There's a common manifestation of "The Expert" in every field--one who has allowed the weight of their accumulated knowledge and experience to drag them down into an unfortunate state of certainty. The Expert has gained so much confidence in their field and craft that they see themselves as qualified, empowered, and even obligated to make … Continue reading Expertise as Limiting; Uncertainty as Enabling
People really like to share that quote from Maya Angelou that goes "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time". I am an enormous fan of the poet Maya Angelou, but this quote has always bothered me, mostly because of how incompatible it appears to be with a growth mindset, and … Continue reading When people show you who they are… don’t believe them?
The first time I questioned my decision to join the Air Force was in basic training, but it wasn't while being smoked by some screamy, sadistic TI (Training Instructor), who were mostly cartoonish, amusing, and annoying. It was when they sat us down to watch a hype video of bombs being dropped and detonating on … Continue reading On Death, Celebration, and Seriousness
https://youtu.be/ACkoVBnwaaw Script: For the next 20 minutes, I want to introduce you to a little bit of theory, and it might come across as somewhat abstract, maybe extremely abstract, but I have found some of these concepts extremely useful in understanding why the old paradigms and our default problem solving and sense-making methods often don't … Continue reading Why the Old Paradigms Don’t Work & Introduction to Cynefin (Video + Script)
I was pleased to hear from my friend Austin that he felt inspired (or perhaps compelled is the right word) by a story I told recently, “Miles to Go Before We Sleep”, to write on the subject of diversity and inclusion in the Air Force and defense innovation community. His piece, “Path Before I Rest”, … Continue reading A Few Steps Further
I hope you will take the time to read and heed some of the insights shared by my friend Austin in this piece, which he shared with me as a response to a story I wrote about a white senior leader using his platform to silence the voice and experience of a Black Airman.Austin and I … Continue reading The Path Before I Rest
Yesterday, in a post about culture on an Air Force Facebook group, I watched a black Airman share that he struggled to feel comfortable around certain white leaders, that he felt more comfortable around black leaders, and that this obviously had negative implications for unit cohesion. He shared that these feelings were grounded in past … Continue reading Miles to Go Before We Sleep
https://youtu.be/4S0K7MAT_KA Text: I posted something in an Air Force Facebook group the other day that went something like this: I think more of our mid-tier leaders -- officers and NCOs -- need to be enabled, educated, and empowered to engage in the difficult task of rooting out, tamping down, and expelling extremist, sectarian ideologies among … Continue reading Leadership in Complexity – Conversation, Values, Democracy, Slippery Slopes, and Genuine Evil
https://youtu.be/btSxtF5nwio Transcript:In the book Design Unbound by Ann Pendleton Jullian and John Seely Brown I was recently introduced to the idea of society existing and evolving on multiple levels of organization, and David Ronfeldt’s TIMn framework. TIMn stands for Tribes, Institutions, Markets, and Networks. In early history, society only existed at the tribal level. Tribes … Continue reading The TIM^n Framework (video + script)
I’ve been spending a bit of time on what I intended to be a retrospective post about the year 2020... but struggling. Perhaps that is appropriate, as 2020 was characterized by nothing if not struggle. Perhaps I should consider this piece on different types of alignment to be my official retrospective post, which explores some … Continue reading 2020-A Shared Illusion
Sounding Slightly Off 