As a consultant, I work with people who have plenty of problems. (No one calls a consultant when things are going well.) Many of these nice people feel as if they should be able to find a simple and direct solution to their problems. Simple and direct solutions assume we know enough about the risks […]
How Can We Move from Craving Simple Direct Solutions to Adapting with Experiments? Read More »
Regardless of our age, we all need good friends. Good friends allow us to discuss issues in a safe way. But sometimes, we outlive our friends. (Several of my friends/colleagues are dealing with that now.) While we cannot “replace” a person, we can leave ourselves open to finding new people with the potential to be
How Often Can You Make New Good Friends You Trust? Read More »
Last week on Mastodon, my friend and colleague GeePaw Hill wrote: “Music — art — is not a promise of perfection. It is a promise of effort, of risk, of commitment, to an unreachable ideal. Pablo Casals, in his 80s, asked why he practices every day. “Because I think I’m getting better.” If you create
How Often Do You Embrace the Joy of Practice, Not the Outcome? Read More »
I could tell when my parents had overdosed on their favorite news channel. They said things like, “Kids these days…” Because I’m a bad, bad daughter, I used to ask, “Which kids? Can you name two or three? Do you mean our children?” (Their grandchildren.) “No, not our children,” they said. Their next favorite saying
How Can We Postpone Old (Age) Thinking and Create New Ideas? Read More »
In the past few weeks, I’ve read several nonfiction books that promote how women can improve their standing in the world, to create more parity. That’s great, but the writers surprised me. That content was not part of the title or the blurb—and that’s not why I chose to read the book. I’ve also listened
How Should We Confront a Lack of Fairness to Make the World a Better Place? Read More »
I was working on visualizations of cycle time for my other blog (how long each item of work takes over time). That’s when I realized I needed to create a conditional formula in my spreadsheet. Conditional formulas are if statements. With my software background, I think in if statements. (If then, else other.) So, I
What Makes You Feel Smart and What Makes You Feel Less Smart? Read More »
So many of us see just one problem, and therefore one solution. Sometimes, our mental models or filters prevent us from seeing alternative solutions. But sometimes, I think it’s literally how we see the problem that limits our mental models. If we can’t see the problem in all its glory, how can we possibly offer
How Many Lenses Can You Access to See Problems and Solutions? Read More »
When my younger daughter was in high school, her principal continually invited us to events. He thought we would “build community” with “meaningful connections” that way. But I already went to high school. And the last thing I wanted—maybe not the very last, but close to it—was to return to high school. My daughter could
When and How Should We Build Community to Connect With Each Other? Read More »
In general, I’m willing to extend a fair amount of trust to other people. For example, when driving, I trust other drivers to stay in their lane. However, when drivers swerve all over the road, I stop extending that trust in an instant—those drivers broke trust with me. That’s because they broke the social contract
How Can We Clarify the Social Contract, Trust, and Betrayal? Read More »
Many people tell me they want to write more often, But they have trouble building and maintaining a consistent writing habit. One person said, “I want some of your magic dust.” A consistent writing habit does not require magic dust. However, it does require a writing habit, and possibly a streak. Too few people know
How Can We Make it Easy to Maintain Our Streaks or Habits? Read More »