Random Riffs
“The Vision Thing” - Ends Are Important But Means Are Way More Fun.
March
27
2010
OK – I agree that you have to be able to answer the question, “What do you think you’re doing and why are you doing it?” You know, what the bemused 41st American president called “the vision thing.” Anyone responsible for moving any kind of collective enterprise forward has to have something in mind and be able to articulate …
Confessions of a Commuting Eavesdropper
February
18
2010
For T.S. Eliot, April’s the cruellest month. I don’t like March. And because it’s my wasteland, I’ve decided to serve up something light this month.
Once upon a time I had what my mother called a “real job.” A salary that got deposited into my bank account at …
Disregard of Uncertainty: Willful, Fearful … Or Just Plain Dumb?
January
29
2010
"When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that person is crazy."
Dave Barry, Miami Herald I began my working life as a physical scientist in the metallurgical labs of the Steel Company of Canada. I was a metallographer, the forensic …
Reclaiming the Imagination … Conversation Beyond Methodology
January
13
2010
I committed to devoting this Random Riff to talking about how we, individually and collectively, might get better at the transformational conversations I described in the December Random Riff. Committing yourself to doing something you’re not quite sure you can pull off and then moving into scramble mode, can be a pretty effective learning strategy. I made any number of false …
Conversations on the Edge: They Work in Practice … But Will They Work in Theory?
December
1
2009
"In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." Yogi Berra As civilized human beings, we are the inheritors, neither of an inquiry about ourselves and the world, nor of an accumulating body of information, but of a conversation begun in the primeval forest and extended and made more articulate in the course of the …
