I first logged onto the internet in 1998. That year I also stumbled across White supremacist networks, and I backed away from their dumpster fires as quickly as I could. I also kept the lessons they demonstrated for me. Effective organizing requires that people have direct access to information, regardless of their education status, and direct […]
Poisoned wells and expectations
In the second season of the Wachowskis’ web series Sense8, there’s an exchange between the ever-earnest Capheus and a television anchor. “I drive a bus,” Capheus tells the anchor. “If I didn’t take people where they hired me to take them, I wouldn’t expect them to get back on my bus. We expect leaders to […]
Picking up the mantle
The best way to honor a mentor is to practice what they taught you. It’s the application of the message that validates their work, not the affirmation or lionization they might attract. Their contribution to us all lies in what they taught and worked for during their lives, not in how we reinterpret them after […]
Drucker: Making priorities clear
Peter Drucker was a legendary management consultant, professor, and writer who, like quality improvement’s W. Edwards Deming, guided the corporate world for more than 60 years. As a consultant to corporate managers, Drucker broke down common business habits, myths, and hunches so that managers and their organizations could rightly center people—both employees and clients. He […]
Leadership over brute force
In almost every social arena I can think of right now, I can see an object lesson on the differences between leadership and brute force. I’m not going to talk about the federal election, though its fumes are everywhere. My opinions on my denomination’s latest work will also wait. But I’ve been mulling over a few quotes […]
Appreciative inquiry and honoring what’s present
I’ve reached that stage in life where I sometimes look for things I already have: the glasses I’m looking at the world through, the cell phone I’m making a call with, the car keys in my pocket. It’s hilarious. And it’s instructive, mostly because it has little to do with age and lots to do […]
