This week a conversation from almost a decade ago popped into my mind. In it I was speaking with a brainy friend of mine who was a coder at Microsoft. He and I were talking about how small teams of coders were independent but highly linked. For example, one team might be given the challenge to build the “slide show” function for Powerpoint; another might be given the “inserting pictures” function. Each group would work on their own piece. Every night they would run a routine to integrate all of the code written that day by the various teams. Sound groundbreaking?
A 2012 Challenge: Innovation
“Workers are dropping out of the labor force in droves and they are mostly women,” boasted a front page New York Times headline just before New Year’s. “They are not dropping out forever; instead, these young women seem to be postponing their working lives to get more education.” What can I say? It caught my eye during a rare moment of peace over the holiday vacation. Continue reading…
Leading with gratitude….
“I lead with gratitude,” said Roland “Boot” Boutwell, an effervescent spirit who last Monday evening led a thought-provoking program on the Winter Solstice for The Friends of the Fells. The group is a not-for-profit association that supports a 2,500 acre nature reserve that was established in 1894 about 8 miles north of Boston. I’d venture to call him a naturalist. Although I’d really be selling him short with such a description. Continue reading…
Is there a choice you need to make?
“Make the right choices now. Don’t choose out of negativity,” said Marion Jones, former five-time Olympic medalist and the morning’s keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Conference for Women on December 8, 2011. Continue reading…
Risk & Transition
Transition has changed my relationship with risk. I understand it now at a whole new level. The only parallel I can liken it to is my understanding of men now that I’ve parented a son. An entirely new level of comprehension… Continue reading…
Her Place at the Table and Thanksgiving Treats
I’ve had Deborah Kolb on the brain since last spring. I registered to attend a day long event last June that she was hosting at Simmons College. It fell during one of the those weeks when I got three days notice for an end-of-year event from my children’s school. It still amazes me that such short notice exists. The summary is that I missed the Kolb event… and missed her book on my summer book tour. Not sure I can cite the school alone for being disorganized!
Kolb is a noted lecturer and educator on the topic of negotiating – particularly women & negotiation. This week – I jumped on a pre-Thanksgiving TABLE twist and finally read her 2004 missive, “Her Place at the Table.” Continue reading…
Guilt & tractors
“He’s on the lamb?” said my army-veteran cousin – half laughing, half shocked – after I shared a surprising tale about a distant cousin. We were having dinner earlier this week at a quaint eatery in the North End of Boston. My cousin’s sister was in town for a conference. The law enforcement reference was in response to a story I told about our parents’ cousin who had relocated to Australia in his early twenties. Everyone at the table had heard countless reverential stories about “David,” who would by now be in his early eighties. David had a wonderful joie de vivre. Continue reading…
Transition Triumphs?
“I’ve been reading your blog and thinking ‘ugh’ all this transition stuff,” said Victoria Taylor, CEO and founder of Victoria Gourmet, lamenting that transition would be ahead of her again sometime. Victoria’s remarks made me wonder, ‘Can we ever triumph over transition?’ Continue reading…
Analogy: a powerful transition tool
Last weekend I attended a training session for volunteers for a local youth group. A wide cross-section of folks attended. One gentleman, a youth minister from a local church named Sal, spoke at length. Sal shared — as only you can share on folding chairs in the basement of a school on a Sunday morning — a story that I found surprisingly powerful. Continue reading…
Miracle waiting to happen?
This summer I remember sitting outside my neighbor’s house having coffee and waffles one morning and being totally struck by one of their visitors. She was a woman who was probably in her early- to mid-sixties visiting with her husband of roughly the same age. We’d been invited to join our neighbors and their guests for breakfast outside their cottage under a beautiful shade tree – in a pretty garden a few hundred feet from the sea. What could be nicer with a coffee in hand (ok, decaf) and someone else worrying about my children’s breakfast? Continue reading…