Tag Archives: Transitions Making Sense of LIfe’s Changes

Does transition ever end?

Posted on September 13, 2012 | 3 comments

I remember hopping into taxi cabs terrified that my broken portuguese wouldn’t suffice in communicating my desired location.  After a few lengthy and circuitous rides around Sao Paulo, Brazil I reverted to taking the local bus.  Much to the horror of my work colleagues I might add.   These taxi escapades introduced me to the colorful ribbons that dangled from the rear view mirrors of almost every cab in the city.   On each read the phrase, BonFim, and it’s originator the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim.  Bonfim simply translated means, good end.    If ever there was a wish for transition…. Continue reading →

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Summer Book Review #22: The Way of Transition

Posted on August 2, 2012 | 5 comments

“Nancy, Nancy, wake up!  NANCY!” I shouted to rouse my sister who was asleep on a chair-cum-bed in my father’s hospital room.  It was just after 7:00 am on a Sunday morning.  We had dozed off at about 3:00 am.  Cancer.   I’m not sure why I woke up when I did.  His breathing was erratic.  We held his hand.

These moments raced back at me this week Continue reading →

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Transition and jobs: three routes

Posted on May 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

In early May I happened to catch a few minutes of wbur’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook.  His topic, Death At A Young Age, featured the 1987 death of five sorority sisters who were killed in an automobile accident when returning from a charity walk-a-thon.   While it might sound morbid, the conversation was anything but.   Continue reading →

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Transition through a techie lens

Posted on May 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

What’s your take on social media?  Earlier today I experienced social media deja vu for the first time.  Who knew?   A friend tagged a Forbes.com post on LinkedIn entitled,“The Six Enemies of Greatness (and Happiness)” by blogger Jessica Hagy.   The caption included a few little drawings.

https://i0.wp.com/blogs-images.forbes.com/jessicahagy/files/2012/02/IMAGE00021.jpg

The Six Enemies of Greatness ( and Happiness) by Jessica Hagy, Forbes.com 2/28/12

The drawings looked and felt like the illustrations that I’d been seeing all week in “The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge.”   What can I say, the drawings spoke to me…. Continue reading →

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Transition: How do you start?

Posted on May 3, 2012 | Leave a comment

“This is an evolution not an event,” I added sincerely as I sat with a colleague on the eve of his first major downsizing.  He was the CIO of a major insurance company.  It was the early 90’s. None of us were fatigued yet by downsizing.   He was visibly worried as he sat thinking through the likely impact of a meeting scheduled for the next morning.   I was on my soapbox of ‘enlightenment through defining a problem correctly.’  I urged him to think about a broader set of actions: the message to the employees who would stay, the required behaviors of his management team in the days and months that followed, his willingness to help those who would be on the receiving end of a sobering message. Continue reading →

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Transition: Learnings and laughs one year in…

Posted on April 26, 2012 | 3 comments

I was in tears and, at the same moment, utterly surprised at my reaction.  Crying?  I was watching Iron Lady, Meryl Streep‘s Academy Award victory lap in which she portrays Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979-1990.  The movie caught me off guard.  The twist for me came in the movie’s lens into Mrs. Thatcher’s life; the view is of her nearing dementia with life ‘highlights‘ told in retrospect.   A wave to young children who were pleading with her not to go as she sped off to the Conservative Party‘s leadership.  An aging person alone washing out her tea cup in the sink of a lovely, closeted London home.   Adult children operating on the periphery.   Why did it hit me so? Continue reading →

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Goldman Sachs and Transition: anchors and aspirations

Posted on March 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

“I want to go with crazy good,” said Sal, an animated presenter at a meeting at my children’s school a few nights ago.   By crazy good I interpreted him to mean a ‘good’ outcome juiced up with steroids to make it an ‘exceptionally’ good outcome.  “I am always trying to think about the ‘stretch’….use my imagination to think bigger,” said the authentic youth leader as he was trying to engage a desperately tired audience of parents.  “Why not?” he posed. Continue reading →

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Little known transition attributes: courage & silence

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 3 comments

“I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on,” said Steve Jobs in his much-quoted commencement address to Stanford University in June 2005.   He was speaking about dropping out of college and then hanging around campus to explore courses that appeared interesting to him but Continue reading →

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