Breakthrough in Boston
Mood:  a-ok
Last week was spent in Boston (actually Bedford) MA at the core competencies course sponsored by the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL), formerly the MIT Organizational Learning Center. The objective of the course was to allow participants to develop basic skills in the five disciplines: Personal Mastery, Shared Vision, Mental Models, Team Learning and Systems Thinking. A lot of ground to cover in 4.5 days!

My greatest takeaway was the clear knowledge that I can change the way I think (and I feel an incredible need to do so in a variety of ways)! The question at hand: will I change?

I thought the information presented on mental models and the "ladder of inference" was very intense and very insightful. Also enjoyed the selections of daily poetry readings. (That's right - they read poetry to us every morning.)

I am glad I went. Part of my commitment to LLL - life long learning. Now I have lots more to practice and to do. It begins with a refinement of my vision and doing a little each day.

Initial entry
Mood:  cool
If my boy Tom Peters has one, well I better get with it. Now is blogging the next big thing or is it the big thing? Guess what, I don't give a shit!

What is the purpose of the blog? And who will read this stuff anyway? Is it just some method, some electronic channel to dump thoughts and ideas into a somewhat public forum? You tell me.

Most of my professional time is devoted to activities that will help reduce the number and severity of medical errors. This is accomplished through two forms of consulting: 1) Assisting hospitals comply with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAHO) standards and 2) assisting hospitals develop information technology plans that support their organization wide strategic plans. I am also planning to start working for a company that develops and markets clinical and business applications for physician practices and hospitals. They are expecting to get their first round of funding any day now.

I also spend a fair amount of time teaching myself and learning about learning organizations and systems thinking. These topics have been of great interest to me for almost 15 years. Next week I am headed to Boston to take a core competencies course from the Society for Organizational Learning. Very much looking forward to that.

When not involved in the pursuits mentioned above, my primary passion (other than my family) is music. In recent months I have the privilege to attend the Godsmack/Metallica show at the Allstate Arena. Godsmack put on a hell of a show and their drummer, Shannon Larkin, is one of the best showman I've ever seen! Prior to that my daughter and I went up to East Troy, WI for OzzFest. 10+ hours of metal, and the show in the crowd was equaled only by the show on stage. Thought Slayer and Judas Priest played excellent sets! Caught the drum stick tossed by the drummer in Dimmu Borgia. Gave it to my daughter as a momento of the show.

Also spend a fair amount of time keeping up my chops as a drummer, playing old and new rock and roll. Lately I have been playing along with the first Godsmack album. Some of the bass drum licks are pretty challenging.

Anyway, that is enough to get started. Will be back soon.