GOOD WEEK . . .
OVERDELIVERING on the boss’s demands is a sure way to get ahead in the corporate world, according to Jack Welch, the business brain and all-round success. So, if your manager asks you for a report that looks a year ahead, prepare one that looks three into the future. Then consider what could happen if you moved production to China, he suggests in BusinessWeek (June 19). But don’t let everyone know just how good you are: best hide your brilliance from your peers to avoid getting tagged as a ladder-climbing freak. “Wear career lust on your sleeve (and) you run the risk of alienating people,” he says.
. . . BAD WEEK
GREAT brainstorming sessions are theoretically possible but they are highly unlikely given all the ways that they can go wrong, reports The Wall Street Journal (June 13). For a start there is the “we sit there looking embarrassed like we’re all new to a nudist colony” problem, as pointed out by Joe Polidoro. Then there is the risk posed by the size of the group. Having any more than seven brains storming in one room raises the likelihood that the meeting will descend into coblabberation, where there’s a whole lot of pointless talking before the group settles on a mediocre idea just so that it can all end.