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…

Voices of Transition #2: An ode to networking

“I couldn’t believe it. No one had ever done that for me before.  I was having a conversation with a venture capitalist who said ‘you have to meet so-and-so’.  He immediately turned and picked up the phone to call the person while I was sitting in his office,” said Karen, a food industry executive and dear friend from HBS.  “I didn’t really know this guy.  His wife and I connected one day during pick-up at our children’s school.  She said ‘you have to talk to my husband’ once she understood my status.”  Karen was sharing the positives – the surprises if you will – of transition after having navigated two unexpected transitions within five years. 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…

Transitions & Negative People…..

“She is living her dream,” said my daughter in summary of a friend we visited over Columbus Day Weekend 2010.   If I had tried I couldn’t have figured out how to get that message across so simply and completely to my children.  Continue reading…

Must we all be entrepreneurs?

This week I was thinking about how to define “transition.”  It brought to mind one of my favorite movie scenes of all time, a scene from the Dead Poets Society.  In it Robin Williams plays a high school English teacher, Professor Keating.   At one point he has each child walk to the front of the classroom and stand on top of his desk – looking out at the class.   It is a powerful moment that allows the kids to see that one can get great energy by taking the time to use another lens to look at something familiar.  Continue reading…