Mills Scofield

APRIL 30, 2023

shutterstock I want to share the amazing work of Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio*. They are the epitome of how to create an amazing strategic plan that achieves their mission and vision in innovative ways will (hopefully) make them no longer needed. This is not about virtue signaling, but rather my admiration and respect for their foresightful planning , impact, and gratitude for their CEO, Julie Chase-Morefield and team.

Banking 172

Banking Constraint Strategic Planning Retail 172

Mills Scofield

APRIL 17, 2023

Shutterstock Do you measure your, and your team’s, Return on Time (ROT)? Yes, it can be hard to measure. Who wants to be recording every second they’re spending on something? How long should a non-mechanized, white collar type task really take? So, I suggest starting simply - and meaningfully. Since much of our time is spent in meetings, start there.

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Definition Policies Follow-up Succession 91

Mills Scofield

JANUARY 8, 2023

Belhaven Bridge, Scotland (Adobe Photo). Happy 2023! Now, don’t ask me why, but I’ve been thinking about the difference between unintended and unanticipated consequences. Is there one? Does it matter? Given my role with companies, I think it does - a lot. To me, unintended consequences are those that one is, was, or should have been, aware of if the proper due diligence or research into the project, product, or “thing” that caused the unintended consequence had been done… it was predictable or p

Due Diligence 91

Due Diligence Project Productivity Products 91

Mills Scofield

DECEMBER 12, 2022

Tis the season of gift giving. After 30-some years of waiting to live full-time in Maine, my gift came last year. It’s virtually impossible not to live a life of gratitude here. Every second is unique: the daily and seasonal patterns of tides, birds, currents, weather, winds, plush greens to silhouetted trees, glistening snow, thick clouds, sun and moon-rises and daily sunsets that are beyond human words.

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Power Succession 70

Mills Scofield

JUNE 20, 2022

Today, I’m honored to host an excerpt from the new book by my friend, Frank Sonneberg, The Path to a Meaningful Life *. Frank’s books are ‘must reads” and “must gives.” You should read his blog and follow him on facebook and instagram. You’ll be glad, and better, because you did! 10 Critical Rules for Living a Happy Life Some people spend their whole life searching for happiness.

Blog 91

Blog Learning-by-Doing Delegation Books 91

Mills Scofield

MAY 17, 2021

Mid-April, Pemaquid, Me ~ budding begins. I’ve been wondering what habits, patterns, mindsets will remain post-COVID and which will just go away. There is one habit I’m trying to keep and I invite you to make it part of your ‘new norm’ too. It’s the habit of Radical Amazement. What the heck is that, you ask. Well, I shall answer! Rabbi Abraham Joshua Hesche l (one of my all time sages) winsomely said, ““ Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement.get up in the morning and look at the w

Goal 91

Goal Information Innovation Leadership 91

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 7, 2018

Saul Kaplan Starting Day 2 of BIF - Photo by Stephanie Alvarez Ewens. Every year, the crew at BIF lets me bring a bunch of my Brown University students to BIF. My students are of all ethnicities, backgrounds, years and concentrations - #STEAM. This year, I asked the kids to share their reflections. Profound, personal, hopeful, cautious. Here are their thoughts.

Kaplan 91

Kaplan Guidelines Learning-by-Doing Media 91

Mills Scofield

JANUARY 7, 2019

Salko ‘21, Kyra ‘20, Jake ‘20, me, Matt ‘18.5, Nate ‘19, John ‘21, Samanee ‘19. One of the reasons I love mentoring students is because it keeps me learning, exploring , questioning and challenging my beliefs – keeping me relevant and useful to the world (I hope!). So, I’m sharing part of a wonderful conversation with one of my #BlueLobsters (mentees), Salko, a second year at Brown (front left at the “we ate all the” sushi table) Salko Deb – a question that’s been on my mind recently: How do you

Learning-by-Doing 91

Learning-by-Doing Self-aware Goal Mentor 91

Mills Scofield

JANUARY 28, 2019

Hank Aaron ~ All time MLB RBI Hitter (2,297) Picture Credit USBData. Opening day is March 28th. The media, fans, and managers will be focused on key stats like on-base and slugging percentages, defensive runs saved, walks/hits per inning pitched and ERA … and of course Grand Slams and Home-Runs! Guess what, companies love those big sexy stats too - especially for innovation.

Innovation 91

Innovation Media Course Company 91

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Clock over door to Honby library, Liverpool central library Picton reading rooms ? alamy.com. How’s zooming going? It’s fascinating how pre-COVID, so many shunned virtual meetings and now we’re over-meeting virtually because it’s ‘easy’ which has led to even more meetings! So, let me share a client’s habit for any and all of their meetings. It’s made a big difference ~ PPO (not PPP or PPE).

Library 91

Library Tactics Letter Metrics 91

Mills Scofield

MARCH 29, 2021

What did you do during the pandemic? That seems to be the question now. For Jessica Esch, her insatiable curiosity combined with her serendipitous discovery of oral histories in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art led to the creation of a new form of art she calls typelooping. Totally – Jessica Esch: Fill in the Blanks, November 2020 ; Source Quote: Oral history interview with Kay WalkingStick, 2011 Dec 14-15.

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Letter Diversity Blog Learning-by-Doing 203

Mills Scofield

MARCH 8, 2021

#DisrupTV Episode 224!!!! Ray Wang, Constellation Research & Vala Afshar , Salesforce. A few weeks ago, I got to hang with 2 amazing people who always make us learn and laugh - Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research and my dear friend, Vala Afshar , Chief Digital Evangelist of Salesforce & communicator extraordinaire. This was my 3rd visit on DisrupTV !!

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CEO Technology How To Innovation 165

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Clock over door to Honby library, Liverpool central library Picton reading rooms ? alamy.com. How’s zooming going? It’s fascinating how pre-COVID, so many shunned virtual meetings and now we’re over-meeting virtually because it’s ‘easy’ which has led to even more meetings! So, let me share a client’s habit for any and all of their meetings. It’s made a big difference ~ PPO (not PPP or PPE).

Library 127

Library Tactics Letter Metrics 127

Mills Scofield

JANUARY 11, 2021

2021 - maybe it’s better to say December 42, 2020 instead of January 11, 2021 (kafkaesque?). We so want major demarcations in time to be major demarcations in hope, optimism, aspiration… change ! Sure doesn’t feel like it this year, at least so far. But, I think it will - and to help make that happen, let’s start making our own time-based demarcations, based on our time vs. time imposed by some calendar, society, expectation of the way things ought to be.

Innovation 187

Innovation Leadership 187

Mills Scofield

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

What the heck does a dishwasher have to do with management? Everything – stick with me. Think about how many managers (including us!) struggle with micromanaging, criticizing (vs. critiquing), taking vs. giving credit and giving vs. taking blame. It takes maturity, desire and compassion to unlearn these habits. That’s why dishwashers are the perfect example.

Management 136

Management Micromanagement Learning-by-Doing Maturity 136

Mills Scofield

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

NYC Guggenheim Museum’s Oculus ? Guggenheim Foundation. In my first year of college, I took an upper level course on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, filled with philosophy majors. I was totally over my head. But, I still love Critique ! Usually relegated to the design world, it is a technique we should be using in business (and life!). In business, we usually criticize…and personalize.

Class 127

Class Engineering Project Course 127

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 27, 2020

TY Chuck Annable for the photo. I love paradoxes and oxymorons; they get us to extend our comfort zone. So, I started thinking about the word “temper” – not sure why, just did. [ Aside ~ my mom felt English was the inanest language on earth - the same sounding word was spelled and meant too many different things (write, right, rite, etc.). In all fairness, English was her 7th language ].

Planning 121

Planning Skills Team Organization 121

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 12, 2020

As we think ahead to the surreality of these times, many of us are trying to figure out how to support, encourage, understand our employees, in particular, how to find, nurture and develop our blue lobsters. So, I adapted this ‘ oldie ’ to remind us how, before I even knew about blue lobsters. My first boss at Bell Labs had a habit of yelling. While he was an equal-opportunity yeller, when he shouted at me in my first department meeting, I got up, told him when he wanted to talk, not yell, I’d b

Management 121

Management How To Mentor Politics 121

Mills Scofield

MARCH 2, 2020

Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit at the Arsenal Contemporary Museum, Montreal. This post was originally published in Harvard Business Review (ages ago, but still relevant). It has been getting a lot of re-reading lately so I thought I’d repost it here. The difference between outcomes & outputs is still critical! ~~~~~~~~~~~ What’s the difference between outputs and outcomes?

Management 127

Management Travel Constraint Workshop 127

Mills Scofield

MAY 13, 2019

Yuna Hur & Elaine Cheung - Versions of a Retail Pop-Up, Spring 2018. I’m honored to host a blog by one of my amazing mentees, Yuna Hur ‘18. Last year, as a senior, it was time to push academic limits 1 last time before graduating. This is her story about why it’s so important to take risk … because you never know what can happen! Thank you, Yuna!!

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Uncertainty Class Education Retail 188

Mills Scofield

APRIL 29, 2019

Blue Lobster at the South Bristol Coop , 2004. What’s with blue lobsters? Well, a blue lobster is rare, about 1 in 2 million , and very beautiful. To me, a blue lobster is a person who views and organizes the world differently, who rejects the status quo, who loves to try stuff, learn, fail and try again, who is interesting because they are interested and who has impact.

Innovation 140

Innovation Stage-Gate Blanchard Social Capital 140

Mills Scofield

APRIL 14, 2019

Boeing 737 Max in production. As far as we know, the physical laws of nature are true and fixed on earth. We can’t design with atoms and ignore gravity, conservation of energy and Newton’s laws of motion. Tragically, it took Boeing and the FAA two horrendous accidents with over 350 deaths to accept this. Boeing 737, Edwards Air Force Base, Sept. 1967.

Software 173

Software Supply Chain Airlines Leadership 173

Mills Scofield

APRIL 1, 2019

If you’re willing, the next time you get to a door, stop. What’s your initial reaction? Push it? Pull it? Doors are one of my favorite examples of lousy design. Shouldn’t opening a door be intuitive? We really need instructions to go through a door? Really?? Our world is filled with poorly designed products we use every day without thinking twice. We’ve come to accept that this is the way it is.

Globalization 168

Globalization Productivity Products System 168

Mills Scofield

MARCH 5, 2017

There's tons of questions we can ask ourselves to assess our lives, careers, goals, etc. Studies have been done and courses taught on scientifically proven methods to do this assessment. For me, questions should get us to think, to dig deeper and to look at possibilities - not to lead to quick, "do this and you'll be happy" answers. So here are the 3 questions I ask to start a Life by Design. “ What do you like/love to do and are good/great at doing?

Guidelines 70

Guidelines Learning-by-Doing Planning Goal 70

Mills Scofield

MARCH 13, 2017

Most of us have realized, or at least acknowledged, that life and careers are no longer linear, predictable, plan-able. We are told to be opportunistic (in a positive way) because we never know if the moment will be right again, hence the ever used adage, "Timing is everything." Timing is everything AND timing is not fixed! Sometimes the answer to, "If not now, when?

Construction 70

Construction Learning-by-Doing Creativity Career 70

Mills Scofield

MARCH 26, 2017

I’ve been thinking about comfort zones. Most of the discussion makes it seem like comfort zones are static. They’re not. We decide if our comfort zones: Grow ~ because we’re curious, eager to learn, expand our worldview and meet new people doing all sorts of different, interesting things; Shrink ~ because we’ve been burned, failed, or circumstances have made us more cautious and fearful; Maintain ~ because we feel we are just fine where we are.

Education 70

Education Innovation Leadership 70

Mills Scofield

APRIL 10, 2017

So often, when a project or product doesn't go well or fails, organizations do "post-mortems" - they go over what went wrong, why, sometimes rushing to blame people first instead of looking at processes. What if we started doing pre-natals instead of post-mortems? What if our cross-functional teams, at various steps in project or product development, examined why, what and how they were doing, what was working and why, what wasn't and why, and discussed all the things that could go wrong from th

Project 70

Project Productivity Products Process 70

Mills Scofield

MAY 1, 2017

May - when spring really starts for many of us in the 'north'. So, just a short blog - more of a request. This week, instead of looking at what's not working all the time, try 2 times, just 2 , to find what's working, why it's working and how you can make that happen more. Try this at work, at home, wherever you want - but please, try it - just twice, that's not asking a lot.

Blog 70

Blog Strategy Innovation Leadership 70

Mills Scofield

JULY 10, 2017

Jonaton Pie ~ Stakkholtsgja Canyon, Iceland. I've been thinking a lot about what makes people want to create, invent, innovate, learn. So many of my colleagues and friends are innately curious and I know that, for me, learning is an addiction. So, appropriately, I was reading one of my favorite philosophers/theologians and found this: ““Wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge.

Innovation 87

Innovation Education Strategy Leadership 87

Mills Scofield

AUGUST 7, 2017

Photo Credit: Hank Randall, Brown University; L to R: Me, Sadie Kurzban, Morra Aarons-Mele, Vibha Pinglé, Sarah Carson. Is it hard being a woman entrepreneur? Is it hard getting funding? Is your venture really a ‘business’ or is it ‘just’ a lifestyle business? Given the stories finally coming out from the VC and tech worlds on what women have had to put up with, we know the answers to these questions.

Entrepreneur 132

Entrepreneur Agility Sample Advice 132

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 10, 2017

Brown University Mentees at BIF2016. One of the most wonderful weeks of the year starts Sunday, September 10th. It begins with office hours and a couple independent studies I'm advising - one of which is all about haptic feedback (sense of touch) technology and applications for AR/VR. Next is BIF2017 !!!!!!! The best gathering of the year for innovators, status-quo-phobes, and Blue Lobsters (stay tuned!!!).

Business Model 70

Business Model Mentor Long-term Innovation 70

Mills Scofield

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

Sometimes, shoveling sh&t is easier than shoveling caviar. It's the path of least resistance. It makes sense. No one argues with you. It's usually the right thing to do. Who in their right mind would keep the sh&t and shovel the caviar? But. what if the best thing for your business, your organization, is to shovel the caviar, not the sh&t?

Constraint 118

Constraint Resistance Business Model Politics 118

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 8, 2017

The transformative stories from the BIF 2017 Summit are up!! They are all incredible so if asked to choose a few favorites I'd be challenged. Yup, mine is up too - how by mentoring I'm able to continually learn new things I can use with my clients and stay on my toes by having to think fast, challenge status quo and stay agile. Here it is! But there are so so many more you need to see!

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Mentor Blanchard Agility Video 70

Mills Scofield

OCTOBER 16, 2017

40 Women over 40 ~ 2017. Wow - just wow! Check out this amazing group of women doing amazing things! I'm honored, proud and very humbled to be part of this powerful group of 40 Women over 40 , organized for the 5th year in a row by Christina Vuleta and Whitney Johnson. I've blessed with great parents, education, and careers - and to whom much is given, much is joyously required.

Education 70

Education Learning-by-Doing Career Power 70

Mills Scofield

NOVEMBER 26, 2017

The current fight over Net Neutrality is critical to the openness of the Internet, long supported by some of us that helped make the Internet an every-day utility. It is also the dying gasps of a very old business model - one between networks and end points/content providers. Quick History Lesson : Circa 1990s - a fight was breaking out between the networks (e.g, AT&T) and end-points (e.g, Microsoft) over control of information and intelligence.

Business Model 131

Business Model Content Price Information 131

Mills Scofield

FEBRUARY 25, 2018

Had such a blast doing my 2nd DisrupTV * episode with my wonderful friend, Vala Afshar , and Alan Lepofsky (sitting in for Ray Wang ). Talked about mentoring, innovation, thinking & doing! See the full episode with Jim Cathcart & Bruce Kasanoff here. Please follow DisrupTV - it's the best grad school for all things relevant to our world today!!!

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Mentor Innovation Education Strategy 115

Mills Scofield

APRIL 15, 2018

As a freshman, Nate Goodman decided one of the many ways he'd learn in college was outside the classroom, talking to those around him - peers, profs, alum, everyone. This way of learning is a long standing tradition most of us alum relied upon and it's great to see it continue. I was honored to be asked by Nate to share my story. Here it is - and watch his others - stay tuned for more.

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Education Innovation Leadership 70