[NOTE: This post was updated November 2016] In “Leading Change,” John Kotter (1996) outlined an 8-Stage Process to Creating Major Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency: Examine market and competitive realities; identify and discuss crises, potential crises, or major opportunities Create the Guiding Coalition: Assemble a group with enough power to lead the change; get group to work together as a team Develop a Vision & Strategy: Create a vision to help direct the change effort;

[NOTE: This post was updated October 2017] When making decisions about whether or not to hire prospective job applicants, interviewers are influenced by an applicant’s attractiveness (Shahani-Denning, 2003, citing Watkins & Johnston, 2000; Jawahar & Mattsson, 2005). There is a great deal of evidence that being good-looking positively impacts the hiring decisions of employers (Shahani-Denning, 2003, citing Watkins & Johnston). This is known as the “what is beautiful is good” s

[NOTE: This post was updated March 2022 for freshness & accuracy.] Many years ago, while waiting for a show at a nice hotel in Dallas, my wife and I were standing in line to order some coffee. As we were in line waiting (we were second in line) at a busy one-person coffee stand, the woman waiting behind us (she was third in line) yelled out, “Can I go ahead and pay for this?” It didn’t matter to her that two other people (the first lady in line and us) were ahead of her in th