Author Archive | David Fauss

Irma Aftermath 5: Disasters bring out the Good and the Bad in people

There have been plenty of examples of how storms and the other disasters like Irma bring out the worst in people, e.g., those fighting over bottled water. (Hey, people – fill up bottles from your taps!) Or they bring out the worst people – like the home invaders or looters who end up in the […]

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I believe there are more good people than bad people, however, it is often the bad people who receive the most attention.  The news media focus on all the negativity in the world because “it’s news,” while sometimes ignoring the positivity that surrounds us.  David’s and my friend who offered to use his airboat to […]

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Irma Aftermath 4: Critical Comms

A Point of View

David H. Fauss, M.S.M.

On October 12, 2017

Category: Business Frustrations, Business Travel, Getting the Job Done, Small Business Success, Travel, Trial Consulting

The adage “communication is key” could not be more apropos when talking about events such as a hurricane. Irma provided us with several examples of how true this is. Whether it is the absence of communications (comms) when telephones, television, or internet is down, or the overload of comms when some of those devices (think […]

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Another View

Melissa Pigott, Ph.D.

On October 12, 2017

Category: Business Frustrations, Business Travel, Getting the Job Done, Small Business Success, Travel, Trial Consulting

There is a great song by Led Zeppelin called, “Communication Breakdown.” The song’s chorus is: Communication breakdown It’s always the same I’m having a nervous breakdown I’m going insane There is also a famous line from a great movie, “Cool Hand Luke,” “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” I’m thinking of both […]

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Irma Aftermath 3: Get Ready/Have a Plan

Maybe it is because I was a Boy Scout whose motto of “Be Prepared” has stuck with me that I have plans and have made preparations for hurricanes, the number 1 threat we face in Florida. We don’t get snowstorms, earthquakes (well, not often), or mountain slides, but as a Florida native, I know hurricanes […]

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David is as prepared for a hurricane as anyone I know.  The only way he could be more prepared is if he had an airboat loaded onto a trailer and ready to pull behind a big truck if needed.  (David, I sure would love to have an airboat, but for fun outings, not hurricanes!)  The […]

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Irma Aftermath 2: Meaning of “Mandatory”

“Mandatory” is defined as compulsory. “Mandatory” is also synonymous with obligatory, binding, required, requisite, necessary, essential and imperative. “Mandatory” means “you gotta’ do it.” In the case of a hurricane, “mandatory” evacuations are often ordered, but because no one is likely to be arrested and jailed for not abiding by such an order, there are […]

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Mandatory means mandatory.  Some people I know evidently believe mandatory means voluntarily, or “I will if I feel like it,” or a variety of things that imply a choice.  When someone lives in a low lying area, for example, near the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, he/she should expect to be among the […]

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Irma Aftermath 1: Being Proactive

“Here we go again” I thought, repeatedly, in the last couple of days as we watched the largest hurricane on record churn toward us in the Atlantic Ocean. My mind even took this one step further and adapted this phrase to the Dolly Parton song, “Here you come again…”, resulting in an annoying earworm as […]

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Having to postpone, then re-schedule, a client’s research project is never easy. When the postponement is due to a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or fire, everyone’s stress levels are high. Hurricane Irma was not the first natural disaster to cause the postponement of a research project and, things being what they are, I […]

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Life, and work, go on after hurricanes, personal tragedies, etc.

The idea that life goes on regardless of circumstances is an old one, and one covered in the world of entertainment – in music, on television. Sometimes it is stated as “the show must go on.” Working as a trial consultant, not entertainment, is the context of this post. Perhaps it is apropos that I’m […]

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Ironically, I am writing my part of this post on a day when south Florida is anxiously awaiting Hurricane Irma. At the time of this writing, we do not know where it will make landfall, however, we are going to prepare regardless of its exact location. Equally ironic is the fact that we have a […]

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Passing the Baton

A mental concept that I utilize in our trial consulting work is one of that of passing a baton, as in a relay race. The flow of our engagements is such that we function as a team, with much of the work being done by one person at a time. Engagements usually begin with me […]

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I like David’s analogy of passing the baton as it relates to the work flow in our office.  David gets involved with 100% of the potential clients and 100% of these clients who become paying clients of our business.  I rarely become involved with any of our clients until we have been retained for our […]

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Do what you say you are going to do!

I have recently been reminded of how one simple courtesy makes a big difference. That courtesy is doing what you say. If you say you will do it, do it. If you have no intention of doing it, don’t promise. Two contrasting illustrations will make my point. First, to the positive, I was recently been […]

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People who make promises they fail to keep cause many problems for those who are relying on them. One of the worst things that happens in my many years of working as a trial consultant relates to recruiting research participants. The company Magnus hires to call potential research participants for our mock juries and focus […]

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Seed Planting

Way back in elementary school we probably all heard the story of Johnny Appleseed who went on a mission to introduce apples to various parts of the northern United States. Not only did I hear this story (which apparently is true, at least if you believe Wikipedia, however, the man’s name was Chapman, not Appleseed), […]

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David’s closing sentence, of course, reminds me of a song by the late, great Chuck Berry, “Johnny B. Goode.” The lyric, “Go go. Go Johnny, go, go” has incited many dance moves, not to mention air guitar playing, and serves as a great reminder of just how far one can go in life with a […]

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Counting Sheep

I saw a comic in the paper this past weekend that had images of sheep. One of the sheep was the “head sheep” and told the others to “count off” – as the sheep did so, staring with sheep 1 saying “1″ – the image showed that by sheep #5, #5 had fallen asleep counting […]

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I am not fond of sheep or, for that matter, goats. Counting sheep as a means of inducing sleep would probably not work for me because it would conjure memories of David’s and my ill fated trip to Ireland during the height of hoof and mouth disease. There were way too many stinky sheep, as […]

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