Most of my communities feel as if the world is in disarray. The agile community wants to “go back” to when Scrum ruled the world. Too many politicians want to “go back” to a supposedly simpler time. When I hear, “go back,” I am pretty sure we are in a time of cultural change. While […]
How Can You Solve Problems When the Real Problems Are Cultural Changes? (Part 1) Read More »
You’ve probably heard the saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” That’s supposed to mean that we can maintain safety and manage risk by keeping what we have now. I don’t hunt outdoors, so I have no idea if that saying is true. However, in my experience, I have not
How Can We Choose to Drop What We Have Now to Get Something Better? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s July 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Last week, Mark and I were on vacation in Key West. While we were there, we took several wind-and-wine sailing trips. At the end of each sail, the crew passes out dark Dove chocolate
How Can You Manage Your Feelings to Start a New Chapter? Read More »
This is Johanna Rothman’s June 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Several of my colleagues and dear friends are in the midst of chaos. They want to do something new and create new opportunities for themselves. Tom is looking for a job. Andrea wants to
How Can You Tell It’s Time to Commit to a New Path? Read More »
I’ve seen several of these situations recently. I suspect you have, too: A friend or colleague “retires” from their day job. Within a few weeks, they’re either back at that day job or some other job. Why? Because they have no idea what to do in retirement. An organization wants to “transform” the entire way
When Do You Want a Total Transformation vs. Being Satisfied with Practicing Change? 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 »
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 January 2025 Create an Adaptable Life Newsletter. The unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. In general, I like structure in much of my life. I eat the same (or very similar) breakfasts and lunches every day. I extend that structure to my clothing. If you watch my YouTube
How Do Rules or Structure Help You Decide Which Decisions to Make? Read More »