April 5, 2015 · 12:38 pm

Sad to be here…

I can’t believe it’s been a year.   I started this blog years ago and it has evolved over that time.  I’ve kept it up over the years as a place where I’d “live out loud”.    I never restricted it.  I would mix the intensely professional with the intensely personal.  I would be fearlessly me.

Writing has given me that in my life.  It has given me the ability to be intensely, honestly me.  From the crass and often just “in poor taste” comedy of my early life to the wistful songs of my later years, I’ve channeled my experience into my writing.

But writing is not just a creative outlet.  Writing is how I understand things.  It’s how I make sense of everything.  It’s how I learn and absorb.

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March 8, 2014 · 8:28 pm

Chapter 1 – What is Leadership?

To study anything; to truly look at it in an objective way and then to share that experience is a true challenge.  First you must first be able to agree on what it that you are talking about.   That seemingly simple first step is often harder than it seems, particularly when it comes to the subject of leadership.

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February 15, 2014 · 11:10 am

A small book about leadership

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December 26, 2013 · 5:09 pm

The Lucky Ones

A bit of a warning here.   This is probably more personal than my average post.  I’m not sure how relevant it is to those who come here looking for business or strategy.  But at this time of year, my thoughts turn to the more personal side of life.  So in the spirit of “changing the game” – I’m talking about and sharing some intensely personal moments.

I’m not trying to be anyone’s inspiration.  I leave that to others.  Here’s one.

The hardest part baby is smilin’ when your plans don’t work out,  and count yourself – a lucky one…

Willie P. Bennett wrote those words in the 1980’s for his album of the same name.  He called it “The Lucky Ones”.  From the moment the words came through the speaker of my car stereo, on an early mix lent by a friend, they spoke to my heart.  They inspired me then as they do now.   At that time in my life, I was myself experiencing a slow awakening. Continue reading →

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December 1, 2013 · 1:50 pm

Hot Potato – Why We Need To Rethink Management

Remember that childhood game, “Hot Potato”?   You would take a ball, beanbag or other item and pretend it’s a hot potato.  As soon as you got it you’d pass it on to the next person.   Then at the end of the music, a timer or just a random announcement from the game master – whoever is holding the hot potato loses.

Child’s game?  Or is it how we manage our companies?  If it is, we need to find a way out of this trap.  It kills productivity, destroys job satisfaction and dooms us to a world of enforced mediocrity.   That’s what I was thinking about the other day.  Here’s how it started.   Continue reading →

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November 2, 2013 · 12:34 pm

Where Are the Snowdens of Next Year?

The enemy of freedom is not tyranny.  It’s complacency.

Our freedom, our lives – all that we believe in and hold dear does not get ripped from us all at once.  It happens, as T.S. Eliot so famously said when he wrote:  “This is the way the world ends.  Not with a bang, but a whimper.”

So it is.  And so it would be without the whistle-blowers, the leakers of information – the dissidents. Continue reading →

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October 2, 2013 · 11:31 pm

ROC – Return on Curiousity?

This is a story about the future impact that Waterloo can have on the country and maybe even the world.   But it’s NOT about Blackberry.  Crazy, you say?

Today, on a beautiful Friday afternoon in late September – what could be one of the last great summer-like days of the year we did somethign crazy.   We said “to heck with that” and headed indoors to a crowded lecture theatre in the Engineering building at the University of Waterloo.  It was worth every minute. Continue reading →

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July 13, 2013 · 10:28 am

For a song…

This blog was inspired by work done by a group of us to assist in flood relief.  The project created the video “Carolyn and I” which to assist the fundraising effort.  You may want to follow this link after reading the blog, but I’ll leave that up to you.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog.  I can’t believe where the time has gone.  There are have been some challenges recently.  I’ve moved my home – I still run the company in Toronto, but we bought a beautiful house in Haliburton county – near Minden, Ontario.  I’m looking out at the loons on the lake as I write this.  Stunning view!

On a sadder note, my business partner and I split up in the past month.  Disagreements about how the business was to be run.  We had some conflicts, but I think the move to my new house really set things off.  We had one of our management meetings in a local cafe where we usually meet (no reason to not have pleasant surroundings for meetings).   It was at that meeting he said to me that he didn’t think I was committed to the business. Continue reading →

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March 16, 2013 · 9:05 am

The Cloud Manifesto

The Catalyst for Cloud

I  just spent two great days in Banff at the Cloud Matters conference representing IT World Canada.  The conference had over 175 people and a star-studded list of speakers.  At the end of the conference, I was part of a panel where each member was asked to give three minutes on what we could do to provide a Catalyst for Cloud Computing in Canada.

Our panel consisted of:

  • Jim Love, CIO IT World Canada
  • Timothy Grayson, Director epost Product Development Canada Post
  • Chris C. Kemp, CEO Nebula and Co-Founder Open Stack
  • Peter Coffee, VP/CTO and Head of Platform Research Salesforce.com
  • William Dupley, Chief Solutions Officer HP Canada
  • Harpreet Dhillon, Cloud and Open Source Program Manager City of Calgary
  • Robert Hart, Founder and CEO Canadian Cloud Council
  • Wayne Walls, Chief Cloud Strategist Rackspace
  • Ian Rae, CEO CloudOps

My contribution took the form of a “rant” which I dubbed The Cloud Manifesto – A Catalyst for Cloud.  It was partly original opinion, partly ideas inspired by the speakers over the two days of the conference.    Here it is…

The Cloud Manifesto – A Catalyst for Cloud

Ten points which will provide a catalyst for the movement to Cloud computing: Continue reading →

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February 23, 2013 · 1:41 pm

Fear, Lies and Purpose

Today, I will not live in fear.

For all too many years, I did. I lived with fear.  Even as I write this I can replay the feeling.  The tightening muscles.  The cold rush of adrenaline.  It stops you dead in your tracks.

I won’t say anything trite like “fear has been my friend”.  It hasn’t been my friend.  It’s been my companion, but never my friend.

What did I fear?  The list is endless.  I’ll spare you the personal side of fear and for the sake of this piece I’ll focus on the fear that accompanied me in my career.

Would I be passed over for a promotion?  Would I make a mistake?  Not even real mistakes — I could work myself into a lather just thinking I could make a mistake.  I spent time wondering what could go wrong.  It wasn’t even fear of big consequences — even the shame, the blow to my ego of a mistake happening on my “watch”.   I even feared being wrong.

It wasn’t just the fear of mistakes.  There was another type of fear.  Fear of loss.   I feared losing my status — what if I wasn’t recognized for my accomplishments?  I even feared of losing things I didn’t even have — fear of not getting that promotion or that raise, that job I deserved. I could go on…and on…

I didn’t know it at the time, but it turns out that I wasn’t alone.  If you didn’t feel this way at one time or another, you are in the remarkable few.  I applaud you.  The rest of us are as described by Thoreau, the poet and keen observer of the human conditions who once said, “most men lead lives of quiet desperation”.

One day, for me, that changed…

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