Letter 001 - Launching a Newsletter About Management (of ourselves, our teams, and our organizations)
Expect weekly newsletters, typos, and issues where I critique or disagree with things I've written previously.
When compared to my English-major classmates in school, I’m no Ernest Hemingway when it comes to writing. For many years the fear of not being gloriously eloquent has kept me from publishing my perspectives and questions to the world. On top of that is the deeper fear that no one would care.
But a few things have changed in the last few years.
One, I’ve rediscovered the endless joy of writing. In a society where many of us are constantly plugged in, jumping from place to place, I thoroughly enjoy the refreshing focus of a full-screen Notion page upon which to write for as long as I want, on any topic I want. When I’m writing, I’m not jumping in and out of 9 meetings per day.
Two, a fortuitous mixture of luck and preparation has led me to many opportunities that I relished deeply. One relished opportunity led to another interesting opportunity, which led to yet another groundbreaking project, and another hyper-complex problem to solve.... At this point in my career, I have actually spent quality time (this means no less than 4 hours of deep, dynamic collaboration) with no less than 75 organizations across virtually every major industry segment and stage of growth. Go deep with that many organizations for ~10 years straight + an annoyingly consistent audiobook/podcast/reading habit, and — in the words of my old high school football coach — “you’ve seen some things.” Things (observations, lessons, mistakes, triumphs) that might be valuable for others to learn about.
Three, I strongly believe that every one you reading this has something to teach me. And by saying “fuck it” to the notion of perfection and sharing my perspectives, you might shares yours, too... And I might learn something in the process (and jesus christ, do I have a lot left to learn).
This has all led to The Exonomist. The writing “platform” that I’ll use to deliver insights, ideas, and questions regarding how we might better manage ourselves, our teams, and the groups / organizations we are a part of.
Here are my commitments:
You can expect me to be raw (no copy editing here; expect typos..expect improper punctuation, expect me to later retract ideas because time and experience shows me shortcomings in my thinking).
I’m not going to publish every day — ain’t got time for that! It’ll be around once per week
I will mostly focus on the art (and sometime science) of management, likely with about 50% focused on “self” management, 25% on team management, and 25% on organizational management
I assume that every single one of us has the potential to lead from anywhere, and therefore will always promote taking an action of some sort to pilot in your life (credit goes to Kirsi Hall for introducing me to the idea of “leadership from everywhere”)
Thanks for coming along the journey with me, and sharing your ideas as well.
-Michael