by Brooks Mendell | Apr 26, 2026 | Thinking/Analysis, Leading/Managing, Learning
To decide on what to do next, it helps to have a clear view of the situation, and clarity often comes with time. Most issues are not so urgent that they require a manufactured rush or emotional impulse. To cite a Chinese proverb, “Muddy water let stand will clear.”...
by Brooks Mendell | Apr 21, 2026 | Thinking/Analysis, Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Learning
When things are too easy, we overuse and abuse them. Mailing a letter requires buying a stamp and walking to the mailbox; sending email means tapping a few keys and costs nothing, and now our inboxes overflow. Driving to the store takes time and gas; ordering online...
by Brooks Mendell | Apr 20, 2026 | Thinking/Analysis, Leading/Managing, Learning
The late comedian George Carlin talked about how, instead of simple words, we use “soft language” or euphemisms to hide the truth or avoid confronting reality. For example, practical “toilet paper” became formalized “bathroom tissue.” People no longer “die”; rather,...
by Brooks Mendell | Apr 19, 2026 | Thinking/Analysis, Books, Leading/Managing, Learning
Over the years, I’ve given dozens of Rotary talks, usually about the MIT baseball team or forestry, and often leave with a keepsake, like a mug or a pen. On one occasion, I received a coin with the “Four-Way Test of the things we think, say or do” used and recited by...
by Brooks Mendell | Mar 30, 2026 | Thinking/Analysis, Books, Leading/Managing, Learning
Cornell University in Ithaca currently has an exhibit – “Fashioning Justice: Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’54 and the Power of Presence” – which celebrates fashion trends and legal decisions influenced by the former Supreme Court Justice (aka RBG). What links fashion to the...
by Brooks Mendell | Feb 28, 2026 | Books, Communication Skills, Leading/Managing, Learning, Thinking/Analysis
In 1999, while in business school, I interned with the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) at Point Reyes National Seashore, living in employee housing about 90 minutes from where Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds, now considered one of the great horror...
