What are you passionate about? What motivates you to get up in the morning? Why are you doing what you are doing for a career? Would you rather be doing something else? What is that? Every once in a while I think it’s a good idea to ask these questions. We can begin just going through the motions and lose the passion and drive that got us where we are in the first place. It makes sense to revisit these key questions. It’s amazing how many people live unsatisfied lives because they fail to ask themselves these fundamental questions. At Astonish Results we encourgage our employees to dig a bit deeper and find out what makes them tick. I encourage you to do the same. You'll Read more [...]

At Astonish Results we’re always looking to improve our customer’s results. In order to do this we look to answer the following questions: (1)   What Happened? (2)   What is Happening Now? (3)   (If we made no change) What Will Happen? (4)   Why and How Did it Happen? (5)   What’s the Best Next Action? (6)   What’s the Best / Worse That Can Happen? You’ll notice that the first three questions are surface level questions. They give you basic information regarding the problem you're facing. Questions 4 through 6 give you real insight into what is going on. They tell you WHY something happened and HOW LIKELY Read more [...]

I had an epiphany today. If you’ve read my blog before you know that I talk a lot about metrics and their importance in any organization. Let me give you another read world example of what I mean. Every company has problems or areas which need improvement. It’s fairly easy to determine what those issues are by talking with your staff and asking simple questions. Once you’ve determined where your staff is falling down or not meeting your expectations, it’s time for metrics. Have that employee report to you some measurement that indicates if they are getting the job done or not. The simple ask of having them report it will act as a built in form of accountability. So next Read more [...]

In my previous life I was an analytical chemist. The company I worked for sold measurements. Environmental engineers hired us to measure something. For example, we worked on the Woburn, MA superfund site. This site, which was the subject of the movie, “A Civil Action”, contained several wells that were contaminated with TCE (tricholorethene), a known carcinogen. Engineers would collect well water samples and we would test them for a variety of volatile organic compounds including TCE. In the lab, we had a clearly defined process which we implemented before we began measuring ANY client samples. Our analyst would spike a blank water sample with a know concentration of the compounds Read more [...]