Over the years I have come to appreciate winter as a time for indoor projects. I don’t mean home improvement projects. I mean projects that are best done inside. Because when it’s warm out, I like to be outside. Winter is a situation. It’s cold, it gets dark early, and driving for anything extra is … Continue reading Winter is a Situation

Building community means bringing people together. But here's the thing: not everyone can show up at the same time or in the same way. Two Ways to Communicate Live communication happens right now. Phone calls. Video meetings. Events. Group chats where everyone's responding in real time. You're all there together. You stumble through things. You … Continue reading Finding Communication that Builds Community

In our rush toward digital solutions, we sometimes forget our own abilities to see the patterns, the connections, and the relationships that create possibility. This skill to perceive systems is especially valuable in community work, where the most important dynamics are often hard to see: who trusts whom, where knowledge lives, what unofficial channels actually … Continue reading What Makes Us Different Makes Us Wise: Seeing Systems Together

We know trust is built, not given. But how? The standard advice points us toward vulnerability exercises, team retreats, and careful relationship-building before the "real work" begins. Yet some of the strongest bonds form not in controlled trust-building activities, but in the middle of actual challenges—when we're learning something genuinely difficult, creating under pressure, or … Continue reading Do Hard Things Together

I didn't realize we were food insecure when I was a kid, but as an adult looking back, I see the signs. That government cheese is one of them—though I was less impressed by the package itself and more by the bright orange color of the cheese. When I was little and my parents were … Continue reading A Picture of Happiness on Our Refrigerator

Some people, and even some cultures, tend to be hopeful, which can turn to rage when outcomes disappoint. Other cultures are more skeptical—when things don't work out, they don't feel rage, they feel melancholy. I believe that real beauty means holding joy and pain together, not just chasing happiness. When we can hold both the … Continue reading Leading with Trust

When you're obsessed with your craft—whether that's coding at 2 AM, writing your fifth draft, or sketching ideas on napkins—people will question why you care so much, why you're putting in those hours, why you can't just be "normal" about it. Let them wonder. Because the people who matter won't see crazy—they'll see themselves. They'll … Continue reading Be Passionate About What You Do

You have big goals. You'd like to run three times a week, automate your meal prep, finally organize your finances into a proper system. Maybe learn piano well enough to play something real, read a book every month, write a book every five years. These goals feel important—they represent the person you're trying to become. … Continue reading You’re Already Doing It

You can't do your best work solo, and you especially can't do equity work solo. Real change requires sitting in the discomfort of true collaboration—the kind where you need someone else's perspective not as a nice addition, but as the thing that makes your work actually stick. It's humbling to realize your clearest idea needs … Continue reading Building Together, Building Better

Many leaders fall into solving problems for people instead of with them. It feels efficient and helpful, but it actually undermines the people you're trying to support by robbing them of agency and the chance to develop their own problem-solving muscles. Start by naming the problem out loud with your team instead of arriving with … Continue reading Solving Together, Not For

inspired by Sherry Turkle 3D Printing gives us the illusion of design knowledge. Recording music gives us the illusion of being able to play it. Short-form video gives us the illusion of understanding. Gaming gives us the illusion of being productive. Social media gives us the illusion of human connection. I'm not knocking these tools. … Continue reading Technology and Illusions

If you had the time and energy to make real change, what would you do? What complex problem would you sit with? Now ask yourself—what’s getting in the way? Not everything, just the things you can control. The phone, the tabs, the habits that keep you skimming when you are meant to sink in. I … Continue reading Protect Your Depth

It's easy to pay attention to the folks who don't show up. I know that I've spent my share of time and energy dwelling on absence, on who's missing. But I finally realized that is a bad habit because it distracts me from paying attention to the people who DO show up—and that's not fair … Continue reading Choosing Presence Over Absence

What we pay attention to needs constant examination. What we respond to in real time versus what we respond to later or not at all also needs examination and adjustments and discipline to maintain and evolve. It's true with news. It's true with work. It's true with friends and family. Some of this is natural … Continue reading What We Pay Attention To

We are pattern seeking beings. This trait can be good or bad. It's bad when you seek patterns that aren't really there—when you connect dots that shouldn't be connected, or when you let your mind construct narratives from coincidence. That can lead you astray, into superstition or faulty thinking. But it's another thing to be … Continue reading After You Notice–Thoughts on Pattern Recognition

When a place transitions to new hands—a building changing purpose, a neighborhood rezoning, a park being redesigned—the planning meetings fill with talk of improvements. Solutions come quickly. But there's often decades or centuries of wisdom worth understanding first. Places reveal their intelligence over time. Paths wore themselves along lines of least resistance. Structures face directions … Continue reading 100 Years of Wisdom

I believe the world needs more love and kindness. Not more information or better media literacy—though those matter. What we actually need is to genuinely care more about other humans. If we did, we'd be better off.  Which leads me to a point about self-care - I think we've gotten it backwards. We talk about … Continue reading Self-Care Serves Something Bigger

I think a lot about what came up during both Black Lives Matter and the Me Too movement. Folks showed up with real passion and commitment during these moments of crisis—police brutality, sexual harassment, the moments that grabbed headlines. And that mattered. But there's a pattern: when the conversation shifts to economic opportunity and structural … Continue reading Beyond the Viral Moment: Allyship That Builds

"Of course the other big difference is that [my AI tools] are not owned by mad billionaires...This to me the single most important question--who should be in control of it? And we've seen in this century what happens when billionaires control new technologies." Brian Eno / Ezra Klein podcast

https://youtu.be/SNDKvd-gorE?si=eWKJK90yQnFc-iCU This is an excellent conversation - fun, edgy, informative. Kara Swisher is the best tech journalist and Trevor Noah is a great interviewer (and quite a techie!). PS - long form interviews are a hidden gem in the TikTok era. Put on some headphones and take a walk, do some chores, or whatever works … Continue reading Trevor Noah Interviews Kara Swisher

On the last day of June I started a new gratitude practice. Taking inspiration from comedian Neal Brennan, I write down 10 gratitudes three times a day. It helps. A lot. This word cloud is a summary of my entries from July through September.

"No matter how well or badly...to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow......Do art and do it for the rest of your lives." --JEJ reading KV https://youtu.be/guRkX2vEzHQ?si=AqMht5BNqa2huU-0

Folks who choose to do meaningful work aren't signing up for easy work. Sometimes luck makes it easier. But what's more common is that meaningful work is hard. The metric is meaning. We evaluate it by asking: Are we growing? Are we finding people with shared values? Do we live our values? Are we creating … Continue reading Meaningful Work

Art that happens in real time and space is sacred. This is a re-post from August 2020. In the face of COVID lockdowns, there was a lot of innovation happening in the performing arts - "How the f*ck do we get people to gather?" We need to carry that innovation forward in the face of … Continue reading repost: Looking to Theater for Inspiration

Ten minutes a day moves the work forward. When you have more, give more. But always give ten minutes a day. If you can, protect a consistent time of day for that ten minutes. For me it's early morning. For others it's late at night. If you can, do it when your mind is sharp, … Continue reading Consistent Time

Be proud of yourself when you see a negative pattern you've fallen into and you do what it takes to make an adjustment. That moment of recognition, that willingness to try something different—you're already shifting things just by seeing clearly. Be patient with yourself when you see a pattern and you don't know what to … Continue reading Self Awareness of Patterns

Creative people find each other in unexpected ways. Not just any people—the right people. The ones who get excited about untested ideas and see possibility where others don't. There's something energizing about working with curious people. Not people who need to prove they're the smartest in the room, but people who ask good questions, who … Continue reading On Creative Collaboration and Trust

I was thinking about mindfulness—about what it means to mess up daily in my practice of loving kindness and find the wisdom to begin again. And then I started thinking about how this applies to technology. The tech industry loves its mantras. "Move fast and break things" has been the rallying cry for disruption, innovation, … Continue reading A Recipe for Intentional Growth

We've had a beautiful summer for being outside. But it has been dry. Too dry. Finally, this week there is rain. We need it. And we also need some days indoors to focus on some things. I've come to feel this way about winter as well. I used to dread it but now I feel … Continue reading Rain and Seasons

If you don't like small talk (I hate it), go right for the real stuff. Be curious. Ask questions that matter: What is your birth order? What keeps you up at night? What are you excited about? What scares you? And if you're lucky enough to have someone ask you these kinds of questions, be … Continue reading Real Talk

We live within many different rhythms at once. There are short timelines: daily + weekly tasks. There are things that happen once a month or once a quarter. There are seasonal events like the first strawberries in June or the last tomatoes in September. Celestial events that happen once a year or every X amount … Continue reading Multiple Timelines

In the movies they make it look like strength. But in reality, when you're in it, it feels incredibly tender. Being uncomfortable and doing it anyway—that's brave. It's a beautiful thing, and sadly it's often undervalued.

Systemic change unfolds over years and decades through the slow rewiring of institutions, cultural norms, and power structures. This long timeline makes it hard to see and harder to explain. Most people focus on what they can control directly - their families, work, and communities. When you talk about changing underlying systems instead of individual … Continue reading Systemic Change

There’s a lot of talk these days about “Rage Entrepreneurs.” Utah Governor Spencer Cox used the term to describe how tech companies profit by amplifying anger. Marketing Professor Scott Galloway calls rage the externality of turning attention into shareholder value. The technology I want—and need—promotes loving kindness and creativity. I’m convinced that if more diverse … Continue reading Loving Kindness in Tech

In nature, power manifests as storms and environmental disasters, while resilience shows up in a system's ability to absorb shocks and changes in climate. Diverse systems hold a greater capacity to adapt than homogenous systems. In human systems, when people are different, they problem-solve better and demonstrate long term stability. Bend not break.

It sounds corny but it really works. Learning in community nurtures accountability, values, communication, working through challenges, trust building, so many things. The trick is to find the right community. And when you do, handle with care.

Twelve weeks ago, I started doing something small—I began writing down ten things I was grateful for, two or three times a day, in the notes app on my phone. Nothing fancy. Just small, real things. A walk I took. Good food I made. An interesting conversation with a friend. I’m not sharing this because … Continue reading Gratitude Practice

This deserves a longer post, but for now I am posting a link to Roger Martin's article, "What Would Have to be True - the most useful question in strategy. It is the most useful question, he claims, because it helps us: * Distinguish our LOGIC from the DATA we need to support it* Focus … Continue reading Checking Assumptions

Many years ago I worked in the Education Department at The Metropolitan Opera. We went into schools and helped youth write, create, and produce their own operas. One of the great things about this program was that each student got to choose what they wanted to do and how they wanted to contribute. Some were … Continue reading Genius Doesn’t Behave

https://youtu.be/OZu-O80Zh_k?si=zOBO54TGqJ8VUbqL I love this segment on the design work Usher's team created for the halftime show. At first, they talk through concepts for each scene, which describes an evolution of the artist represented in different fabric, color, and detail. And then, they talk through the engineering of it all -- how the garments need to … Continue reading Fashion Design + Engineering

Relationships create change. Knowing who plays what roles in the change that we are creating is helpful to articulate. Knowing how and when to engage people in different roles is essential as well. TEAM: The core team consists of the individuals we communicate with every day or week. We are continually striving to understand stakeholders … Continue reading Team, Partners, Advisors, Sponsors

There is a gap between knowing how and why to show up in a particular way and then training ourselves to do it and be consistent with it. It takes practice. It takes commitment. And it takes giving ourselves and each other grace and space to practice, stumble, get back up at, get better at … Continue reading Keep Going

The recipe is simple, really. Find the community around the cause. Dream with them. Help them build the thing that elevates their superpowers.

Below is an executive summary of a Brookings report on Black Owned Businesses from May of 2023. Read it. Have it in your back pocket when people give you excuses about why we don't invest in small businesses. -----------------------------Using the Census Bureau’s Annual Business Survey (ABS) data on employer firms (those that have at least … Continue reading Black Owned Businesses

A few days ago I wrote a post called Exploring Our Values inspired by a long list of values shared by Elena Aguilar. The values I chose from her list were: Imagination, Equity, and Meaningful Work. To the value Imagination I added the word Collective. Solo imagination is great and needed but in order to … Continue reading From Meaning to Results

https://youtu.be/W6dBQ2UM6JI?si=uWKaFc-txAZdyM0X Just in life. You gotta keep showing up. Just keep showing up. You gotta keep showing up.

In recent weeks, we've had a few days when the weather has been mild enough to take our puppy out for a walk by the shoreline. What surprises us is her reaction to it. Even when the water is calm, the line where the water meets the land moves slightly, pulsating. But she is used … Continue reading Beginner’s Mind

Yesterday I participated in an "applied theater" workshop. The term "Applied Theater" is new to me. From the CUNY website:The MA in Applied Theatre degree program, the first program of its kind in the United States, uses theatre as a medium for education, community development, and the pursuit of social justice... Applied Theatre involves the use of … Continue reading From Image to Gesture

The impact of race on children's career aspirations is undeniable. Those of us in positions to plan career days, guest speaker visits, and mentoring networks must be mindful of this. While white role models bring valuable perspectives, especially in terms of economic diversity, we must also ensure that we are inclusive of Black role models … Continue reading Role Models and Race

What if we structured conversations like songs? Would that help us listen more deeply to each other? Would structuring conversation like a song set us up to learn something together that could be remembered, developed, repeated, and shared easily and artfully with others? While there is a lot of variation on song structure, we can … Continue reading Song Structure as Conversation

Closing the wealth gap closes a lot of other gaps. Closing the wealth gap should be our number one priority. What good is a clean environment if so many folks are struggling with poverty and all of the pain and systemic disparities that come with it. Closing the wealth gap requires imagination, innovation, and work … Continue reading Wealth Has a Need for Speed

https://youtu.be/wwtkmuqhXAs?si=Dp-oUSYEpN8KBn4B&t=1416 This long-form interview with audio engineer Young Guru is worth listening to from start to finish. However, if you're pressed for time, focus on the section in which they talk about using technology to solve real problems. Technical skills empower us to address problems of all kinds—many of the problems we address are trivial … Continue reading Who Solves Meaningful Problems?

https://youtu.be/LPW5Zx3ntZo?si=iSielrtRgi_J6CGt Check out Sofia Ongele's TEDx talk about how she uses code and social media to create platforms for positive, meaningful change that are joyful, fun, and easy to use. ------------------------------------------------"I've realized over the course of growing up that what we largely consider to be participating in democracy is honestly kind of narrow and unimaginative. We're taught that … Continue reading Creative Superpowers + Democracy

This morning, I received a newsletter from equity education coach Elena Aguilar, challenging us to dive into the realm of core values. The task was to pick ten, whittle down to five, and finally, narrow down to a trio. Here are the three values I emerged with, along with the reasoning behind each: COLLECTIVE IMAGINATION: … Continue reading Exploring Our Values

May all of the dummies with loud voices and lots of confidence take it down a notch. And may the sensitive souls who question everything and feel too overwhelmed to speak up--find a way to break through. We need you.

Once we articulate our ultimate goal and commit to our moment of obligation, our work is in finding the others -- the people we need to enlist in the movement. At first this looks like talking to everybody. But what emerges is that we need to help folks land in specific roles. Some folks are … Continue reading The Roles We Play

The name of this project, this blog and this space, is "Tuning." The choice of the name stems from the belief that society functions much like a musical ensemble, capable of creating beautiful music. Just like a musical instrument, maintaining this beauty requires consistent care - a practice I liken to tuning. Tuning is an … Continue reading The Practice of Tuning

When faced with a complex problem, there is a spectrum of responses we can put forth. On the one end of the spectrum, we have reactive responses. They tend to be defensive, and conservative. A reactive response to crime, for example, is to increase police presence. On the other end of the spectrum are proactive … Continue reading Reactive vs Proactive Solutions

Simon Sinek's 'Start with Why' TED talk and book are popular. Many strategy consultants use a version of the Toyota Production System 'Five Whys' exercise to help teams dig deep and articulate their ultimate goals. While all of this is useful and interesting, when it comes down to doing the work and making change, we … Continue reading My WHY and Your WHY

An ultimate goal is a high level goal. Once we decide what it is, we can use it to guide our decision making--what we say "yes" to and what we say "no" or "not now" to. An Ultimate Goal has three parts: 1. The Problem or Issue we are looking to change 2. The Skills … Continue reading 3 Parts of an Ultimate Goal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBgBy4vP_QE&feature=emb_logo It's easy to get distracted by our to-do lists. It's easy to overcommit ourselves and take on too much. What's hard is taking the time and focus to define an ultimate goal. That's a goal that can be stated in 10 words or so. Once we articulate an ultimate goal, all of the decisions … Continue reading What is Your Ultimate Goal?

https://youtu.be/XxPQt3Ys56U?si=aEeaWSX5ofep9sMs&t=546 I love this clip of Felicia Hatcher talking about the formation of Code Fever and Black Tech Week which were pivotal in creating a tech ecosystem in Miami that included and supported Black and Brown entrepreneurs. She and her husband leaned into the projects as Echoing Green fellows. In the Echoing Green fellowship, they … Continue reading Your Moment of Obligation

The ending quote from Dorothy Cotton in the movie Move When the Spirit Says Move is this:"Think of yourself as someone who can change a situation."Ding ding ding! That's the takeaway. That's the prize.When I used to teach industrial design, my students at the start of the semester would say things like, "Designers do this … Continue reading Who Can Change a Situation

https://www.movewhenthespiritsaysmove.com/ Last night I went to see a screening of a locally made film about civil rights leader and local hero, Dorothy Foreman Cotton. Dorothy was "a member of the inner circle of... the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As the SCLC's Educational Director, she was arguably the highest ranked female member of the organization." At the … Continue reading Education, Inquiry, and Art

"Trust is a confident relationship with the unknown...It's really all about risks. Not big, intense, reckless, risky behaviors but consistent micro-risks that help us build trust. The daily phone call or the weekly meeting at the same time. The consistency is what develops the trust." This is a quote from Esther Perel. In it, she … Continue reading Risk + Consistency

I recently participated Felicia Hatcher's "Genius Jam" workshop and she helped us figure out our zone of genius and encouraged us to lean into it. The concept of your genius zone comes from a book by Gay Hendricks entitled The Big Leap. In the book Hendricks lays out four zones. Your zone of incompetence: things … Continue reading Your Zone of Genius

servo motors programmed for 2 on 3Polyrhythms are African rhythms in which we play two different meters that meet up on the one. For example, in "2 on 3" we would subdivide a beat into three sections in our right hand and into two sections in our left. In western music we call this "two … Continue reading Polyrhythms as a Metaphor for Culture

I've been thinking about my core principles—the themes that I rely on over and over again as I do my work and engage with others. Here's the list I came up with: Inclusive Innovation is Better Innovation Inclusive innovation is better than homogeneous innovation. We have a lot of homogeneous innovation right now, and it's … Continue reading Five Important Things

Raj Chetty and his team research economic mobility, race, and class. One of their main findings is captured in this quote: "If you grow up in a place where low income and high income people are interacting more, you are much more likely to rise up in the income distribution yourself."This finding leads to the … Continue reading The Role of Friendship in Economic Mobility

To edit an idea down to it's essence is a process. When you find people that can help you do that, it is a gift. Book editors do this with authors. Producers do this with musicians. Directors do this with theater and film. Co-workers and peers can do this, too, if you find the right … Continue reading Simple is Collaborative

There's a great quote from SNL Producer Lorne Michaels on creative process and product. "We don't go one because we're ready. We go on because it's eleven thirty."Who knows when creative work is done. It's hard to tell. We can always tweak something. Sometimes we overwork a piece and then we need to tweak to … Continue reading We Don’t Go On Because We’re Ready

We fall off the horse. Life throws obstacles in our way. Get back up. No need for questioning or self-doubt. Get back up. Showing up enables forward motion. Small steps everyday. Or almost everyday. Cuz like I said, sometimes we stumble. Get back up.

The Inclusive Entrepreneurship Investment Checklist appears at the end of a report that the Technical.ly team put out in August 2023. Below is a copy of the categories and questions they share in the checklist. If you manage startup portfolios or programs, this is a must-read. ----------------------------------- Defining Inclusive What does underrepresented mean for your … Continue reading The Inclusive Entrepreneurship Checklist

My friends and I speak in song all of the time. We'll either change the words to an existing tune or make up a melody on the spot, "Sung to the tune of..." is a frequent phrase in our group text. Singing feels different in the body than speaking. It changes something in our brains. … Continue reading 11. Sing it Out

"Yes, And" is a phrase from the art of improv. Saying "Yes, And" to our partner in a scene has benefits. It builds trust and it keeps the conversation going rather than shutting it down. It also allows our partners to introduce constraints to our shared creative process. This benefit isn't celebrated as much as … Continue reading 8. Say “Yes, And”

Yesterday was Christmas Day and we spent a good bit of time at the park -- first hiking in the woods and then playing down by the shoreline. It was 50 degrees and sunny in Upstate NY. And while a good piece of my heart ached about climate change, another piece is interested in how … Continue reading 6. Change the Season

This one takes inspiration from The Alexander Technique. The Alexander Technique is a practice for performers that engages them in breathing and other physical exercises to relax and enhance their performance. To begin, let's start with an exercise called The Whispered Ah. This exercise may make us feel like we're in a theater improv group. … Continue reading 5. The Whispered “Ah”

I ended my previous post with a note about playfulness. While I am a creative person and am playful in how I approach solo work, playfulness in my collaborative work doesn't come naturally to me. So I'd like to spend the next twelve days, up to the new year, exploring this theme. At the end … Continue reading 12 Days of Play. 1. Joy in Repetition

THE PROBLEMThe way that technology is taught and practiced in most spaces is not inviting or inclusive. This is problematic because it leads to a tech workforce and ecosystem dominated by white men. And since technology in an of itself amplifies whatever it is assigned to amplify, it amplifies homogenous values. THE RESPONSEIf we teach … Continue reading An Inclusive and Interesting Tech Economy + Society

In the spirit of "helping people move their ideas forward," I often write about the future. Enjoy. Some gig workers want more rights. Some legislators want gig workers to have more rights. But Big Tech Companies that use gig workers have no incentive to give workers more rights. They see gig workers as the low … Continue reading Gig Workers are the v.1 Robot Army

I have two photo albums in which I've been saving screen shots of the Johns Hopkins COVID maps. I'm pinning them here for easy access. DAILY Screen Shots / March 19, 2020 - May 19, 2020 WEEKLY Screen Shots / May 24, 2020 - SOURCE https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html MORE Percentage of Positive Tests by State The COVID … Continue reading COVID MAPS & LINKS

In the early days of the U.S. response to COVID-19, the vulnerability of the U.S. supply chain emerged as something that needed our immediate attention. The supply chain is a number of companies from which we get our stuff or get the parts to make our stuff. Some of these companies are domestic, a lot … Continue reading Reimagining the Supply Chain