Many years ago, when I was a director of something at a long-ago company, our Best Customer had an outage at 8 or 9 in the evening. The customer called our senior management, who called me. “We have a Big Problem that you need to fix Right Now.” I received that message loud and clear. […]
When Solving Problems, Do We Consider Sleep as One of the Steps? Read More »
I keep hearing this phrase in the news: “Out of an abundance of caution…” Then the newscaster explains certain actions. Why not just talk about risk management? What’s wrong with discussing risk? Here’s my theory: the words “abundance of caution,” means all of these things: We think there’s a potential problem, but you don’t have
Why Do We Say “An Abundance of Caution” Instead of Risk Management? Read More »
By now, you’ve probably heard about various AI apps and how they’re coming for your jobs. Some of my colleagues love these apps and work with them. Other colleagues won’t touch them. I’m experimenting with ChatGPT for marketing copy. So far, it’s pretty good. But for my regular nonfiction or fiction writing or images? I’m
How Can We Remain Relevant When New Technology Threatens Our Jobs and Lives? Read More »
My husband, Mark, momentarily lost his keys this morning. Except, it wasn’t just a moment—it was about five minutes. He planned to load several items into the car, return to the house to kiss me goodbye, and then leave. Except, he was stuck on Step 1, loading items into the car. We have other car
When Do You Assist, Support, or Inflict Help? Read More »
Today is a maintenance day at Chez Rothman. Our heating system has an error code, and we’re upgrading our wifi. So people are stomping around—and I’m very happy about that. What we’re doing today is “extra” maintenance—updating and upgrading. We do normal maintenance all the time. The cleaning people make our house sparkle once a
How Do You Manage to Notice When You Need Updates or Upgrades? Read More »
Many of my colleagues are busy creating resolutions, in preparation for the new year. They think those resolutions will help them create better lives. Maybe, although I’ve never succeeded with resolutions. Instead of resolutions, I’ve suggested before that we create watchwords for ourselves. Those watchwords create some guidance for our actions. But this year, I
Can You Resolve to Rethink About How You Think About Change? Read More »
Many of my colleagues are in the midst of change. Some people are looking for new jobs. Some writers are looking for places that will buy their stories. Others are considering consulting. All these people have something in common—they want to take that first step. Except, many of them stop before they do. Instead of
How Can You Know You’re Good Enough to Take That First Step? Read More »
I’ve participated in two panels in the past few weeks: one about agile approaches and the other about management. In each case, my fellow panelists echoed each other for several questions, thinking alike. I did not. Not only did I disagree with the other panelists—I explained my claims with data. I thought differently. And because
Great Minds: When Do We Gain from Thinking Alike or Differently? Read More »
I read a terrific piece by Hannah Fry that women don’t excel at math because of sexism. Sexism! Not innate or learned ability. Sexism. When I was a kid, the culture “said” that women couldn’t do math. However, I had two immediate examples that women were great at math. My mom could remember duplicate bridge hands
How Can We Learn to Belong to New Communities? Read More »
Many of us think of leaders as people with titles, bestowed leadership. In my experience, we all have the possibility to exercise our leadership—and part of that is seeing that we have alternatives we can consider. So adaptable leadership means we need to generate options, which means we need to see the reality of our
How Can You Incorporate Adaptability Into Your Leadership? Read More »