Wandering Into Wisdom

This blog chronicles the knowledge, insight and wisdom I encounter every day as a leadership consultant, executive coach, educator, father, friend and citizen. This site is dedicated to my father, Louis (Jack) Laughlin, who passed on to me an appreciation for wisdom. A special thanks to my friend Isaac Cheifetz, a businessman and journalist, who helped me understand the value of blogs and encouraged me to write one.

Island Hopping*

In World War II the Allies used a strategy in the pacific theater called island hopping. They skipped over enemy occupied islands that didn’t have strategic importance for the invasion of Japan. The Japanese abandoned many islands without a fight after the Americans passed them by. I recently spoke to someone who used a similar strategy to deal with an entrenched coworker. Her colleague consistently missed the deadline for a critical report but insisted on doing it anyway. Rather than continue the battle to get the report on time she decided to do it herself and let her coworker merrily duplicate the effort. Sometimes it’s better just to go around.