Reader, So, I sat back the other day and thought about how my life has changed over the past bunch of years. And that got me thinking about our use of personal technology. Here are some of the things that ran though this aging brain. 1958 I remember my first “transistor radio” that only had a single earphone. I had to find the AM station the was in my area that had a good DJ. (WLS was my go-to station.) Technology is good, but I don’t search for new artists anymore. I just let Spotify curate...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Reader, I had dinner with my friend Mark last week and he asked me a question that seems to be on a lot of minds lately: “What do you think of AI?” And my answer also seems to be a prevailing answer: “I don’t know.” We talked about the potential good and (mostly) bad of the technology, finished our dinners, and went on our separate ways. But the question hung in the air with a slight modification: “How might I think about AI?” And that, in turn, took me to a phrase I use a lot: “Learn from...
11 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, Here’s a minor headline I saw Friday morning in the South China Morning Post. China Offers 15-Year Research Grants to the World’s Brightest Young Scientists. It was a rather short article, but this line caught my attention: “China is offering the world’s brightest young scientists generous 15-year research grants for free exploration, as the country accelerates its drive to become a global science powerhouse.” (emphasis mine) Here are a couple of key points: This is for scientists...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Reader, I’ve been a fan of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes ever since my friend Pat gave me a copy of the complete works in the 1960s. I keep getting drawn back to “Sherlockian” adventures and am pleased that I have never run out of reading material. I recently asked my son Mark what he wanted for his birthday and he said “How about a Sherlock Holmes book?” Well, that sent me on a happy adventure looking for some of my favorite “new” authors. That, in turn, got me wondering. How many people...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Reader, My leadership mantra is Learn from the Past, Deal with the Present, and Intercept the Future. The third responsibility is becoming harder and more important. In 2019, I wrote that the future held surprises and that leaders had two choices: wait for those surprises to develop or try to intercept them. That idea still holds. What has changed is the speed, scale, and interconnectedness of change. Artificial intelligence, geopolitical conflict, demographic shifts, climate pressures, new...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Reader, In 2019 I created a short email minicourse built around the need for us to “learn from the past, deal with the present, and intercept the future.” And it’s now 2026. What’s changed about dealing with the present? Of the three challenges, dealing with the present may sound easiest. It is not. The present arrives as a crowded mix of customer demands, cost pressures, new technologies, workforce concerns, competitive moves, and decisions that cannot wait. Artificial intelligence...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Reader, In 2019 I created a short email minicourse built around the need for us to learn from the past, deal with the present, and intercept the future. And it’s now 2026. What’s changed about learning from the past? I wrote then that the intended and unintended consequences of past decisions play out in the present. That remains true. What has changed is the speed at which those consequences now arrive. Artificial intelligence, automation, interconnected supply chains, social media, and...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, Think about a big project that is going to get you from “here” to “there.” Let’s assume you have the money and the talent to make it happen. Now think about your most precious and non-renewable resource -- time. A Metaphor: The River of Time We often think and write about “the” past, or “the” future as a thing. But time is not static; it flows minute-by-minute, day-by-day, and week-by-week. Time is a river. Today is yesterday’s tomorrow and the past is always influencing today. The...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Reader Wicked problems are not simply very difficult problems. They are situations in which stakeholders disagree about what is wrong, causes and effects are entangled, actions change the situation, and no final or universally accepted solution exists. Wicked! We cannot fix healthcare, but we can improve it. We cannot eliminate homelessness, but we can help homeless people. We cannot eliminate hatred, but we can get some people to talk with one another. Our task is therefore not to solve the...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Reader, I’ve been in the “the world of work” for long time and I recently spent a few minutes pondering the metaphorical road I’ve traveled. Let’s take a tour and you can tell me what I’ve forgotten. I once worked for a printing company. I remember when typesetting, film preparation, past-up, and traditional print production were good paying middle class jobs. I remember when Business Process Engineering was going to help us redesign our operations. Unfortunately, the “reengineering” work...
2 months ago • 1 min read