Yesterday received a check for $25 in the mail. With it was a letter, here's what the letter said:

Dear Valued Merchant:

In should be understood that the issuance of this refund is not an admission of any wrongdoing by NPC or any of its affiliates and/or subsidiaries and that by cashing the proposed reimbursement check ...

If there was no wrongdoing, why did they send me money? Obviously they did something wrong. And really, I don't feel so much like a "Valued Merchant". So, what do you think? Are these people COMPLETE idiots?

In the November issue of Fast Company, the brothers Heath (Made to Stick) once again offer important insights. This time about the tyranny of choice in an article entitled Analysis of Paralysis. It's definitely worth your time – it certainly got me thinking.

When people in your organization (and mine) don't know what to do, what do they end up doing? Usually, not much. If there are multiple options the process grinds to a halt. So what's a leader to do? Clarify. Amplify. Repeat.

Make sure everyone in every job knows the Number One Thing in their job. For example: In our world, deadlines and great creative work are often contradictory objectives. But our developers are clear about the Number One Thing. Our developers know that our company exists to create training that is Easy, Engaging and Effective. If a deadline gets in the way of that, we have to adjust the deadline.

I can hear the "Yeah, Buts" from here. But here's the deal: You can't have two values of equal weight. There is no such thing as two most important things. Some One Thing is most important. In our case, it's product quality – that's where we make our stand. For you it might be something else. Whatever it is, make sure everyone gets it.