Dear Reader, Another year has passed and it is important for every leader to pause and reflect. And this time I took a bit of a bigger view. After living in a remote part of the Sierra Nevada for four years, I purchased a fixer upper in Monterey, California, six years ago. Everyone I showed the house to thought I had gone nuts. It was built in the 1950s, had never been renovated, had a leaky roof, and was located on a steep hill with a failing foundation (in earthquake country it is not good...
11 months ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, When things are a little slower in the summer, I tend to reflect and recalibrate. This includes a mindful exploration of where I have come from and where I am trying to go on an individual and a collective level. The Moon | Daniela Bryan In one of these reflections, I thought about the relationship between my father, who was a CEO, and myself. If you are an executive and happen to have a daughter, you might want to read a recent article I wrote. Here’s a glimpse: "Your daughter...
about 1 year ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, I don’t know about you, but when things slow down just a tad over the summer and folks are enjoying nature and family, I tend to have a little bit more time. And when I have more time, my creative side comes out. It gives me a little bit more space to reflect and turn challenges and problems upside down and look at them from a different angle. I can’t help but think that quandaries we are facing individually and collectively can do with an extra dose of creativity. Journaling,...
over 1 year ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, Did you know that we would need 1.6 earths to be able to continue with our activities as we are? We need to change. Either we change or change is upon us. It’s been that way for millennia. Just in the last decade we have become glued to our smartphones, witnessed the power and danger of social media, saw the effects of climate change become real, experienced how inequality grew, saw the politization of the global migration crisis, had hard conversations about sex and power, and...
over 1 year ago • 1 min read
Dear Reader, Have you ever heard of H-Day? I know about D-Day, but H-Day? Högertrafikomläggningen (Swedish) also known as Dagen H (September 3, 1967) was the day Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the street to driving on the right side. And apparently, they did it in 10 minutes! In May 1963 the Swedish parliament voted in favor of implementing the switch to align with neighboring countries. At the time, Sweden had about 7.5 million inhabitants. So, how did they orchestrate this...
over 1 year ago • 3 min read
Dear Reader, I remember exactly three years ago when I was with friends and family members skiing in the Alps as the first cases of the Coronavirus emerged. We were wondering what this new disease was all about. Now, with the three-year anniversary of the pandemic upon us, so much has happened since then. It feels as if you, me, and the entire world have been through a war-like experience where we normalized bad situations over and over again to keep our sanity. We lived through uncertainty...
over 1 year ago • 2 min read