Aretha said it best

A lot of my work with organizations has been about conflict resolution.  I don’t know if there is more conflict out there that needs resolving, or if it’s just one of those trends that only seems deterministic.  (You know, like when you run into five people in a week, all named Bartholomew.)  Why people continue to ask me to help address organizational conflicts is a mystery.  I mean, if I really knew something about conflict resolution, I’d be on tour through Baghdad, Jerusalem and south central L.A., right?

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The character dividend

While the headlines alternate between doom and boom, most objective data tends to indicate that we’re in a contraction phase of the natural cycle of growth on this planet.  Far from being a “problem”, it is a simple fact of life.  In fact, it’s a fact of everything, not just life.  Growth is not linear.  It’s a sinusoidal curve whose frequency and amplitude may follow a general pattern of expansion over time, but contains regular dips within that larger overall trend towards higher values.

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Baby boomer chronicles telecom evolution

Listening to a colleague describe demographic research she’s doing, I realized that I belonged finally with the dinosaur generation.  And here’s why.

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Throwing the derivative dice

I’ve been interested in the history of the invention we call “money”, but the fascination doesn’t stop at the origination of this essential tool of modern commerce.  Because two seconds after money was invented, some ancient farmer in Mesopotamia turned to his neighbor and said, “I’ll bet you four cows it doesn’t rain tomorrow”.

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