Falling Up(ward): Creativity, Collaboration & Change

  I have been thinking about my first post and the poem that grabbed me by the throat. I heard recently there is a new interest in poetry. Why? Probably because we are given so many words each day to process; a flood of words.   Poetry says, ‘Hey, here is a cool story in a thimble full of words.’    Thank God! Because I have to read a thousand just to clear out my inbox! So if you feel like you need to use less words, here is a short TED talk called: How to Write Less but Say More by Jim VandeHei. He founded Axios and another company to train people that less is more.   Write Less, Say More And if you want to bathe in a few words that really mean something, here is Joshua Bennett’s poem again,  Benediction If you would like to pre-order his new book click here to find a way to the good people at bookshop.org who work to support local bookstores. I will get a small commission from the order:   My Bookstore You can order any book through my st...

In a music mood, I recently was checking out what was happening at this year’s Newport Folk Festival. I was delighted to find a treasure: the Joni Mitchell performance. Besides the beauty of hearing her sing again after her stroke, the the second was the work of Brandi Carlile to make this happen. There is a lovely back story to this event centered around Brandi taking a risk to start a relationship with Joni. Here are two of the many videos on the Newport performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiluPSmAF8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr6K612Mjig The results of a person who has the gift of uniting people is a rare and beautiful thing to see. Brandi had taken the steps to encourage Joni to come back to the Newport Folk Festival. I took note that Brandi had that gift. Not only did Joni appear but Brandi’s initiative knit together on the stage all kinds of diverse musicians who knew Joni as fundamental to the roots of our music. More recently, I went back to listen to Joh...

  The Airlines have been in the news as flying has become a mess of delays and cancellations. Last week a headline in the Washington Post caught my attention: “What $50 billion in Taxpayer Aid for Airlines Did Not Fix”   an August 2nd opinion piece by Bill Saporito   (an editor at large at Inc. magazine). ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/02/airlines-cancellations-delays-50-billion/   The article asks a lot of questions about why airline service has declined so badly, especially since $50 billion of pandemic support was provided by the Federal Government to assist the industry. One of the key questions Saporito asks is what were airlines doing to prepare to be strategically better at providing for their customers. Its important given they had significant government financial support during the COVID pandemic.  As the article points out there have been forces working the flight industry for awhile, including pilot shortages from retirement, toughe...

I was going to start my new blog with a post talking about books that inspired me to think differently or strategically. My plans changed while reading in Apple News Wednesday morning. I clicked on this poem ‘Benediction’ written by Joshua Bennett which was shared from The Atlantic under their books section. I have been itching to start thinking about the most uncontrollable strategic variables facing people and organizations now. BUT, Apple’s algorithms know I find poetry important.   https://apple.news/A-fDI4CH3TlaBJDcC9_lEGg This poem reminded me that change begins with listening. Listening is not just about hearing a  person’s words but hearing what is the story behind the words. Poetry challenges me to listen harder. Bennett is telling his story of being a black person from Brooklyn. Read the whole poem. The words matter. They are chosen for a reason and from an experience. These are words and sentences are art and have great meaning. I am still unpacking his thoughts a...