reframe Archives - Page 2 of 8 - Create an Adaptable Life

Can You Resolve to Rethink About How You Think About Change?

question of the week / Johanna / December 28, 2022

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 […]

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How Can You Go Meta to Solve a Problem When You’re Stuck?

newsletter / Johanna / April 12, 2022

A client, Dave, explained his concerns and said, “I have no idea where to go from here.” He explained that he’d already gone through his reasonable problem-solving steps. He’d researched, asked the team to experiment, and asked his peers for help. Nothing was working. I asked, “Do you know about going “meta” on the problem?”

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When Do You Choose Which Kind of Problem-Solver You Are?

question of the week / Johanna / April 7, 2022

I feel as if I see more problems and crises than I know what to do with right now. Sometimes, I want to wade right in and solve those problems. Sometimes, I assess quickly and realize I have good possibilities. However, there’s a third option, and that’s when I stay stuck. In my case, it’s

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How Can We Honor Other People’s Values and Move to Falsifiable Claims?

question of the week / Johanna / March 9, 2022

I learned something new this week, about falsifiable and non-falsifiable claims. When we use hypotheses to examine the world around us, we look for observations that can disprove that hypothesis. In other words, we want to see if we can make the experiment fail in some way, to understand more. As an example: Hypothesis: All

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Mistake vs. Success: When Do You Learn from Each?

question of the week / Johanna / June 22, 2021

Back when I was a software developer, I excelled at certain mistakes. I could write an infinite loop faster than anyone. Then there was the off-by-one mistake for arrays or tables. I repeated certain mistakes too often. Until I started an engineering notebook. Once I started to learn about my mistakes, I stopped those mistakes. I

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How Can You Use Your Projected Last Moment to Create a Great Present Moment?

question of the week / Johanna / April 29, 2021

When I was a kid, I went to summer camp. I loved it. In the last week, I would say to myself, “This is the last Monday. How can I make this my best Monday?” I decided on one thing and did that. Those last weeks were my best weeks. A couple of years went

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What Do You Tend to Value: Same or Change?

question of the week / Johanna / December 11, 2020

For years, I’ve used the word “guys” as a generic term when I talk about people on teams. One of my reviewers for the Modern Management books offered me this feedback: “When I see or hear the word, “guys,” I assume there aren’t any women.” Oh boy. I decided to change my language. I’ve been

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How Can We Build Our Critical Thinking Skills?

question of the week / Johanna / October 21, 2020

I’ve noticed something about this pandemic. The data we get doesn’t help me make good decisions. My reaction when I view the data? Dismay, sadness, and some horror around the total number of deaths. However, without sufficient trend data, we can’t make good decisions. (I happen to like the US COVID-19 Tracker to see a

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Can You Hold Two Opposing Views in Your Head at the Same Time?

question of the week / Johanna / October 14, 2020

I’m holding two opposing views of my work. I see and speak with people all over the world, every week. And, I only see the people in my house in person. I feel as if my world is getting smaller. I have a long list of things I’m not doing: Traveling to clients and working

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How Much Imperfection Can We Live With?

question of the week / Johanna / September 16, 2020

I’ve been thinking about perfection these days. As a society, we seem to want it all. We want everything open. We don’t discriminate between schools and airplanes. And, several people have written to me, saying they want to be perfect in some or many areas of their lives. I wish I was perfect. Not only

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