By: Darren Banek on February 20, 2025
When American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., the Port Authority initially advised people in the South Tower to stay put. Rick, Morgan Stanley’s Vice President of Corporate Security, ignored this directive.[1] He immediately grabbed a bullhorn and systematically guided the corporation’s employees out of the…
By: Robert Radcliff on February 20, 2025
Eve Poole’s book, Leadersmithing: Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership, discusses how Practice and Pressure are needed to forge healthy leaders. A key to leadership is knowing yourself and feeling resourced to accomplish the task.[1] Critical incidents shape the lives and outcomes of the leader. Practice templates help develop muscle memory for known situations and…
By: Alex Mwaura on February 20, 2025
This is an age-old question that I will attempt to answer in this post. I’ve been reflecting on the conversation earlier this week in our cohort group regarding the volatile situation in the world characterized by the shrinking space for candid and factual dialogue, the impact of information overload and addictiveness on social media and…
By: Joff Williams on February 18, 2025
“And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’” Zechariah 13:9 “I need your…
By: Rich on February 18, 2025
I got a call one Sunday afternoon from the drilling rig. This was unusual. My job was to do the theoretical work and hand it off to the planning engineers. They in turn wrote work instructions for the operations crew, the team who ran the drilling rig. A call on Sunday afternoon couldn’t be good.…
By: Michael Hansen on February 18, 2025
“Let’s go to the whiteboard.” I have used this phrase frequently for over thirty years. As a leader in operational roles in the military and civilian sectors, the whiteboard has proven invaluable. For small teams, it can serve as a focal point for deliberate planning discussions, where you can see and hear feedback in real…
By: Ivan Ostrovsky on February 18, 2025
I was in seminary, and one of the required classes focused on leadership. It was one of the most pointless classes I had ever attended. First, I had a terrible teacher who didn’t seem to care about us (you’d think he would, especially considering it was a seminary). All he cared about was sharing the…
By: Linda Mendez on February 14, 2025
I was not raised in this country; at age five, my parents moved my older brother and me to Central America. For ten years, we lived in three different countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras. While my cousins and friends in the U.S. were starting to learn about Game Boys, Walkmans, and computers, my…
By: Judith McCartney on February 13, 2025
I grew up in the 70’s and I recall being allowed on the house phone for a certain amount of time. I was not allowed to be on it for too long as I was told I’d be seeing them in person or was already with them earlier that day. It was revolutionary for us…
By: Michael Hansen on February 13, 2025
My grandparents gave me a Coleco Electronic Quarterback Handheld Game for Christmas 1978. Outside of an N-gauge electric train kit and later an Apple 2E computer, it was probably one of the only digital games I owned as a kid. Playing it was exhilarating; sometimes, I couldn’t put the game down. At night, I would…
By: Mika Harry on February 13, 2025
Forget lions, tigers, and bears. The danger looming for today’s society is more from the pervasive influence of fear, ignorance, and depression. This week’s articles discussed how the rapid advancement of AI and the ever-present nature of social media have profoundly exacerbated societal disconnection, distrust, and injustice. The articles highlight that while the internet and…
By: Jeremiah Gómez on February 13, 2025
What comes to mind when you complete the phrase, “Knowledge is ___________”? When I ask this question as part of an exercise in a leadership workshop, the answer that most people share is power. Though not likely what Francis Bacon intended when he committed the phrase to paper[1], many take “knowledge is power” to mean…
By: Betsy on February 13, 2025
I was walking through a mall in Oxford to grab a coffee when I saw a crowd of mums with buggies all drinking the same brand of coffee I was pursuing. All the babies were around nine to eighteen months, and their little hands each clutched a screen. Research has confirmed our gut instinct that…
By: Darren Banek on February 13, 2025
The Coca-Cola Company had a branding disaster in the late 1980s with “New Coke.” Initially introduced in the marketplace in 1985 as a substitute for Coca-Cola, it was not gaining the traction the firm hoped for. It could be argued that it was a disastrous rollout followed by a significant rejection from the marketplace.…
By: Ivan Ostrovsky on February 13, 2025
Smash the Technopoly! Who knew that around 50% wish cell phones had never been invented. McLuhan asserts, “Each technology conveys an implicit message that transforms us, instills new desires, and fosters fresh feelings of possibility.” [1] I like the example of samurais and their use of swords. This example helps us understand how a tool…
By: Robert Radcliff on February 13, 2025
I’ve been familiar with Jonathan Haidt for the last couple of years. I subscribe to his Substack, After Babel, and have read his most recent book, Anxious Generation. Today, I want to share what I’ve learned from this week’s articles and create an idea that is not new. I want to understand people who ‘find…
By: Alex Mwaura on February 13, 2025
According to an article on Stanford Medicine, Dopamine, the main chemical involved in addiction, is secreted from certain nerve tracts in the brain when we engage in a rewarding experience such as finding food, clothing, shelter, or a sexual mate. Nature designed our brains to feel pleasure when these experiences happen because they increase our…
By: Rich on February 12, 2025
James Madison wrote about the dangers of faction—a group passionately united for one cause at the expense of the rights of other citizens—and the ability for the Union to control this threat.[1] Madison felt that the size of the nation would prohibit widespread faction. “The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their…
By: Jess Bashioum on February 12, 2025
An article pops up in my NEWS feed about the ails of AI or I overhear concerned parents talking about how to limit their child’s phone use and it takes everything in me to not roll my eyes. I have a visceral overreaction that causes me to snark under my breath, “this technology is here…
By: Joff Williams on February 12, 2025
After reading through this past week’s material, I wonder what it means to have a ‘digital community’–something many have now accepted as a given reality for those interacting online for work and play. Do these words overlap sufficiently to be relevant to one another, or are they too different? What are the costs and benefits…
