• Professional

    Living on the Tip of a Spear

    Living in Singapore gives an American a unique vantage point of the global pandemic. We are the first to experience each new phase of the crisis. Sharing insights from observing our Asia Pacific team and living at the southernmost point in Asia!  The WHO has highlighted Singapore’s best practices and we have been living under a Code Orange (DORSCON) since February 7th. SARS taught Central and North Asia countries hard lessons. Lessons from which Singapore developed plans and executed during February and March. Think of the initial outbreak as a Wave 1, you flatten the curve, then infections and deaths rates start to fall.  Once Wave 1 is under control, the situation looks…

  • Professional

    A different view on Barack Obama

    In December, among the normal hectic end of year, I had the privilege of hearing Michelle and Barack Obama speak thanks to #thegrowthfaculty and #sas. Sharing a few items of wisdom from each using a little role reversal.  Plus, at the bottom, How might Barack be handling #COVID19? Mr. President – Leadership applied to Family.  Barack’s upbringing gives him a great foundation of common sense. Lessons for your family: – Don’t get too high or low emotionally. We have all been in situations with a family member which become emotional. Take a breath, step away, and come back.  – Empower others and put them in situations to succeed. In the US, and globally, often we…

  • Professional

    COVID-19 – A decision approach for your teams

    Being in Asia Pacific, the Coronavirus brought learning opportunities to us sooner and wanted to share my experience to help leaders around the world. Our challenge in following a traditional processes was creating too may decision check points or people voicing their perspective when it may not culturally fit the working of a country. COVID-19 is triggering continuity of business (COB) plans for organizations, but many of these plans were designed for an event occurring (i.e. a natural disaster), to assess the impact, and then put that a plan into action. COVID-19 is an emerging situation evolving at different rates across many geographies. COB plans are helpful, but decision making can be tricky.  In…