Category: Ambiguity
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The Daily Distractions
On my way to pick up a camera from a friend yesterday, I noticed the police had cordoned off all the streets going into the area where his office was. You could pull in, but you were only going to be able to pull out by going through the parked police car. After picking up…
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What Confidence Looks Like
We’ve all met the guy who lives on the right side of this plot. He speaks with full assurance that he knows what he is talking about. He feels it necessary to tell us about why there is no reason to doubt him or question him. He’s got this in the bag. We want to…
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When The Formula Stops Working
Aaron Sorkin, writer for The West Wing recently came out with a new show on HBO called The Newsroom. He has been critiqued for being too formulaic. In fact, someone even put together a video showing his various Sorkinisms – times where he uses the exact same line in a variety of his shows. Finding the…
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How to Handle New Challenges: Step Up or Bow Out
Photo By Didrik Johnck All of us have been asked to do a job we’ve never done before. We must learn how to do it and are likely to make several mistakes before finding success. More than likely, others will see our inadequacies. When we face a difficult challenge, we should Step Up, and sometimes…
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Rain That Does Not Hit The Ground
Picture courtesy of Desert Bug This last week we have had some heavy rains in Colorado. This is a blessing as we have needed moisture to help us control the many fires all over the state. Unfortunately, much of the rain missed the fires and even here in Fort Collins, the rain had nearly completely evaporated…
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Unexpected Endings
Damn it, we’re going to crash… This can’t be happening! – Air France Pilot David Robert 5.4 seconds before flight recorder stops The entire cockpit discussion unfolds a sobering story about the complexity of flying a plane and the unintended consequences of decisions that we make. This final quotation (above) struck me particularly hard —…
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Building a Resilient Process
Over the last week, we’ve been moving into a new place — unpacking boxes so meticulously packed only a few weeks ago. We’ve collected boxes from various places over our moves and these two boxes tell us a story about process. U-Haul, the box on the right, has recently taken to stating that their box…
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Why Information Work is “Expensive”
“I know a lawyer that charges $750/hr. At that price, I would only pay for the 3 minutes it took for him to give him the advice I needed and I would expect that he would already have the answer to the question I asked. If he had to look it up, that would be…
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Work Theater
Meetings, the practical alternative to work This quote was on my boss’ mug that he made sure to bring to every meeting he attended. These kinds of silent protests worked well when we all sat in the same conference room to have a meeting, but as we’ve become more global, we call into all conference…
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Ambiguous Questions
Why did Paul send Tychicus to Ephesis? This was one of the questions that we were supposed to answer before meting together in a small group (after reading Ephesians 6 in the Bible). The passage discusses Paul wanting to send Tychicus to give news of their work. When we got together as a small group though people…