Why do so many in authority withhold information when questioned?

We see that it is an instinct in so many managers and politicians to withhold information when under pressure. Perhaps they really believe that they can keep the secret, but it is rarely true and then they suffer from the exposure. Openness is always the better policy, whether it is when the flight will really leave or tampering with product.

The Microsoft dominance is going - fast!

When a company the size of Microsoft can leave thousands of customers in distress and not resolve the issues, then it has the seeds of failure within it. Recently, many users of its "Office Live Small Business," which provides website hosting and email to thousands of small businesses stopped working correctly. Thousands of users were unable to access their email and contact database. This has continues for over a week now, and Microsoft has not only been unable to fix it, but continues to give totally unhelpful replies to customers who contact customer support. Even a small ISP would do better than this. No one in senior management seems to care at all either.

The need for Nuance

Most people feel so uncomfortable with uncertainty that they will sacrifice accuracy for comfort. As a result, they are not prepared to consider nuances in situations. We force-fit new situations into the solutions to old ones. We over-simplify analyses. We make generalizations about people and things.

In so doing, we do ourselves a disservice. Many situations are complex and need to be examined as such. People are not uni-dimensional. When we compress a complex situation into a 30 second sound-bite, we short-change ourselves.

So GM is building a hybrid research center in China?

I do not understand how any company does not understand that any technology passed to China will be used against it. Carrying out research in China which uses US knowhow inevitably leads to it being passed to China. Some people are slow to learn this.

Can online gossip hurt your career? Ask Stephanie Fierman

With the spread of the Internet, we find that so many people use it to look into the past of individuals we want to date, hire, or marry. Yet, so much on the Internet is at the very least unsubstantiated, and often totally untrue. Gossip has always been a poor basis on which to make important selections, but when it is on the Internet, it has even greater danger. It is sensible for each of us to know what is being said about us. Frequently, we cannot change it, but being prepared is essential.

How can Airlines continue to be so out of touch?

I was booked on a United Airlines flight from New York to Los Angeles. At JFK, waiting for the flight, which was scheduled to leave at 8.45pm, it was 8.35pm and the plane had not yet arrived. Then an announcement was made that the plane had not yet landed so departure had been delayed to 8.55pm. This was an absurd announcement and clearly a lie, as there was no way that would happen. As time passed, more announcements were made, with departure steadily being for 20 minutes ahead. All this did was irritate passengers. While clearly designed to keep passengers in the gate area, it was completely unnecessary since the plane had not even landed!

This illustrates how airlines continue to fail to connect with and understand their customers.