Disaster plans are designed to continue operations during times of major emergencies and/or disasters. But do they work? We have repeatedly seen that during health care crisis situations, disaster plans can provide an outline of direction to participants in the response teams. However, enough autonomy is not given to those…

How often do we react too quickly to situations? Swatting at the problem, anxious to have it go away. A high school student’s experience on a 3-day Quest Journey in the Joshua Tree National Park has a profound leadership lesson for us all. The student planned to use the time…

Starship Enterprise, 23rd Century We both are big Star Trek fans (Star Trek nerds you might say). In one Star Trek episode, an immensely powerful alien cloud known as Vger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path. The Enterprise crew is sent to determine Vger’s origin and save the planet…

We all find ourselves in some form of isolation these days. We may be quarantining, not traveling outside of our work sphere, some not even going into work. Perhaps we have not seen family and friends as often as we want, missed family and friend events like weddings and funerals…

A researcher once found that bedside nurses could “stack” more activities in their mind than the average person. This means that they can keep multiple and simultaneous priorities in their heads. These priorities change constantly, but the nurse just keeps rearranging them. We always call this the art of multitasking…

You probably started your leadership journey by being a good problem solver. You were a go-to for other staff. You loved solving problems and enjoyed that others saw that skill in you. You started getting noticed by your supervisors for your talents. Then one day, someone offered you a leadership…

In the 2020 COVID-19 crisis our healthcare and first responders were held up as heroes. And heroes they were. Putting themselves in harm’s way again and again. …

A reporter asked a chess champion what it was like to lose a chess match. “You don’t exactly lose, you learn. Something went wrong and you have to study why that happened, so it won’t happen again.” Tani Andewumi, age 9 Profound words from a young Nigerian boy, competing to…

Have you ever been in a meeting when someone completely changed the direction of the conversation with one short statement? That is reframing. And that is a moment of leadership. The real question is how do they do that? …