Writing
What experience teaches slowly
Essays on leadership, faith, technology, and the ordinary work of paying attention — written from accumulated experience rather than theory.
-
The Path of Least Resistance
When I was growing up, there was a saying I heard more than once: Don’t take the easy way out. It was never really an argument against efficiency or simplicity. It was a warning against laziness, avoiding responsibility, or doing…
-
You’re Really Showing Off This Morning
A November sunrise at Old Hickory Lake, a camera on a tripod, and eight words I have never forgotten.
-
What Good Leaders Notice
Before we can make good decisions, we have to understand what is actually happening. Those are not always the same thing.
-
Grace for the Road Already Traveled
I have regrets. Many of them. The question eventually becomes what to do with the road already traveled, because we cannot go back and drive it again.
-
A Stop Sign, a Choice, and a Lifetime I Never Saw Coming
I was driving home to see my parents. At the top of the exit ramp, left went home and right went to a job interview I had already decided I did not need.
-
People Remember How You Treated Them
A birthday away from home, a Holiday Inn eight hours from anywhere, and two people behind a front desk who decided to do something about it.
-
Experience Should Make Us More Curious, Not More Certain
Spend enough years at anything and people start calling you experienced. That should be an advantage. It can also become a trap.
-
The Second Half Doesn’t Have to Be Less
There is a way of looking at life that puts almost everything important in the first half. I am not particularly interested in that idea.
-
Stop Looking for Better Answers. Start Asking Better Questions.
Most leaders are expected to have answers. Experience has taught me that some of the best leadership begins with a question instead.
What I write about
Four questions I keep coming back to
Leadership
Why sound plans fail, why the visible problem is rarely the real one, and what actually moves an organization.
Faith & grace
How grace changes the way we understand God, ourselves, and one another.
Technology
Forty-four years of adopting things early, and the question underneath: how does this improve the work?
Attention
What a camera teaches about slowing down, staying expectant, and noticing what’s already there.