Some people easily communicate emotions. I am not naturally one of them; a close friend told me that they knew when I got enthused about something when they saw one of my eyebrows move. It is the mischief of karma that I am blessed with a son who has a great range of feelings: joy has great heights, and compassion has strong expression, as well as sadness.… Read the rest
[Life Back West] December 2008 – “Three Square”
My dad, who passed away at age 96, referred to life in his later years as “Mike raising father.” From the land of what goes around comes around, my son Traylor seems to be inspiring the same type of learnings for this pop.
After lunchroom / playground duty with fellow volunteer parents Erica and Billy at the new school , I got to see a couple of my son’s classmates apply simple pragmatism to recess.… Read the rest
[Life Back West] November 2008 – “Rocket Science”
Yale professor and statistician Ed Tufte has crisply detailed the unfortunate trail of missed information that led to the death of astronauts and the failure of the Challenger spacecraft mission. In brief the issue was not that NASA lacked the relevant information to make a correct decision: they had the information – they just didn’t understand it.
My coaching work with start-up and leadership teams shares a similarity with Tufte’s work with the Challenger episode: how do you surface the most important information and act on it?… Read the rest