Mike’s Blog

Growing up, I vaguely remember this lamp in my grandparent’s home. I remember it being a curiosity in my mind. Once my grandparents died, my parents acquired numerous pieces of their furniture, including the lamp. From that day forward, my Dad insisted I take it after...

You get on the stage, and ego rushes in to say, "Don't mess up." That's when the nerves would start to kick in. You'd know it as you'd likely see me pacing about if you were backstage with me. While I had nearly 35 years of experience performing in a band,...

A software team once told me they spend two hours refreshing their testing regions daily. I asked if this situation seemed reasonable to them. "No, it's a complete waste of time as it keeps us from working on the new features." When asked why they did not change this...

"The ginger beer is near the back of the store near the dog food." I nearly fell over when my son, Scott, said this to me. The thing is, he's gone blind in the past year and has only been in this store while blind. I asked him how he knew this. Scott explained that...

“You know what your problem is? You have too much money.” I explained, “What you’re doing is working, as evidenced by your profits and share value. So, you have no real reason to change. You can keep doing what you’re doing, and it’ll work … for now. After all, it did...

While I tend to not get too hung up on language. However, I always try to improve my language to honour our differences and be more inclusive. For example, one of the phrases I’m trying to change is my habit of saying, “You guys.” It’s a long-standing habit of mine to...

There isn't a day that goes by when I don't see an article about returning to the office. It's become such an extensive discussion that we've even assigned the acronym "RTO." Most articles I read explain how executives claim innovation, collaboration, and productivity...

"What is my Uber driver doing?!?" I stood in front of a hotel this week, looking at the Uber app and quietly asking myself this question. After several minutes, I was getting mildly annoyed as the driver wasn't moving in my direction. (The Uber app shows their...

Are you caught up in the debate about the merits of returning to the office? There are plenty of differing opinions out there about what is the best choice to be making. Now, people do jobs for which the only option is to be in an office, warehouse, or other location....

“Being a good citizen means you have a post-secondary education and a stable job.” At least, that’s the expectation I was taught while growing up. Now, I don’t believe my parents, teachers, and others had any bad intentions in teaching me this. They passed along what...

How many times do you confuse the universe with a ‘but’? I’m not talking about the but that follows you everywhere. I’m talking about all the ways you say you want something, then find a way to say why you won’t do it. For example, I’ve wanted to get my weight back...

By now, you’ve likely seen the video of Andi Owen, the CEO of MillerKnoll, ranting about her people’s concerns that they wouldn’t receive a bonus this year. If you haven’t seen the video, search on your favourite social media platform with her name and you’ll quickly...