In February 2020, I unknowingly wrote my last blog post during what I now think of as “The Before Times.” In it I wrote, “The old way of living and working is gone. The new way is emerging but has not yet arrived.” Boy, was that an understatement. Three weeks after that post, the whole
In order to make sense of the world, we humans watch for, recognize, and interpret patterns. When there’s a problem, we ask ourselves how today’s problem is like a problem we have previously solved, apply our previous experience, and…voila! Problem solved. The trouble is, many of the problems we are currently facing are unprecedented. No
In my 3 part series on building resilience in a VUCA world, this last installment is about connection. When things are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, many of us sideline connection, choosing avoidance, numbing, or hunkering down instead. Because VUCA environments are swift and often unforgiving, it is perhaps natural to just want to drop
“How are you complicit in creating the conditions of your life that you say you don’t want?” This question, in Jerry Colonna’s recent book, “Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up” leapt off the page and grabbed me by the throat. Its provocation has been with me for weeks now, begging me to think
We live in a “VUCA” world: an environment characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. The stakes are high and nothing seems simple or clear-cut; the effective way forward is not known. The world seems to be collapsing around us: at the macro level with a global climate crisis, right on down to the micro
Unless you’ve been under a rock in recent years, you are achingly aware that our nation is polarized. We are told that with each passing day, we are becoming more and more vehemently divided. I don’t know whether this is a fact, but since it is a widely-held perception, it deserves our careful consideration and
I haven’t written a blog post for over a year because frankly, I couldn’t. The horror of living in Trump’s America was my undoing. I had a particular set of responses to his daily assaults which cycled something like: horrified, furious, stunned, numb, terrified, stunned, numb, heartbroken, stunned, numb. Rinse and repeat. I could not
Some years ago, I took singing lessons to improve my breath control and pitch. One of my voice teacher’s favorite drills was this: She would strike a note on the piano, and I would take a deep breath and sing that note. As soon as I began to sing, she would start pounding a deafening
In reaction to concerns about his mental fitness for the presidency, Trump has informed us that he is “like, really smart” and a “very stable genius.” From a leadership perspective, here’s what’s wrong with that: If your constituents have concerns or reservations about your fitness, it is up to you as the leader to listen
With each passing day, President Trump sinks to new lows. In recent days, he has called a female senator a “lightweight…flunky” and has cast her as a prostitute willing to trade sex for campaign contributions. This is the latest in a never-ending litany of disdainful remarks leveled at professionals he works with and the constituents