Kathleen > Recent Status Updates

Yea I would work for Heather McTeer Toney. She sounds boss. Harjo’s reflections on eligibility for elected office were also thoughtful

The work Mary Anne Hitt’s led on the US Beyond Coal campaign is really impressive 👏🏻

“ Showing up creates the possibility for something different to happen.” - Abbie Dillen, President, Earthjustice

Hard to read militant essays like Naomi Klein’s when it would seem “the moment” has passed. More like a 20 Mile March (HT Jim Collin’s) than a moment. But Klein is right is that it’s in imagining a future we want that we keep going, finding the means as they arise, regardless of the context

Todd has launched us straight into the Fall of Troy, written by a single author 1000 years after Homer’s compilation of The Iliad. In the narrator’s words… Greek fan fiction. 😆 This translation is more archaic than what we recently listened to, so it took some time to adjust. Odd accent choices for character voices 😅

Looked up Adrienne Maree Brown after her brief chapter on emergent strategy. Still utopian but in a more scientific way? Reminiscent of when Carlos Rovelli on quantum physics starts to remind you of a philosopher

What do you mean The Iliad ends without describing the fall of Troy?? This is just The Epic Tale of That Time Achilles Threw a Fit and Didn’t Murder and Then Did Murder Lots of Trojans. Gods Enjoyed

In which we forgot we were in a war, took a break for a bit, and fulfilled all of Achilles’ melodramatic desires for a memorial pageant for his boy-toy Patroclus. Minor subplots for cheating / winning / prizes in contests

Okay, inking the definitive clues definitely helps you to not accidentally erase them when puzzling through options 😆

This section requires more concentration… large grid! But seems more mechanical - just follow the x’s! Guessing the false statement was more ambiguous. Still loving that hilarious mini-narratives though 🕵🏻‍♀️

“King Ray” and “King Jerry” are the opposing monarchs of Judah and Israel?? JESUS WEPT 😫

I attended a Yawanawa Singing Circle hosted by a German medicine woman in Kenya. She acknowledged that neither she nor her (native) teachers knew the meaning of the words they sang, but were preserving the tradition for its emotional resonance. Which I read as, « we hope that someday we’ll understand better why it feels significant to do this » Cool mystery! Not a basis for running modern organizations

The essay written by the forester was, to me, more compelling than the long excerpt (from Mitchell’s book?) in advocating for fresh paradigms on which to base our relationship with nature. Indigenous knowledge is incomplete in the same way that scientific knowledge is incomplete; deifying one in response to historical deification of the other does not somehow achieve balance.

I don’t usually make notes on specific chapters, but in my mind Rehoboam vs. Jeroboam is oddly reminiscent of Christophe vs. Pétion dividing Haiti. Christophe always believed there could be a reunion. But also enslaved people for his building projects, sowing the seeds of his own destruction

Infantry must be psychologically exhausted from the whiplash of this battle. 😅 Is suspension of disbelief that Patroclus’ armor disappears, or that his body remains intact after hours of two armies trying to tug it in opposite directions? Achilles pities himself after sending his best friend to die as proxy to spite a king who took (then returned) a girl who he’s never mentioned since 🤷🏻‍♀️

So far, this collection is very 2020-coded. Back when we believed that naming all specific interest groups was enough to protect them from the tyranny of the majority. But we could be in for some moving poetry / prose

“To become visionary requires translating intangibles… this is where most companies fail to make the grade… The single most important point to take away from this book is the critical importance of creating tangible mechanisms aligned to preserve the core and stimulate progress.”

Forgive me for my impatience with the incredulity the authors treat having a founding manifesto. I mean... any religious person realizes having a purpose is the reason people get out of bed in the morning. Still, given the original publication date, it's reasonable to consider that this was a significant finding at the time. Nowadays, you have saturation of ideals that are greenwashing for corporate greed

This is breezy reading if you've already read Good to Great. Some theories proposed as speculative here (charismatic CEOs are negatively correlated with long-term performance) are empirically tested in Good to Great. What's puzzling so far: the desire to build a company is, in it of itself, is worth building one for. Legacy for the sake of legacy is worth a lifetime of work? Hmmm

I will admit I laughed at loud at the “media coverage of the hatching egg” metaphor. “Egg achieves sudden breakthrough! Becomes chicken overnight!” 😆 🐣

Well, I’m going to be underwhelmed if this whole Flywheel concept is just: “diligently continue to celebrate and share incremental wins”

Unsurprisingly, technology was found to be best applied as an accelerant of great companies’ core ambitions. I found the point on lack of interest / fear of competitors more significant: great companies are less concerned with keeping up than achieving their own standard fot “best in the world”

Jesus wept! You did not just refer to a standard Chik-fil-A outlet to offer a size comparison for Solomon’s legendary temple! 🤣 They say Catholics are gaudy, but honestly what does fast food as a community touchstone say about American Christians 😆😭

These are key segments, but they make me uncomfortable. It’s too easy to fall into the trap - without the right people? - to mistake simplicity or discipline as virtues in their own right. Collins’ analyses prove that the simplicity OF THE CORE CONCEPT and adherence to THE CORE CONCEPT matters. It’s human nature to take comfort in stability, even when it is damaging

Stockdale Paradox: Remain committed to a successful long-term outcome. Pragmatically confront short-term challenges

Knowing your data, but also setting up systems such that glaring conclusions from data can’t help but hit you in the face. Important to transparently track key market trends and business drivers to know when to pivot

Reminiscent of many points on talent density later made in Hastings & Meyer’s No Rules Rules

I’d agree that at senior levels, you want management that needs coaching rather than direction. Perhaps this was novel at the time Collins first wrote. But now I wonder if we’ve pivoted too far in the other direction to assume that all good people need NO direction. Which ends up a serious disservice to a semiskilled or junior workforce

Appreciated the profiles of understated CEOs who oversaw incredible performance, especially anecdotes that demonstrated their own personal success was secondary to building an organization that would outlast them. 👏🏻

Beryl Markham quote… strong start 😉 Appreciate the explanation of the research methods underpinning the chosen companies; reminds me of Challenger Sale and a similarly empirical approach to identifying “what works” in a social context. So far I’m clocking Disciplined People, Disciplined Thinking, Disciplined Action. Hope the last part isn’t a bummer 😅