A reading of two short passages, one from The Art of Public Speaking, by John Rippingham (1814), and the other from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘The Comic’ (1875). By way of Wikipedia on the ‘sad clown paradox’ as shared on Mastodon by John Overholt.

A reading and discussion of this piece from 2023 on how to run a project premortem.

See also: Gary Klein’s 2007 HBR article introducing the method.

A reading of https://improvesomething.today/on-speeding-things-up/ followed by a brief discussion.

And oops—the post is from 3 years ago, not 2 as I mentioned in the episode. Time flies like, one supposes, sand through an hourglass.

Take good care. It’s time to pull as hard as you can towards love; it’s not playtime. (As the anonymous internet pal says.)

Making sense of ‘shifting baseline syndrome’ in the world & in the workplace.

A reading of https://improvesomething.today/vanishing-fish-boiling-frogs-the-dry-bed-of-the-sea/

A link to the 1995 ‘shifting baselines’ piece from Pauly.

Impromptu reading of https://improvesomething.today/notes-january-2026/ offered with some closing commentary.

Change management, readiness and adoption, otherwise pulling nerds across the chasm. Whatever you call it, it's important work that my guest and I are accidentally getting better at. A conversation with Devon Persing. Discussed: remote work, organizational and individual change, Muppets.

• Episode transcripts

A year of working and living in crisis. So what? Now what? Discussed: the mountain (certainty), the muddle (ambiguity), and the morning after the earthquake (we're all geologists now, friends); Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Experience" and "The Conduct of Life"; Leonard Cohen.

• Episode transcripts

Respect for people is a pillar of lean. It's also the first thing to go out the window in many botched implementations. A conversation with Fabian Jimenez. Discussed: stepping stones on the path to respect for people. Engaging head 🤖, heart 🫀, and hands 🙌 of people.

• Episode transcripts

When working with groups, agreement is fine—but consensus is better. A conversation with Andre Helmstetter. Discussed: the Institute of Cultural Affairs’ consensus workshop method, taught as part of their ToP Facilitation Training.

• Episode transcripts

Checking in with Carl Sandburg's "The People, Yes" before Election Day. "The people have come far and can look back and say, 'We will go farther yet.'"