Lessons Learned

How Fast do You, Your Organization, and Team Learn?

How Fast do You, Your Organization, and Team Learn?

Happy Easter Everyone!! Watching Covid cases surge again in Massachusetts due to more contagious variants, looser restrictions, and unvaccinated people feeling a false sense of security and moving about more, reminds me of a pattern a lot of humans have. This pattern is the tendency to repeat an issue over and over, whether it be at work, in their relationship, in their family, with their friends, etc., before finally facing the problem, figuring out how to break the cycle, and learning the lesson.

As change agents and leaders, we frequently see this pattern of an organization, team, or individual repeat an issue over and over. Unfortunately a lot of times it takes the organization being in a lot of financial pain, the team being in great distress, or an individual being in a lot of emotional pain over the issue having repeated several times before they’ll finally face and address the problem. The question is, how fast do you, your organization, and team learn? How many times does an issue repeat before the problem is faced and addressed?

What are some examples of an organization, team, and individual repeating an issue over and over?

What has Congressman John Lewis Taught You?

What has Congressman John Lewis Taught You?

What a change agent and Civil Rights Leader Congressman John Lewis was. He has been called the “conscience of Congress” and spent his life fighting systemic racism. On Jul 27th 2020, the country watched his funeral at the U.S. Capitol. As I listened to “Amazing Grace” echo through the chamber, never have the words of that song resonated more for me than for this individual.

Despite more than 40 arrests, physical attacks, and serious injuries, he remained devoted to the philosophy of nonviolence. He spent his life overcoming adversities such as:

  • Organizing sit-in demonstrations at segregated lunch counters as a University student

  • Participating in the Freedom Rides

  • Marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for voting rights

  • Being beaten severely by angry mobs

  • Becoming one of the Big Six Leaders of the Civil Rights Movement


Do you Use Lessons Learned?

Do you Use Lessons Learned?

Hearing about State Governors wanting to reopen as early as this week, when less than 2% of the U.S. population has contracted COVID-19 seems like a disaster waiting to happen. Especially since COVID-19 seems to have an R0 of 2.2-5.7 (i.e. for every person infected they infect 2-6 more people). Has nothing been learned from the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic?

Be Seen, Be Heard, Be Effective in Bringing about Change