I recently signed up for another half-marathon, and while I am not the first to make a marathon/work analogy, it strikes me that it is appropriate. Sports references abound in most corporations to the point of silliness, and they are largely inappropriate. Most "team" environments still compensate each team member individually, and teams are assembled and disassembled on a regular basis; rarely is there the continuity that marks most sports teams.

A long road race on the other hand seems more appropriate. Each individual does their preparation in whatever manner suits them best. Some may focus on speed work, others on building endurance. Different individuals have different goals and expectations for the race. Some aspire to setting records or moving into a new level of competition while others are merely there to say they were able to run a long distance, with little concern for the numbers on the clock. While there is much focus on the individual, like a "team" project in most companies, the individuals share a common goal.

This is a key parallel between a road race and a successful "race" in the corporate space. Each runner knows the goal, and shares a common focus on that objective. Few runners would participate in a race where the distance was unclear, or shifted during the competition. Nor would they put their full effort into a race where a misguided notion of "team performance" would lower their time compared to a less capable runner.

While it may be time to retire some of the sports-related bromides present in most companies, it also behooves us to structure our environment more like a marathon than perhaps any other sport, with clear, common objectives, yet a focus on individual preparation and achievement.

If the newspapers and pundits are to be believed, we are on the dawn of a great political upheaval in the United States. After US voters "threw out" the conservative Republican party in 2008, they look set to do the same to the more liberal Democratic party during the elections coming in November. Fans of either party can give you a litany of reasons why "their guys" are superior to those other bums, but it strikes me that the downfall of both parties was losing a sense of what was happening in US society at large.

With both parties and their respective Presidents, I believe they truly feel what they are doing is right for the country, but the majority of their peers do not share the same opinion. While bowing to every passing whim and fashion are not the hallmarks of a great leader, adamantly clinging to the tiller of a sinking ship rarely accomplishes anything either.

Even if you have fallen in love with what seems like a timely and relevant idea, keep one wary ear on the background noise around you. Today's sure winner may be tomorrow's loser in our personal lives as well as in politics, and most of us do not have the option of a multi-million dollar book deal when all is said and done!

One of the wonderful aspects of working in a foreign language is that it brings a new honesty to corporate dialog. My basic French allows me a limited range of expression; everything is one of the six or so primary colors that I can speak by name, and my comments are devoid of nuance since I am incapable of expressing much beyond the basics.

Similarly, most of the people I work with who must communicate in English as they work for an American multi-national suffer from the same limitation. This resulted in a fairly amusing exchange around a somber topic when my client did an unannounced layoff that caught a number of people by surprise. An Italian asked an American what happened to someone who was not responding to emails, and the American told her that person had been "right-sized." Confused, the Italian asked what she meant, to which the American said "Oh, I'm sorry, I mean he was downsized." Once again, confused looks were exchanged as the American rattled off all the HR-approved platitudes ranging from "RIF'ed" (I'm told this means the nonsensical 'Reduction In Force-ed') to "laid off", before finally stating in exasperation that "he was fired."

Perhaps in cases like these those with limited command of our language could teach us a thing or two about how to best use it.

In case you missed them, my regular column on CBS' Tech Republic contained the following articles in the month of September:

Six Sigma tools for the project manager's toolbox

Project management: The lie of the "three levers"

Why IT security doesn't sell

6 Tips for hiring an implementation company

One of the things I love about Europe is that babies seem to be public property to both sexes. In the US, a grown man would never think about smiling or staring at a baby or small child, lest he be instantly tagged as a pedophile. In Europe however, a grown man in formal attire will instantly descend into cooing and making funny faces should a baby appear, even in a nice restaurant.

In Italy, old ladies have come up to my wife, arms outstretched so they can hold the baby, permission implicit in their advanced years and no questions needed. In one case, a large Cameroonian man held our son, carefully looking him over as if he were a piece of fruit. After bouncing him around and making a few wrinkled faces indicating he was deep in thought, he returned the baby to my wife, matter-of-factly noting that "He will walk at 8 months." While his prediction is proving to be a bit early as our son enters his 9^th month, I regret that in the US, a male non-relative could never perform such an act.