Absolute freedom can be an illusion. I spent a long time chasing the version that lives outside — in outcomes, in recognition, in circumstances finally arranging themselves the way I needed them to. There is always a next thing that will deliver it. A contract signed....
When Someone Is Taking You on a Drive There is a particular kind of professional encounter that feels productive right up until it isn't. The conversation flows well. The person across the table is articulate, experienced, well-credentialled. They reference impressive...
The Way We Treat People in Their Downs Ups and downs are part of life. Most of us accept this intellectually. Two sides of the same coin, we say. Natural rhythm. Inevitable. What we don't say — but what most of us have experienced — is that we treat people very...
Most leaders, when something goes wrong, look for a person to blame or a decision to reverse. The project is over budget — find the project manager who missed the signals. The system went live and users hate it — blame the vendor. The team keeps failing despite...
Before the Program Starts, Something Else Has to Most executives I've worked with approach transformation the same way. They secure the budget. They appoint a project manager. They brief the board. They select a vendor. They set a go-live date. And then they wait for...
How Executives Make Bad Decisions on Technology Programs — and What Protects Against It There is rarely a single moment where a technology program goes wrong. More often, it's a series of decisions — each one reasonable in isolation, each one made under conditions...
The Symptoms Are Not the ProblemEvery transformation program has a list.Toxic culture. Messy systems. People who won't change. Manual processes holding everything back. Departments that can't talk to each other.The list gets long. It gets documented. It gets put into...
Nothing Personal Why leadership gets lonely — and what that loneliness is actually telling you Notice what happens to your calendar when a major program is funded and moving. People reach out. Stakeholders who were hard to pin down suddenly have availability. Vendors...