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Sometimes a cup of coffee is just a cup of coffee. But when ordering it requires using words like "double tall" and paying more than $4, a cup of coffee can become a point of marital inflection. Last week, we went to Los Angeles to visit my sister and her family. I flew in with our two little kids on Thursday, and my husband met us there a few days later. When he climbed into our rental car, Joe gave me a quick kiss and began surveying the mess (amazing what two kids can do to a backseat of a car in a mere 36 hours): "I see evidence of four cappuccinos, totaling probably $20," he said. A few out-of-budget small purchases aren't going to break us. And they might actually benefit us. When we first met, I thought it was cute how he could tally up the cost of things so quickly. That was a long time ago. * * * I love cappuccino. I particularly like Starbucks cappuccino, but I'm happy with any overpriced coffee shop that sells a little frothy decadence in a ...

"Listen, I would love the reorg to work. But I just can't trust them." I had called Mary* as part of my preparation for an offsite with the leaders of a fast-growing financial services firm. Mary was talking about the newly reorganized HR department. Before, when she could trust them, Mary had a dedicated HR person — Lucinda — to address her needs. But now? Now she had to call a shared services group who were, collectively, responsible for following through on her requests. "Why can't you trust them?" I asked. Mary had a hard time answering. It wasn't that they had failed to deliver — but she was pretty sure they would. With so many different people involved, how could things not   fall through the cracks? "The more people juggling," Mary told me, "the higher the risk of someone, somewhere, dropping a ball." True. But there's another, more positive, side to group juggling: the more people juggling, the more likely someone, ...