Dear Valued Associate, Punxsutawney Phil crawled out of his burrow on Groundhog Day and did not see his shadow, which means six more episodes of Gwyneth Paltrow selling organic cucumber colon cleansers on Netflix. In honor of this occasion, here’s a wide ranging smorgasbord of ideas and tips that I think you’ll find useful. TPC wants… read more →
Dear Valued Associate, I’ve rewritten this intro several times in the past few days but it never felt quite right, and then I facilitated a meeting last week. It was with a group of people representing various interests that have been meeting regularly for a couple of years to build consensus on an important and complex… read more →
Dear Valued Associate, In the spirit of the season I remember a quote by Thomas Paine (the Common Sense guy) who said, “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace.” On that note, 2019 may test democracy more than it’s been tested in a very long time, and go… read more →
Dear Valued Reader, You can breathe now. The campaigns are over, you may now safely return to your television. Living in a key battleground state, I’ve enjoyed the most expensive U.S. Senate race in history and some of the most vitriolic and vicious ads for a whole range of offices that have ever been produced. It’s… read more →
What is Normal? A constantly changing normal is the new normal. When you think about it, you realize that time changes all of us and makes the previously odd or out of place common and more acceptable. Consider fashion, music, or attitudes about right, wrong, fairness or honesty. Change happens, and people and their values… read more →
Dear Valued Reader, Either Eleanor Roosevelt or Socrates is credited with saying, roughly, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” We, and most news media, are now kept continually distracted and talking about what people are saying rather than the current events and public policy, rules and law changes (or not)… read more →
Dear Valued Reader, This month’s TPC potpourri is a collection of things that reflect what people have suggested they wanted to hear more about. We’re just people pleasers. Stay curious, Godec Hope for America’s Funk Even if you don’t feel this way yourself, the evidence is pretty clear that we’re generally in a lousy mood in… read more →
Dear Valued Associate, I’m writing this from 9F, a window seat on the starboard side, off to flyover country on another public adventure. I like window seats for the marginal solitude they provide, better reading light, and I still think the views at 30,000 feet are kinda magic. I don’t really understand window-people who never even… read more →
Dear Valued Associate, I went to the airport the other day not to fly but to get my Global Entry and TSA card renewed – that’s the thing that gets me in and out of the U.S. a little faster and usually lets me bypass the full cavity strip search. The Customs and Border Patrol agent… read more →
Does Good Governance Require Care? Melania Trump went to the border to look at the kids several days ago and wore a jacket with the above word graphic on the back. The rest of us are left to wonder; was it supposed to be a statement of solidarity, a protest, another distraction, a nothing-burger –… read more →