Archive | Business Relationships

Sharing Connections – Referrals

Yesterday I spent a few minutes to make a connection for someone else. She doesn’t know I did it, but maybe one day she will. As I did it, which involved sending an email on her behalf, I thought about the act of doing so. Sharing a connection, making a referral, whether solicited or unsolicited, […]

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David frequently goes out of his way to help people.  In fact, that is one of the reasons I have always liked him!  He helped my mother more than most people in my family, usually, without much appreciation from anyone (including her).  David and I share a “calling” to help people.  I was always taught […]

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Working in Changing Times

The times, they are a-changin’” said Bob Dylan, in a song of the same name. Oh yes, the times are certainly changing! The times are changing in ways most people could never have imagined. And, the times are changing whether we like it or not. At this point in my long career, I have suddenly […]

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Dylan may have sung that times were changing, but I’d suggest now, that things have changed.  Forever.  In some ways, there is no going back.  Hopefully, lessons we are learning now will make a difference going forward.  A big lesson is that invisible threats like viruses are more lethal than most any weapon of war […]

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Loners Like Alone Time

Some people live alone due to circumstances in their life, for example, the death of a spouse, divorce, being a single parent when the last child moves out of the house, etc. Other people truly like to be alone. George Harrison’s first song, written in 1963, was titled “Don’t Bother Me” and famously contains the […]

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In the current time of forced social distancing, it seems that some people have quickly become more distant than others.  I think of friends who live alone and who, most of the time are happy or comfortable with it.  But, forced isolation for many people has become more constricting.  Under “normal” or at least usual, […]

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Wellness Checks

Wellness checks is something normally thought about to only involve the “homebound” or the elderly, the sick, and the frail. Well, we’re all homebound now, in some way or another, and, while we may or may not be sick, elderly, or frail, we are cloistered in abnormal ways. Quarantine, sequestration, call it what you will, […]

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I am writing this post approximately one month into our social distancing, isolation, quarantine, and solitary confinement situations.  I am a person who has a lot of friends, but as of today, only ONE of my friends, including long time, childhood friends, has contacted me to check on my well being. (This doesn’t include people […]

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COVID Brain

As I write this, the world is in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, this is my first post related to this universal experience. I have noticed a phenomenon soon after restrictions were placed on movement, gathering, socializing, etc., which seems to be a form of shell shock. As the gravity of the […]

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In times like these, mindless behavior is, unfortunately, the norm.  Many people are suffering from duress due to lost employment, inability to pay bills, and worry about their future.  Forced to stay at home, we are realizing that, maybe, going to work every day is something we used to take for granted.  Many of us […]

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Theo

I spend a lot of time in hotel rooms. During my career as a jury/trial consultant, I have traveled across the U.S.A. to work with attorneys. Part of my travel experience is staying in hotels in the cities where I am working. In places where Magnus works on a frequent basis, such as David’s hometown, […]

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Anonymity is the norm when traveling.  Different flights, different airports, different hotels, and different restaurants. It is a relatively rare situation to end up getting acquainted with someone who works in one of these places.  And, if you do see a familiar person from time to time on subsequent trips, the connection is generally perfunctory.  […]

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Introduce yourself to the property manager

Magnus Research Consultants has been headquartered in the same location since 1996. In the first few years in our office space, the owner of the building also had an office in the same building. He retired, then passed away, leaving his family in charge of his vast business holdings. When the building owner moved out, […]

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I wholeheartedly agree with Melissa.  Ray is an interesting guy and, as with many relationships, it is beneficial to spend time getting to know people who impact one’s life, whether on a regular or infrequent basis.  Running a business involves many moving parts, whether it is the property manager, the teller at the bank, the […]

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You have control over your reactions

David and I have attended hundreds of meetings with attorneys and their clients in the decades we have owned and operated Magnus Research Consultants. Usually, these meetings are non eventful. Their purpose is often to explain to the end client (the person involved in the lawsuit) the advantages of retaining a litigation consultant to assist […]

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Litigation is stressful!  Having been there ourselves, Melissa and I know about the stress, the lost sleep, the lost focus on “real work,” and the time required to be an active participant in one’s case.  I get it.  I also know the costs of sticking one’s neck out – even if one must do it […]

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I spend more time with lawyers than psychologists/colleagues

I have been a social psychologist for my entire career, however, my occupation has not been in the traditional trajectory within my field. Most social psychologists are university professors. In fact, it is somewhat frowned upon for social psychologists to work in occupations outside academia. My major professor has always looked down upon my work […]

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Melissa has introduced me to more psychologists, and types of psychologists, than I ever knew existed when we first met.  At that time, I was hanging around colleagues in my world of photography.  While the photographers were visually creative, I came to learn and appreciate the creative minds of her psychology colleagues.  Their conceptualization of […]

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Whistleblowing isn’t easy

Much has been in the news lately about people blowing whistles on allegations of corruption and abuse. Without discussing these specific situations, I want to address the act of sounding an alarm, or blowing a whistle. I have written something on this previously, but it warrants revisiting. I will start by saying that, if you […]

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To the uninitiated, whistle blower means the same thing as tattletale.  In fact, dictionary definitions of both terms list them as synonyms, along with others, such as betrayer, informant, nark, rat fink, and snitch.  In my view, there are different circumstances that lead to the characterization of people who “tell on” others.  For example, in […]

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