Reflections on leadership, teamwork, and decision-making during Hurricane Katrin With hurricane season upon us once again, I find myself reflecting on my time at Northrop Grumman supporting the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on Louisiana and New Orleans. Like many state agencies, DCFS faced an extraordinary challenge. One of its critical responsibilities was helping establish and support shelters

The larger and more complex organizations become, the easier it is for communication gaps to create operational problems. In technology-driven environments, teams often assume the challenge is purely technical. In my experience, it rarely is. Most operational failures begin long before systems go down. They begin when priorities become unclear, when stakeholders stop sharing information effectively, or when technical and nontechnical teams are speaking completely different la

"Carry on my wayward son, There'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more" - Kansas What a past 12 months this has been! The pandemic. The fall of Trump. (Thank God!) The social justice (injustice) that swept the country. The still heartbreak of my fur companion Conner passing over the rainbow bridge. Health issues, family issues, etc. It seemed like one thing after the other. The mental toll that the pandemic, racial issues and

I was reading a story on the actor Chris Evans in the latest edition of Esquire Magazine when towards the end of the article the author is trying to get Evans to maybe commit to what comes next in his career or life. Here is how it is written (Dodger is Evans' dog): We stand a minute in the waning sunshine. Dodger trots up and takes a seat on his haunches on the grass nearby, posing like a statue, gazing solemnly outward. Before us spreads Evans’s front acreage. Surrounded b

A legend told by several Native American tribes goes something like this: When the world was new and no one yet knew their place, God decided to divide Man from the other animals. He set Man on one side of a line and the rest of the animal kingdom on the other. Then he spoke and the line began to crack open. Soon it was a chasm, separating Man from all the rest. At the very last moment, just as the chasm was becoming impossibly wide, Dog made a rebel choice. He dashed away fr

A good friend of mine always says that "perfect is the enemy of the good", an expression which is commonly attributed to Voltaire. One of my many achilles' heels have been my constant search for answers, perfection, absolutes, etc. in world that is not black and white at all. Striving for greatness in any endeavor, vocation or calling is noble and should be the goal; but sometimes I think I have allowed it to get in the way of my growth as a human being. We are all not pe

“I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.” - Mark Twain I have always struggled with the question of existence and none more than what happens after we die. Today is my dog's 14th birthday. It is also the day that I received a phone call from the veterinarian that he has cancer. The last 12 months have been rough, and compared to most, I am sure my troubles are minis