the late author and management expert Peter Drucker,[1] “one either meets or one ...
How to Improve the Communication of Research: Lessons from Forestry and Wood Bioenergy
In 2012, the Forest History Society published “Wood for Bioenergy: Forests as a Resource for Biomass and ...
Ground Rules for Productive Meetings
This post introduces an essay on leading and facilitating effective teamwork and meetings.
Meetings fail ...
Tough Trees and Growth Rings
The late Dr. Alex Shigo, author of accessible books on trees and former Chief Scientist of the U.S. ...
How to Read the News and Articles
When reading anything, we want to prepare our mind. Mindless reading is like mindless eating. Be intentional ...
Managing Businesses that Rely on Creative Activities
This post introduces an essay with ideas on coordinating different types of work.
Aside from the ...
Brooks on Books: Recommendations on Recommending
Books have been a hugely important part of my life. As a kid, when Mom took us to the mall, I loved going to B. ...