Let’s Fit a Round Peg Into a Square Hole

“We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”(The Borg from Star Trek) The Dollarama button batteries didn’t fit. I didn’t even try. One look and I could tell. The diameter and voltage matched but wrong thickness. I was hoping for a cheap replacement battery for my dual powered calculator but alas, I’ll … Continue reading Let’s Fit a Round Peg Into a Square Hole

What’s Your Lingua Franca?

As I contemplated this question, I was transported back in time to a high school Algebra class and a different question. My Algebra teacher was projecting a graph of the exponential function y = ex. At a time well before the advent of personal computers and laptops, he hand-drew the graph on an 8.5” x … Continue reading What’s Your Lingua Franca?

When Is a J Not a J?

My step-mother passed away on New Year’s Day. She had been in the hospital for almost a month. At the worst possible time during rising COVID infection numbers in the community and social lockdowns in effect. Initially admitted into ICU suffering from pneumonia, she recovered to a point where she was moved out of ICU … Continue reading When Is a J Not a J?

A Good Time to Teach Old Dogs New Tricks

There’s an old English proverb that I had always taken for granted. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” In my experience, this had always been a universal truth because people I've met the world over aren’t much different from each other when it comes to resisting change. The older I got, the more … Continue reading A Good Time to Teach Old Dogs New Tricks

Ladders, Bridges and Lifelines

In my last post, I touched on ORSC's Third Entity as a tool to uncover and address the relationship gaps that can exist in an organization undergoing change. Gaps that include fuzzy reasons for change, lack of vision partnership and a status differential that perpetuates the hierarchical divisions between management, staff and the layers in between. Gaps that can impede, halt and even regress the progress and effectiveness of a system-wide change like moving to agile ways of working. But why do those gaps exist in the first place?