I’m hiding in the sewing machine cabinet – in that little “room” you get when its top panel folds open sideways - like the cover of a giant book - to form a work surface, resting on the cabinet door opened at 180 degrees. Through the gap at the top edge of my little chamber,... Continue Reading →
Rosebud: Proustian Moments
Citizen Kane's dying word stands for security, hope and the innocence of childhood, which a man can spend a lifetime trying to regain...like the green light at the end of Tom Buchanan's pier in The Great Gatsby, or that yearning for a home that never was, which the Portugese have a beautiful term for -... Continue Reading →
Sensei: The Master Apprentice Tradition
Facinated by the wisdom and efficacy of the master-apprentice tradition. Many modern pedagogical approaches fail to apply the principles of this learning model to the fullest effect. In the corporate context, coaching (done well) comes close, mentoring (done consummately well) comes closer, but the dominant dynamics in both these models leave out some of the... Continue Reading →
My Bubbles! Toxicity in the Fish Tank
Workplaces can sometimes be like the dentist's fish tank in Finding Nemo. Your cast of characters is made up of the most outlandish specimens, each with such unique stories of how they got there. There is a comradeship in their shared incarceration. The cast includes some favorite most likely to get ahead (Nemo), a lurking... Continue Reading →
Mailmen and Dogs: Challenges of Account Management
When organizations create functions as interfaces with other organizations with whom they wish to "peaceful commerce from dividable shores", there often emerges a certain code of rituals, ceremonies, games, and tactics which help them conduct their exchange in their best respective interests. The departmental converse of the sales function is of course the procurement function,... Continue Reading →
Horror Vacui: Missing the Beauty of Negative Space
The bane of a truly meaningful conversation is the irrepressible impulse to respond with the conditioned reflex of a professional Chinese table-tennis player. So many opportunities to deepen contact and create insight are lost to the compulsive terror many have of silence in the midst of a dialog, resulting in florid and feckless conversational patterns... Continue Reading →
Waiting Room
Sitting in the waiting area of the neighborhood clinic. Laid low by a nasty cough and a related witch's brew of seasonal ailments...just as I was congratulating myself on my hardiness this sick season. Fatima's having her happy meal next to me. Our recent fast food forensics have revealed a couple of reassuring facts with... Continue Reading →
Aphids & Elephants: Contrasting Models of Innovation
My experience and observation of innovation cultures has led me to classify approaches to driving innovation in two broad categories, which the title of this post rather obliquely refers to. One approach is characterized by a focus on creating major breakthroughs, the giant leaps forward, which typically involve creating some form of deliberate organizational tension,... Continue Reading →
Ahab & Darwin: Feeling vs. Fact
There’s more than just a maritime connection between these two enigmatic contemporaries, one fictitious and one real. Captain Ahab sailed the Pequod, hunting an elusive white whale; while Darwin sailed the Beagle hunting elusive anatomical homologies in search of a theory that could explain the march of life on earth. But I wonder if anyone... Continue Reading →
Accidental Goal: Luck & Determinism
In our pitiful band of gawky, maladroit, poorly coordinated mediocrities back in the day, there used to be this guy who used to make a lot of noise on the field, but was an authentic dud like the rest of us when it came to any kind of physical contact between foot and ball. The... Continue Reading →
Notes to Self 