CHAPTER 7
Experimenting with Action: The ITEM Model
Chapter 6 began with a story of how one of my bosses forced me into a “disengaged” bucket with four words delivered in a few seconds. I do not believe he set out to be a bad boss when he went to work each day. He may not have even known he was a bad boss. I was basing my judgment that he was a bad boss on my own intuition. All I kept thinking was that this leader was not aspiring to accomplish anything great. He had waved the proverbial white flag and decided that challenging the system was going to take too much effort. Only certain types of people are willing to challenge the status quo. I call them leaders. This guy was not a leader.
In thinking about the application of the DATA-INSIGHT-ACTION framework against my hunch, the simple question is: was I right? One of my favorite comedians is Mike Birbiglia. In one of his routines, he speaks of how his girlfriend gives him a hard time for being so obsessed with being...