by John Macdonald | Feb 11, 2026 | Human, Leadership, The250
They are anybody you serve. Your customer. The test team. The developers. The sales team. The program manager. Your spouse. Your kids. Your neighbor. It’s not always about them, and you may not be able to give everybody what they want. But it’s always worth... by John Macdonald | Feb 10, 2026 | Human, Leadership, The250
No, not that swamp. The swamp of everything is urgent, they’re all number one priority, and we don’t have enough resources. The inbox overflows. Every meeting requires two more meetings. Nobody can push back. You can’t even figure out what the real highest priority is... by John Macdonald | Feb 9, 2026 | Human, Leadership, The250
But they rarely are. All things being equal is the English version of the Latin phrase ceteris paribus, which economists and scientists use to talk about the effect of one change while theoretically keeping everything else the same. It’s a useful academic approach,... by John Macdonald | Feb 7, 2026 | AI, Leadership, The250
It’s not, really, but some things are. Take a day in the 50’s (F). That feels cold in July, but warm in February. Push harder motivates if the team has headroom, but it’s destructive when the team is already drowning. The relative load of the individuals and the... 
by John Macdonald | Mar 17, 2021 | Leadership, Mindset
Being The Change You Wish to See You want to be on the hook. We need you on the hook. Only those on the hook make the difference, make a change, make an impact. And when a group of people on the hook come together, the sky is the limit. A group of people on the... 
by John Macdonald | Apr 6, 2020 | Action, Activity, Leadership, Mindset
I have never been accused of being an optimist (just ask my family), but right now I’m more optimistic than ever about the future of the global community. The current COVID-19 crisis has given us a first-ever prototype in the history of our species and planet....