360 Insights
CONCORDIA SUMMIT REFLECTIONS
I recently had the opportunity to attend my first conference in-person since the start of the pandemic last March. Held concurrently with the United Nations General Assembly, the Concordia Summit was founded ten years ago. I was honored to sit on a panel and attend...
What Do We Do?
Marches. Protests. Riots. Each is a different, unique expression of anguish facing communities and their allies. Each is capable of evolving into another in an instant, with or without actual, representative intent, much less strategic planning. All of them are rooted...
Ode to Les: Six Life Lessons My Mentor Taught Me
I got an out-of-the-blue email the other day from a couple of old friends and colleagues. They were looping me into a broader email thread of former Les Aspin staffers in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Les’ death. For those of you who don’t know, Aspin was...
How We Can Help Coronavirus Lead to a New Renaissance
We have a choice: we can either retrench into what was, realigning with old systems that have already revealed their cracks, or take the brave step the Renaissance Men and Women took to envision a new future—and then create that. The medieval Plague seems irrelevant...
Create a Better World by Eliminating Rigidity of Thought
In times of tremendous instability, the easiest tendency to fall victim to is retrenchment. “Let’s just go back to how things were before…” many find themselves musing. But the “good old days” crowd has to face some facts. For one, unless somebody creates Doc Brown’s...
In Pursuit of Truth
In today’s age of media mistrust, I believe the pursuit of truth is one of the most important quests of our time. It is our holy grail. Our pilgrimage. Because democracy as we know it is in peril. Generally speaking, people don’t know what to believe anymore and they...
REACH!
“Reach!” “Look far. Look far. Farther!” “Open! Reach! More!” “Look far. Look far, farther.” The words of Wilson Motizuki, the Sensei’s senior student and protege, command us as we stand in a dew-laden field facing east, the sun about to make its entrance on the...
How Three Words Could Change Your Career
Here’s a fun challenge for you: if you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be? Before you answer, think: these words have to apply to all facets of your life. They have to be so innately true to you that they permeate your career, your home life,...
Why I Wrote A Book
If my former high school English teachers knew I’d written a book, they’d likely roll in their graves. Then they’d probably leave their graves, find me, and demand answers. I was a kid who crashed into teachers’ cars and calculated the exact number of days I could...
We Are All Prisoners of Our Own Perspectives
I recently had the honor of speaking at the 75th annual Bretton Woods Conference. The amalgamation of people was one of the most fascinating I’ve ever encountered in my life, filled with a wide range of perspectives and beliefs, which got me thinking about my own...
Holistic Thinking: One of the most effective problem solving methods available to us.
Years ago, I helped my daughter build a miniature working roller coaster for her middle school science class. As someone who paints in his free time, I have to say, the roller coaster looked great. But by the time we were finished, there was about a fifty/fifty chance...
Note from Bretton Woods
At the end of July, more than 200 of the world’s boldest and most diverse thought leaders gathered in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire over 4 days to examine the past, assess the present and explore the future of the global economy.
Democracy is in Trouble
“Democracy is not guaranteed and it’s not inevitable.” Pop quiz – which great American hero is the above from? I’ll give you a moment…take a guess… Time’s up. Trick question. It’s a British investigative journalist named Carole Cadwalladr....
Bad Guys & Big Ideas
Here’s a question for you, what do Hollywood storytellers and National Security red teams have in common? They both start with the bad guy, or villain. A Hollywood writer knows that a story won’t come to life without the tension of the adversary. DoD red teams know...
The Pelosi Campaign Plan to Reopen Government
“Winning” is rarely an accident, in my experience. Even if you have your Queen and your opponent’s highest piece on the chess board is a rook, there’s a process required to get to checkmate. Life is frequently a chess game and the game changes with every move. That’s...
Wisconsin U.S. Senate: National Security Matters!
As someone who has been involved in national security my entire adult life, I will be the first to tell you that I’m biased, I have to think about foreign policy, international affairs, threats to the homeland and more all the time. That has been my reality since...
My Book’s Journey
Yeah! I’m almost finished with my book! For those of you who don’t know, I’ve spent the past year working on a book tying together leadership and the Renaissance. Though I expected a challenge, I didn’t anticipate it’d be this big of a challenge! The journey has been...
Your Moral Compass
An excerpt from THINK (broadly) Then DO (wisely)! By John Rogers, coming soon. In devising your campaign strategy, make sure it doesn’t extend beyond your moral boundaries. Always ask yourself, “Is this the right thing to do?” Consider the example of Lee Atwater, the...
Kodak’s Detrimental Misstep
An excerpt from THINK (broadly) Then DO (wisely)! by John Rogers, coming soon. Do you know what you want to achieve? Have to defined your desired outcome as clearly as possible? Failing to do so has been the downfall of many organizations and individuals. How did an...
Rationalized Conformity
(An excerpt from THINK (broadly) Then DO (wisely)!, by John Rogers, coming soon.) The term “groupthink” was first used in the 1950s to describe a phenomenon of “rationalized conformity” in which the desire to seek concurrence on an idea overrides any attempt at...
Understanding the Context
I saw an interesting blurb in the paper last week where President Clinton was reacting to Senator’s Gilldebrand’s comments that he should have resigned over the Monica Lewinsky chapter. He said that Gilldirbrand is “living in a different context.” Setting aside her or...