A Curator of Strategy, Leadership, Spirituality, and Rock and Roll…. "Changing the world…one "contact" at a time…."
By J. William DeMarco “There must be a pony in here somewhere." Optimism... something I struggle with...but I am getting better... Our future will not be determined by our complaints....life is full of issues, surprises, events we never saw coming... and I have yet to have a bad assignment or a bad job...so, perhaps it …
Continue reading "Pony Optimism or the Wisdom of Ronald Reagan"
In my day job we spend a great deal of time focusing on developing leaders of moral character, so I was ecstatic when I came across a story from Tony Dungy from his days with the Colts. Dungy mentions the extreme talent of draft prospects coming out of college. At times, players would have plenty …
How many times have you heard our environment has changed—it’s now more volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) today than every before? I’m not 100% convinced this is true. Go back just in American history. Did George Washington live in uncertain times? Did Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, or LBJ live in uncertain, complex, …
Continue reading "Leader Development in the V.U.C.A. Environment: Neo-DeMarcoian Thought"
Years ago, as a squadron commander, it dawned on me that sometimes the best performers in the squadron were not the individuals with the strongest pedigree. I know many of you are thinking, “Really Bill? It took you that long?” Those who know me understand; it just takes me awhile. In many conversations I referred …
Continue reading "The Strong B+ Leader: “A New Theory of Leadership”"
A while back we started a series on schools of philosophy and we began with the Praxium or the Jedi School. Today we ponder the Stoic School. For the past several years now I have been studying The Stoics. I first became interested from listening to podcasts by Tim Ferriss and reading biographies of George …
Continue reading "A Simple Man’s Map To The Stoic Path—Neo-DeMarconian Banter"
The massive military bureaucracy is daunting to any junior or mid level solider, marine, airman, sailor dare we say—any person working in a bureaucracy—giving way to an entirely different form of innovation. If an Airman on a flight-line has a problem or a solider in field finds or discovers a new tool—it can take years …
Continue reading "Bootleg Innovation in the Military–or what happens when Punk Rock goes Mainstream"
“Success no longer goes to the country that develops a new fighting technology first, but rather to the one that better integrates it and adapts its way of fighting …Our response will be to prioritize speed of delivery, continuous adaptation, and frequent modular upgrades. We must not accept cumbersome approval chains, wasteful applications of resources …
Continue reading "Innovation and a Culture Of Conformity: DeMarco Banter"
"The measure of a man is what he does with power." --Pittacus Pittacus ( /ˈpɪtəkəs/; Ancient Greek: Πιττακός; c. 640–568 BC) was the son of Hyrradius and one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He was a native of Mytilene and the Mytilenaean general who, with his army, was victorious in the battle against the …
Eudaimonia and the Solarium Leader: Today’s leadership industry is loaded with advice, models, and theories on how to lead like a Navy SEAL, a Silicon Valley CEO, a rogue, a pirate, etc., yet it appears much of today’s leadership advice can be traced back to ancient philosophers. The ideas of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Sun Tzu, …
Continue reading "A Multidimensional Leadership Philosophy–this time its personal: DeMarco Banter"
This has been one of those songs we have loved since day one. It did an incredible job of capturing not only the issues of the day, but also drew an awesome linage of how we got there. Its lyrics are made of rapid-fire brief allusions to over one hundred headline events between March …
Continue reading "We didn’t start the fire… The History Lesson"
