Go Ask Ben

I work in an hospital environment that includes 500 different people with various degrees of computer competency. This makes work very complex at times and challenging.  As I grow in my position, now nearly twenty years in technology, I find that people hear a lot of information during the day and their amazing brains somehow organize, shuffle, and prioritize it. How well do we organize, prioritize and share information in the workplace? Apparently not very well. We have conversations with people about technology and they appear to hear in the moment. After something goes wrong, we sometimes hear, "IT never told me." Has this ever happened to you?  I've learned that teaching is not telling   from Ben Franklin who said,  "Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn." What kinds of teaching are best designed to help people learn and remember? Practice (taking time to learn by failing and trying again) Ritual (this means do

 W e are told not to "dwell on our problems" when sharing our issues with friends and family. This is bad advice because most will continue to think on their problems anyway. Ben Franklin's 13 Virtues included Tranquility and Industry. Ben described tranquility as "Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.” For Industry, he said "Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.” Dwelling on your problems is both an attack on your tranquility and industry. It has a simple cure. Get the problems out of your head and in a trusted system (like a notebook) where you can write your cares, concerns and thoughts. I have a "Problems To Solve" list that includes just about everything I am facing. I write to get issues off my mind and leave them there. They also make great for future "goals" since they represent a change I want to make. The power of a "Problems to solve" lis

I'm really tired of talking about Covid-19. The arguments, the politics, the threats, and the unknown feels like a weight around the neck. The way I frame the pandemic is also how I make choices in the future. I think the best question we can ask ourselves is " what have we learned as a society from the pandemic ." Here's my short list: 1) We need to be cleaner Cleaning hands and homes Cleaning and preparing foods Treating sickness with isolation 2) We need to change faster Businesses, Education, Homes need to be adaptable and willing to change Hospitals and clinics need to stop treating Emergency Preparedness as a "nice to have" department 3) We need to be prepared Hospitals and Labs need to be better funded and prepared for pandemics Homes need to think defensively: reduce risks, change behaviors, live differently 4) We need to think globally We didn't get into this mess because of China. They might have started the fire but blaming other countries doe