David Soubly

The late comedian George Carlin used to tell the story of pigeons in New York, known (as pigeons are everywhere) for their soft cooing sound. "I'm sure that at one time," George recalled, "pigeons had a really nice call." Something wild-sounding and clear. "But a few years in the city, man" - and the call is reduced to a soft coo. "Poor pigeions," George lamented: "Their song is stuck in their throat."

He made everybody laugh with that. But think about how the work environment can do that...

I must give all the credit for this short piece to Dr. Alexander Horniman, who teaches ethics, strategy and leadership at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

Many years ago — so many, in fact, that he may not even remember the event or the topic — Dr. Horniman gave a presentation to hundreds attending a conference. The subject was how to develop future leaders. In the midst of his presentation, Dr. Horniman told a story. I have remembered that story all these years and...

THE GAME.

I used to play a game as a kid called Chutes and Ladders. You probably did, too. You might have known it as Snakes and Ladders. It’s based on the Indian game Moksha Patam, probably invented about eight hundred years ago.

Chutes and Ladders was very easy to learn, so kids of all ages could play it. Basically, each player rolled dice, advanced their piece, and moved upward on a board square by square. If a player landed on a ladder, the player ascended the ladder, which meant...

We’ve all been to the zoo. Some zoos do better than others at recreating natural habitats, so the animals they confine can enjoy the illusion of freedom.

Visiting one such zoo, I studied a female elephant in her enclosure. The elephant’s behavior puzzled me. She would step forward onto a horizontal log, and it looked like she was about to cross over it. Then her rear leg would lift and bend slightly. As if this slight movement had tugged a rope, she would stop, then step backward off the...

This is one of those stories that has nothing to do with what the title suggests.

Normans abound. I’m not talking about the Normans who won the Battle of Hastings as part of “1066 and all that.” (1) I’m talking about people named Norman, of which there were two who stood out in my experience.

One we called Norm (never Norman); the other, Norman (never Norm).

Let’s start with Norm. (Norman will wait until Part Two.)

Norm was a guy who’d reached nearly the end of his career by the time he...