When Money Becomes More Expensive

When Money Becomes More Expensive

A note on why I wrote this  Good decisions depend partly on understanding the world in which those decisions must work. Yet many consequential developments occur in fields in which most of us are not specialists.   I wrote this essay initially to help my daughters...
What is one more refinement protecting?

What is one more refinement protecting?

I keep hearing the same message: become more visible. Stop hiding behind one more refinement of language as though the perfect formulation will remove the risk of being misunderstood. And why am I afraid of being misunderstood? Because somewhere in me,...
What bias might success be protecting?

What bias might success be protecting?

For years, I have felt slightly out of step with conventional conversations about leadership and success. Not completely outside them. I value competence. I believe in sound analysis, financial discipline, operational rigour, and the ability to make decisions...
Coherence and the cost of its absence

Coherence and the cost of its absence

Yesterday, at the memorial service of a long-standing family friend, Pam Wescott, many spoke concretely of how her life made theirs more meaningful: her daily courage amid great physical discomfort, the care with which she listened to their ordinary life stories, and...
When Certainty fails, Discernment is Strategy

When Certainty fails, Discernment is Strategy

Sometimes I feel tired. Tired of the relentless decisions required when the future is opaque, no answer is obvious, and the situation is too complex to “think through” in any linear way. This is the season for annual business plans: the ritual of declaring a...