Remember the Tracy Kidder book, “The Soul of the New Machine“? Required reading in business school from almost the day it shipped, the author embedded with teams at Data General in Massachusetts, in their quest to build a new and…
“Can anything good come from Tulsa?”
“And Nathanael said unto him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip saieth unto him, “Come and see.”“ — John 1:46 A friend of mine recently posted a news story about a former Tulsa Public Schools Assistant Superintendent…
The season before the season of rebirth
When Autumn starts to feel like it’s run its’ course, I get a little giddy for the possibilities of Winter. Not for winter sports and all that, but I dream of hibernation and the preparation for Spring that I never…
Virus
I had no idea earlier this year I would have read so much about virology. One tidbit: virologists have learned that viruses are something less than alive: they contain genetic information but cannot reproduce. They require a host that they…
Transparency
What do Police Departments and Public Schools have in common? In 2020 they’ve both been forced to reckon with situations that question their legitimate, organizational authority. One over perceived systemic racism and safety (Black Lives Matter) and the other over…
A Really Long View on COVID-19
I’ve been reading a bit about the 200 viruses that are known collectively as “the common cold.” Three or four of those are coronaviruses, the latest of which science believes jumped to humans approximately 10,000 years ago (~8,000 BCE). They…
“I hate to toot my own horn, but…beep-beep.”
Today the Tulsa World published an Opinion piece by me that I called “Hamilton Summer.” A Summer of deep-diving into the history and scholarship of the musical “Hamilton” made me think about how hard (and fragile) American democracy is. You…
The Long Path
For years as an IT diagnostician, my most sought-after skill was being able to know someone’s mind (and thus their technology needs) well enough to anticipate needs, or at the least being able to translate needs into something I can…
Everybody Out of the Pool!
Note: I started this post in late February 2020, before the pandemic lockdown, to remind and describe how companies have “pivoted” (hate that term) in the past due to societal mandates. Now I finally went back, post-surgery, to finish it……
The Essence of Team Building
I read a piece this week that illustrates the importance of building diversity into our teams. In the waning days of NASA’s Apollo program, the money was running out. Not to go deep into the why or politics, Apollo 18…