by Brooks Mendell | Dec 22, 2020 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
This post introduces an essay with advice on managing a business, setting expectations and working with teams. It is the second in a three-part series on entrepreneurship. Starting Forisk Consulting was not part of a long-term goal. Rather, it came together...
by Brooks Mendell | Jul 31, 2020 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
This post introduces a recent essay on mobilizing teams and making decisions during difficult times. When faced with ambiguity and uncertainty, we seek solid ground for making decisions. For novel and contentious issues, following our “gut” or simple frameworks may...
by Brooks Mendell | Jun 14, 2020 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Thinking/Analysis
In my roles as a business advisor and as a team leader, I have the opportunity to continually discuss and test ideas on managing and making decisions, especially in turbulent times. The intensity and urgency of these conversations increased with the arrival in 2020 of...
by Brooks Mendell | May 25, 2020 | Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
In college at MIT, I played baseball for Coach Fran O’Brien. MIT hired Coach O’Brien in 1969. In the twenty seasons prior to Coach O’Brien’s arrival, MIT Baseball had one winning season. He inherited a Division-III, no scholarship, no recruiting team that expected to...
by Brooks Mendell | Mar 18, 2020 | Communication Skills, Forestry, Learning, Thinking/Analysis
“Without a structured approach to ordering the world, the world will impose its views on us. The fact is some things are more important than others, some things are easily verifiable…Simple processes help us sort the mess and prioritize.” from “Managing Risk by...
by Brooks Mendell | Jun 28, 2018 | Communication Skills
Since clipping on my first tie as a child, I’ve sat through many a wedding speech. Unfortunately, most memorable speeches and toasts carved out mental real estate in my head for the wrong reasons: they went awry or too long or both. Those ‘toasts gone bad’ motivated...
