M = f(t). Meaning Is a Function of Time. I wrote that down before I wrote anything else, because it's the whole argument in four characters. Meaning is not fixed. It moves with time. And most of the conflict I see leaders carry — with their staff, their kids, their...
Comparison is the fool's tool. And most of us are fools. Not occasionally. Not on our worst days. As a default setting. The mind reaches for comparison the way a hand reaches for a railing — automatically, without being asked to. Here is the first thing worth...
You're Building Well-Trained Robots. You Meant to Build a Team. Most executives think they're developing their people. What they're actually doing, in a lot of cases, is training them. There's a difference, and it's the difference between character and tactics....
The Problem With Solving Problems Out of Order Most meetings meant to solve a problem never actually work on the problem. They work on the sequence — badly. Someone asks why the project is behind. Before anyone answers, someone else asks who's responsible....
Every Role on Your Project Has a Different Definition of Success. That's Not a Problem — Until Nobody Knows It. When a technology program stalls — when timelines stretch, when the steering committee starts hearing contradictory updates, when the sponsor starts losing...
Most of life is spent training for a destination we never actually examine I keep a small drawing on my desk. A line that rises — possessions, association, the slow accumulation of what we call a life — climbs toward a peak labelled "material is important," then bends...
What a Bad Decision Feels Like Before You Admit It A bad decision rarely announces itself. It seldom arrives as a clean moment of failure you can point to and name. It arrives as a low, recurring ache — something that keeps asking for your attention, keeps needing to...
What Good Looks Like Most of the decisions you are judged on, you will not be able to judge for a long time. The hire. The vendor. The ERP platform. The restructure. You commit now, under today's assumptions, and the results arrive much further down the timeline —...