I receive many requests to speak at conferences all over the world. Part of me is thrilled because that’s a sign they have found my content different and valuable. Part of me is a little resigned, because I have to start the conversation about what the conference will and will not pay for. I need […]
How Can We Start with Respect for People Instead of Commodity Thinking? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s May 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. A few weeks ago, I met a friend, Dave, for lunch. We’d had to cancel that lunch two weeks in a row. The first time was because I was sick. While I selfishly decided
How Do You Know When a Selfish or Generous Decision is Best? Read More »
I feel as if I’m living the Satir Change model. I’ve had “Monday” every day this week. My computer keeps rebooting itself (sigh). My website hosting provider had a snafu, so my website needed some changes. Then, this morning, I screwed things up with my (other) site. (It’s all fixed now.) My car died on
How Can More Adaptable Thinking Create More Success for You? Read More »
We often hear “strength” used to describe leaders in our communities, at work, and certainly in politics. Often, those who talk about being “strong” equate that strength to “power.” While I do think there is a power component to strength, I don’t agree with literal power, where the “strong” leader uses/abuses his or her power
What Does Leadership Strength Mean to You? Read More »
I’ve been fighting a head cold all week. That means I’ve had various Queen personas: the Nap Queen, the Cough Queen, and the Sneezing Queen. I hope I am in my final iteration of being a Cough Queen because I have things I want to accomplish. That feeling of being pulled away from my objectives
How Can We Find Ways to Escape Our Various Undertows? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s April 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter. The world is in chaos. In the past, I’ve tried some small probes to find a transforming idea and then see if that idea will work. Those probes are one way of gathering more
How Can We Change Our Bias for Action to Gathering More Information? Read More »
Do you feel as if the world is so complex that you need to somehow make it simpler—just to decide what to do next? If so, you are not alone. However, making things simpler is often not enough. Instead, we need to bring more critical thinking skills to bear on the various problems. We have
How Can We Embrace Complexity Thinking Instead of Wishing for Simple Solutions? Read More »
In last week’s question, How Do You Manage to Want to Keep Learning?, my last option was to sleep on the learning to reinforce what we learned. So an eagle-eyed reader asked this question: How do you force yourself to take that rest? (No one can continue to burn the candle at both ends—that’s not
How Do You Manage to Force Yourself to Take a Rest? Read More »
I’ve been learning a ton lately, all about how people work, writing, and publishing. Yes, I know a lot about how people work already, but people seem to want to use AI and other tools in ways that I think are unwise. Since these people think AI is helping them, I need to understand why
How Do You Manage To Want to Keep Learning? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s March 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this newsletter. Dave (not his real name) asked me this question: “How do you know when you have to quit? Or retire? Is it when you’re no longer on the top of your game?” (Being at
How Do You Know When You’re No Longer On Top of Your Game? Read More »