The Persistence of Memory September 4, 2023 Do you ever read something, maybe while searching for something else, and you find it sticks with you? You may not fully remember it, or where you read it, but you find it…
First, Do No Harm: Ethics, and Elevating IT Leadership to a Profession
July 9, 2023 “I’ve looked at life from both sides now. From up and down and still somehow…” When you’re an IT leader, you need to remember the words of Hippocrates. No, not those words. In addition to the famous…
“The Doctor will see you now…”
April 23, 2023 Every Therapist needs their own Therapist. When you’re a leader and change agent, you have to be a therapist sometimes — to the folks who report to you and to the organization as a whole. Your job…
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the Quiet Quitters!”
“If work violates your values, quitting is an expression of integrity.” Adam Grant, Author & Organizational Psychologist February 27, 2023 This last Christmas, I was talking to a friend who didn’t understand Quiet Quitting. What my friend didn’t understand was…
Momentum
Today is my 60th Day with my new employer. My team asked me recently, “Why do you keep count like this?” I tell them that it’s to preserve momentum — forward movement. Coming into a new organization, with challenges and…
My Superpower
November 11, 2022 Periodically, post-pandemic (is it?), colleagues and former colleagues have reached out with some interesting career opportunities. Some have been local, and some have been back in the Pacific Northwest — place means less and less these days…
“Tribal Chiefs Eat Last”
Wisdom can be found most anywhere, if you just look. Particularly so if you’re like me, and revel in the unexpected linkages between all sorts of things. Not long ago I was doing some research on an area nonprofit, which…
Think Different
April 21, 2022 “Scott Zarrow had a library.” So began Rabbi Marc Fitzerman’s eulogy of Scott Zarrow, a former client and philanthropist who became a friend, whom I think about often. Scott called me up one day after he finished…
IT Makeover
It’s no surprise to say that for most of their 30-year existence, IT departments have not been held in high regard. Organizations grow over time based on perceived need. Every startup or small business I’ve ever known added a bookkeeper…
William Fosterr, 1950–2022
Yesterday I attended a remembrance service for William Fosterr, whom I got to know and appreciate during my days as the sole IT contractor (2004 — 2011) for the Mental Health Association of Tulsa, now known statewide as MHAOK. I…