So this is the less-polished version. Also, this is a work in progress. It's kinda ugly very unpolished at the moment!
My resume has all the right words on it. Strategy and execution. Employee experience and organizational design. Delivery metrics and team enablement. And alignment, don’t forget alignment.
And those are all real phrases, words I could actually say without cringing. (Please note that you will never see anything about leveraging synergies in anything I write.)
But that’s not really how I show up in my head.
Maybe it’s a giant checklist that everyone follows because they always have, but nobody really knows why they do most of it.
Maybe it’s an unscalable prioritization process that is more like a monthly leadership cage match.
Whatever it is, I grab it like a pit bull and don’t let go until I understand what we’re trying to accomplish and what’s really getting in the way.
And PS, it’s even more fun if talking to several people about the same challenge produces wildly different answers to those questions.
What is the actual goal here? Can we get agreement on what we’re really trying to do? On who owns what aspects of it? On who the stakeholders are?
Then, once we’ve got the right people in the possibly-virtual room and agree on the direction we’re all trying to move in, let’s talk about the big chunks that will get us there.
It sounds easy when I write it out like that. It usually isn’t.
I like figuring out what each person is bringing with them, what they need from everyone else, and what they’re walking away owning.
I like getting to the point where we trust that we’re all trying to solve the same problem, even if we’re coming at it from very different angles. And I like accountability that doesn’t mean someone gets dropped in front of a firing squad the second something goes sideways.
I also really like the middle ground between technical details and business goals. I like understanding enough of both to help people make sense of each other.
I like to cook, and I especially like making food for other people. Sometimes I put so much thought into planning and making it that by the time we actually sit down to eat, I’m a little sick of thinking about it.
I somehow became a whiskey person during Covid. Before that, my best friend would drink bourbon or scotch and I’d wrinkle my nose at it and order something classy and delicious like a Cosmopolitan.
Then I found a monthly cocktail subscription that sent everything except the alcohol for three different cocktails, usually built around a particular spirit. That turned into trying different bottles and recipes, learning what I actually liked, and eventually developing a real appreciation for whiskey and cocktails. I still reserve the right to order a Cosmo.
Up north is my happy place. I have a little getaway on a lake, and it’s beautiful and quiet and one of the places where my brain actually seems to understand that it can stop doing things for a while.
The drive usually involves a true crime or unsolved-mystery podcast for most of the way. The only real flaw in the arrangement is that my two cats and two rats are strongly opposed to long car rides, so they stay home.
I love to travel. I’m also totally a planner, so researching hotels, restaurants, neighborhoods, and things to do is half the fun. I especially love historical sites, which is a big part of why Egypt and Greece are still two of my favorite trips.
This spot is being held for a better in-the-wild photo once I’m up north again.
Consulting question, interesting problem, potential role, or something else entirely.