Last week I had the opportunity to work with several teams across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Two of the sessions were Real Colors workshops. And every time I mention Real Colors, I get the same question: what in the heck is that? Real Colors is a personality workshop. If you've heard of Myers Briggs, DiSC, or any of the other tools out there, it's similar. It's a way to explore how people think, how they act, how they communicate, and what things mean to them. This is

You make the plan. You walk out the door ready to execute it. And within an hour, something happens that throws the whole thing off course. If that sentence made you nod, you have probably worked in public works. But honestly, it doesn't matter what field you're in. Plans falling apart is not a public works problem. It's a work problem. It's a life problem. The only difference is how often you have to face it and how quickly you have to adjust.

Clutter is just a lot of things out of place. That's it. But don't let the simple definition fool you. Clutter can surround us at home, at work, in our car, in our lives, and in our minds. If we aren't careful, it creeps into every corner we have, including the corners where our leadership lives. That's because clutter accumulates slowly, and it looks the same whether it's in my office or my home. Something comes in, and I set it down. The first piece of paper. The first boo

I've been at the Road Commission for 21 years. That's a long time. Not the longest tenure in the room, but long enough that my brain is basically a filing cabinet of random history, processes, institutional knowledge, and details that most people don't even know to ask about. I remember looking at the long-timers when I first started and thinking...how do they know all of that? Will I ever get there? Well, I sure don't know everything. But I've gotten there in a lot of ways.

The result? They look like a diamond. Their coworker looks like a chunk of coal. And nobody actually did anything different. One person just decided their shine required someone else's shadow. Here's what I know about people who build others up. They are magnetic. People want to be around them. People want to work for them and with them. They create environments where everyone does better, because when one person wins and it feels safe to celebrate, the whole team gets more

I gave a presentation last week on how to stay organized at work, and right at the start I told the audience to brace themselves. Because here's the thing. If I'm up there talking about how to be organized, you might assume one of two things. Either I'm wildly, terrifyingly organized, or I'm a total imposter standing behind a podium pretending I know what I'm doing. Spoiler alert. It's option C. I'm not perfect, and I totally own it. And I told that audience exactly what I'm

Right now I'm in the middle of something big. I'm sitting down with every team across the organization and rebuilding our expectations from scratch. Not just one team. Every single one. Each work group. Each small team. Each large team. Then I'll keep going, group by group, until we've worked our way up to the full organization. That's a lot of conversations. And I'm doing them on purpose. After 20+ years in HR, I've learned something I keep coming back to. The words you en

“I don’t know what you’re doing, so you must not be doing anything.” That’s what a coworker from another department said to me. Not in a joking tone. Not as a question. As a statement. The logic was apparently this: if they couldn’t see me working, I must not be working at all. I was shocked. And honestly, I was hurt.

Here's where I am sitting today as I write this. Graduation is May 9th. I'm not walking. There won't be a ceremony for me, no cap, no stage, no speeches. And yet, somewhere in my brain, I've decided I am not allowed to celebrate until after May 9th. Why? I don't have a good answer. The work is done. The degree is earned. But there's some invisible permission slip I'm waiting for. Some "official" moment I think has to happen before I am allowed to mark this.

Change is hard. Some people love change. Some people resist it. But honestly? Whether you welcome it or dread it, change is still a challenge. Picture this. You're at work, somewhere you've been for a long time (in my case, 20+ years). You know the systems. You know the people. You know how to get things done. Then someone new walks in with fresh ideas, a different perspective, and a totally different way of thinking. Suddenly, the way you've always done things is up for de

There is a phrase that has been rattling around in my head lately: perfectionism is the enemy of done. That is not permission to do sloppy work. It is not an argument for carelessness or cutting corners. It is a recognition that at a certain point, the extra hours we pour into something rarely return anything meaningfully better than what we already had. The energy we spend chasing perfect is energy we are not spending on the next thing, the next person, the next project tha

A few weeks ago I read Scarcity Brain by Michael Easter, and I have not stopped thinking about it since. Easter spent years researching why our brains default to wanting more, no matter how much we already have. What he found is both unsettling and completely liberating once you understand it. Here is the short version: your brain evolved in a world where resources were genuinely scarce. Food, shelter, safety, warmth. Getting more of those things meant survival. So your brai

Here's my honest take, and yes, I know some people will call me a Pollyanna for saying it: I think the vast majority of people are reasonable. Most people, when given accurate information and treated with respect, can understand what is and isn't possible. They can handle a "no" if it's explained well. They can work with timelines, constraints, and the reality of limited resources. I have spent over 20 years working in public sector HR, mostly in local government and public