Michael Whalen

Marketplace

Efficiency Without 
the Axe: How to Save 
Without Sacrificing

Efficiency is the prized yet elusive quest of any organization. Enter the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to The Independent, their job is to “dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Words like “dismantle” “slash” and “cut” are enough to make anyone clutch their office badge

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Michael Whalen December 30, 2024
Marketplace

And on That Surprise… Change is Coming! 

Amazon recently aired the final episode of its automotive adventure show The Grand Tour. If you’ve never seen it (or its sister production Top Gear), the premise is simple: three British petrolheads (read:blithering idiots) embark on global escapades, tackling obscure missions in remote jungles, frozen rally tracks, and vast deserts—all while driving comically unsuitable vehicles.

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Michael Whalen December 4, 2024
Marketplace

Lifting Together – 
The Power of Teamwork

In Ellsworth, Wisconsin, Jon Anderson teaches timber framing on his 30-acre estate. Woodworking nerds from around the country gather to learn the tips and tricks of this obscure craft. I am one of these nerds. For five days, our team of eight students, along with our instructor, worked together to transform 8″x 8″ hunks of

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Michael Whalen November 7, 2024
Community

A Cup of Coffee and 
a Slice of Community

I step inside ‘Stylus & Crate’, located along West 38th Avenue and order a black cup of coffee. Owner Tadd Overstreet joined me a few minutes later with a gentle apology. “Sorry” he says as he takes a seat “the fire department was inspecting our suppression equipment today.” But my attention isn’t on his tardiness,

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Michael Whalen September 4, 2024
Marketplace

Uncomplicating Life: The Case for Slowing Down

Our family recently went on vacation… and nothing spectacular happened. We didn’t complete any bucket list challenges and none of our photos made their way to social media. We sat on a beach, roasted a few marshmallows and watched lightning bugs illuminate Lake Huron. It’s an odd feeling to unplug from the modern world for

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Michael Whalen July 31, 2024
Marketplace

From Comfort Zones to New Horizons: The Power of Necessary Change

When I sat down to write this month’s editorial, I had this witty idea about how bands change overtime. The Dave Matthews band of the 1990s is not the same band you’ll see on tour today; That Journey needed to learn how to be a band without Steve Perry… I wanted to wax poetically about

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Michael Whalen July 3, 2024
Marketplace

Compromise Can FulfillEveryone’s Needs

I grew up in Detroit. Which is to say, I had two career paths. My grandfather would tell us, “you can either wear a white collar or blue.” From his Motorcity-minded logic, you could be a person who built cars, or the person managing those builders. One drove a truck, the other a Cadillac. Simple.

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Michael Whalen March 6, 2024
Marketplace

Are There Fax Machines in the Cloud?

My first job in the professional world began with a role that involved ordering parts from local suppliers. Armed with a telephone and phone directory, my task was to call companies to negotiate favorable terms. For more intricate and involved projects, vendors were directed to submit formal proposals, using the “high tech” fax machine. Those

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Michael Whalen January 31, 2024
Health

The Power of Everyday Choices

As the excitement of the New Year begins to fade, it can be challenging to remember why we dreamed up such lofty goals or even how we can remain committed to personal change. Statistically, one-third of Americans embark on resolutions, but only 8% successfully achieve them. If you find yourself within these statistics, the odds

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Michael Whalen January 31, 2024
Sustainability

Where Does The Bag Money Go?

In July 2021, Governor Polis signed House Bill 21-1162 into law. The Plastics Pollution Reduction Act began phasing out single use plastics on Jan. 1, 2023 by requiring retailers to charge 10 cents per plastic bag, with the goal of reducing pollutants in Colorado.  While the law has certain exceptions for small and Colorado-based retailers

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Michael Whalen January 3, 2024
Marketplace

The Changing Times Of Workplace Flexibility

When a loved one is looking for work, it’s all hands on deck! We support them by proof-reading their resumes and improvising mock interviews. I recently went through these motions with a family friend. Her requirements for employment were reasonable enough. A certain wage, medical insurance and the ability to work remotely — but only

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Michael Whalen January 3, 2024
Marketplace

All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy

Navigating isolation, workload and self-care during the holidays Many think Stephen King’s “The Shining” is about a possessed hotel with sinister intentions. But for me, the story serves as a metaphor for the perils of isolation and Jack Torrance’s descent into madness. The challenges faced by the characters in the Overlook Hotel eerily parallel the

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Michael Whalen December 5, 2023
Marketplace

Digital Leadership

Digital Leadership Could Abraham Lincoln unite our divided country, much as he did the North and South all those years ago? I can imagine The Great Emancipator heralding “four score and seven years ago,” only to be interrupted… “Sorry Mr. President, you’re still on mute.” I like to think that people who are good leaders

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Michael Whalen October 31, 2023
Marketplace

It’s Just Another Blasé Blursday

In the not-so-distant past, working-from-home was a dream that meant independence from our office jobs. The pandemic brought reprieve from our 9-to-5 grind, and it was fashionable to exchange rush-hour commutes and bad Styrofoam coffee for Zoomullets (business-casual on top and rocking pajamas below). As months turned into years, the novelty wore off. The new

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Michael Whalen October 3, 2023
Marketplace

From Pixels To People

September is here! Which means college kids will not be returning to campus. Rather, they’ll be entering the business world for the first time. For some, they’ll be working remote, or some version of it. For others, their talents will be utilized in-person. If this is you, you’re not alone. Many companies are trying to

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Michael Whalen September 6, 2023
Marketplace

Guilty by Association

My job requires me to attend countless meetings with various stakeholders. In the morning I’ll be chatting technical details with technologists. Next, I might be presenting to executive staff about vision/mission statements. Later that afternoon, I am scheduled with a cross functional team about facilities maintenance. So I can attest, different teams adopt different attitudes.

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Michael Whalen August 2, 2023
Marketplace

Order And Chaos

At the beginning of the pandemic, I believed that chaos was good. Since it didn’t matter when I started work (as long as I clocked eight hours), I could start whenever the mood suited me! When I couldn’t sleep, I’d start working at 3 a.m. Other times, when the coffee didn’t start flowing until late

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Michael Whalen July 6, 2023
Marketplace

A Single Moment

I recently traveled to speak at a conference. It was the first business-travel I’ve done since the pandemic, and I was excited to connect with three-dimensional people. I joined a keynote and listened as two titans of industry discussed the merits and defects of remote work. One stated that with the pandemic all but over,

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Michael Whalen May 30, 2023
Opinion

Embracing Failure

The Cambridge dictionary defines “augmentation” as the process of increasing the size, value or quality of something by adding to it. Think about the ingredients in your Sunday morning pancakes: flour, milk, baking soda – boring, right? But, when you augment what’s there, substituting honey for sugar, adding fresh berries and drenching each bite in

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Michael Whalen May 2, 2023
Marketplace

The Importance of Craftsmanship

I am a coffee snob. It started a few years ago at Starbucks. I watched as the barista pressed a few buttons on a machine, and the machine poured my caffeine juice into a white paper cup. But at a local artisanal coffee house down the road, masters of their craft had a different approach

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Michael Whalen April 4, 2023
Opinion

Challenging The Status Quo

Why is a 40-hour work week standard? It’s most commonly accepted that Henry Ford implemented it in his factories in 1926. Ford saw the value in an eight-hour workday. This could be because he was an altruistic businessman who saw the value in a work/life balance. Or, he could have been a profiteering capitalist who

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Michael Whalen March 1, 2023
Marketplace

Working At Home: Lessons Learned Since 2020

On March 15, 2020, I was a 36-year-old technology professional who worked for the State of Colorado. I was also a husband to my wife, Shanna; a father to our 4-month-old son, Jack; a parent to our two cats, Gidget and Herbie; and struggled with office life. I’m not a morning person, so I usually

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Michael Whalen February 3, 2023
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