MindPrep Resource Center
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Our Solutions
  • Free Resources
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

mindprep

Dandruff, gonorrhea, and halitosis

April 19, 2022 by Bill Welter Leave a Comment

Old, established products often have a fascinating history. Consider, if you will, the story of Listerine.

The story

In 1879 Joseph Lawrence, a St. Louis-based doctor, developed an alcohol-based formula for a surgical antiseptic. He did this in honor of the pioneering surgeon, Doctor Joseph Lister, and he named it Listerine.

He hoped to also promote Listerine’s use as a general germicide.  He licensed his formula to a local pharmacist named Jordan Lambert in 1881. Lambert later formed Lambert Pharmaceutical Company and launched Listerine as a mouthwash.

Interesting, a distilled form was also sold as a floor cleaner and a cure for gonorrhea (What?!).

Listerine sales grew rapidly in the 1920s when they “discovered” it could handle a little-known condition, halitosis. Now the specter of “bad breath” could be overcome and your love-life was saved! Ah, the magic of aggressive advertising.

However, this wonder-substance was not finished by any means. It was later advertised as helping with “infectious dandruff” and used as a skin conditioner.

A lesson

Sometimes the marketing of a product gets ahead of the science behind the product. Listerine works for its intended use as a mouthwash. And although I’m not a doctor, I suggest not using it for gonorrhea.

Application

Make sure your value proposition is backed up with a valid value promise.

Filed Under: Learn from the past, stories Tagged With: mindprep, minihistory

Chance punishes the unprepared mind

October 25, 2020 by Bill Welter Leave a Comment

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

“Chance favors the prepared mind” is attributed to the French microbiologist Louis Pasteur. After many discoveries and successes, he was accused of simply being lucky. He agreed – but contended that he was ready for the luck that passed his way.

Let’s flip that quote over and think about the following. How prepared were the political, corporate, and operational leaders to deal with the reality they faced? Some were. Others were not. And was it simply “luck” that made the difference?  

  • 3 Mile Island
  • Opioid crisis
  • Chernobyl
  • 9/11 terrorist attack
  • Titanic sinking
  • 2008 financial meltdown
  • Challenger explosion
  • AIDS / SARS / MERS
  • Enron demise
  • The downfall of Sears Roebuck
  • Fukushima nuclear accident
  • 1918 pandemic and the 2019 pandemic
  • Blackberry phones
  • WW I and WW II
  • And on, and on, and on

What’s the common thread through all of these disasters? People and the use (or neglect) of their minds!

History is interesting, but we live in the present. Think about the world in which we live right now. Most of us were totally unprepared for Covid-19 and those who worried about it could not or did not marshal the forces to blunt its impact.

I’ve written and taught about eight basic skills I’ve observed in people who were (or were not) prepared for their future and the future of their organizations. The skills are obvious; but based on work over the past fifteen years I know that three of them are underutilized in most organizations.

  • Observe
  • Imagine
  • Reason
  • Reflect
  • Challenge
  • Decide
  • Learn
  • Enable.

I’ll write about the underutilized skills in a forthcoming post. In the meantime, tell me which of these obvious skills are underutilized in your organization.

Thanks for helping me update my thinking.

Filed Under: pragmaticstrategist, prepared mind Tagged With: mindprep, thinking

Want the truth? Think like …

September 27, 2020 by Bill Welter 4 Comments

Source: VisualHunt

False news! Fake news! Opinion! Celebrity as expert! Forget science! Here’s the latest conspiracy news! Journalists lie! Politicians lie! “I read it on the internet!” “That’s just spin!” China (or Russia) (or Iran) is hacking our news and …….

Yowzah! Finding the truth used to be easy.

“Back in the day” we had Walter Cronkite, the “most trusted man in America.”  Later, we thought the internet would make it easy to find the truth because so many people could “fact check.” Wow were we wrong! Seeking truth is harder than ever before because so many people / organizations / governments want to mislead us.

So, for the sake of public welfare I’d like to offer some suggestions to make your work easier. Or, if not easier, maybe a bit more organized.

Maybe you should think like …

Let’s get out of the world of brainiacs and into the world of real people doing practical things to find “the truth.” I suggest that we can learn truth-seeking from some of the following people.

You might want to think like …..

  • A research librarian and find primary sources. Retweets and opinion pieces are always filtered news. Believe them at your peril. If you want the truth you will have to work and dig deeper. Otherwise, you will find yourself living in an echo chamber. Think of how you developed your personal stance on global warming. Do you know the facts or are your repeating someone’s filtered view?
  • A criminal detective and look for the motive behind what has been presented. A given set of facts will certainly be spun differently by Fox News and CNN. Who has the truth? Probably neither because they have worked to make facts fit their agenda. You need multiple points of view before you can be sure of the real story. Are tariffs good or bad? The answer is “it depends.” The truth is not simple.
  • An historian and consider the context within which the “news” is happening. If you don’t consider the larger context you will be subject to your own biases (and all of us have biases). Sorry, but social media almost never provide the big picture. You have to find it yourself. We’ve had troops in Afghanistan for a long time and we won’t know the real impact for decades to come. The history is ongoing.
  • A medical diagnostician and prepare a differential diagnosis to consider how facts fit within different potential causes. Few things are as simple as they seem. To quote a phrase from decades ago “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” You will find truth in the causes triggering the events. White nationalism is abhorrent, so why is it on the rise (or is it)? 
  • An art detective and look for the “style and brushstrokes” of the facts being presented and decide if you are dealing with the truth or not.  (This is actually pretty hard because you have to have a level of expertise to even know what to look for.) For example, what do you really know about socialism in the United States in the 21st century? It’s an emotional-laden word. Can you explain it to a ten-year old?

OK, your turn

I’d appreciate your input on how you go about finding the truth in today’s confusing and misleading world. Responses are needed. Thanks.

Filed Under: Deal with today, strategic thinking Tagged With: mindprep, truth

Primary Sidebar

Receive our Leadership Responsibilities Checklist FREE

How do you stay relevant in your business or organization? Assess key aspects of your performance and learn how to better support your organization’s mission, values, vision and goals.

Categories

  • Covid-19
  • COVID19
  • Deal with today
  • decision making
  • facilitative leadership
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Learn from the past
  • mental traps
  • Middle management
  • pragmatic leadership
  • pragmaticstrategist
  • prepare for the future
  • prepared mind
  • problem solving
  • stories
  • strategic thinking
  • Thinking
  • tips tools techniques
  • Uncategorized
  • Value
  • webinar

Learn from the past - deal with today - prepare for the future.

Download The Responsibilities Checklist Now

Our Company

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Solutions
  • Contact Us

What We Offer

  • Publications
  • Mini-Courses
  • Workshops

Quick Links

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use

Newsletter Sign-Up


© Copyright MindPrep Resource Center 2019. All Rights Reserved. Designed and Developed by Gloss
×
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Our Solutions
  • Free Resources
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Download The Responsibilities Checklist Now & Receive Monthly Newsletter

Solutions
Menu
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT