Operation Overlord

The seven-year-old grandson has struck again.  When asked how he was going to navigate a tricky first-grade romantic triangle, he confidently stated, "I can handle Charlie, as long as he doesn't go overlord on me."  Bright as he is, we had no illusions that he was familiar with the official name of WW II's D-Day invasion of German-held Normandy.

To this day, we're not sure whether he meant "go overboard" or "lord it over" on little Charlie's part.  What I am sure of, though, is that there are way too many in our supply chain arena who build word piles of terms that may not have specific meaning to workaday audiences.

So, after an overload (not overlord) of "portals" on top of "that space" "out there," I tend to turn to my friend Robert Mondavi in the interest of achieving clarity.

When that doesn't work, and I'm faced with bootstrapping change management, best practices platforms, lean and transparent paths to performances, and rationalized operating metrics, it's time to call Jack Daniel.  And call it a night.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I'm always ready to listen to someone who speaks in simple declarative sentences.  Not so much the ones who are mindlessly piling words on top of other words.  In those instances, I'm always reminded of the old joke, the punch line of which is, "There must be a pony in there somewhere."