Back to the Past…

by

wordpress-logo-notext-rgb30 years ago, I launched my first Bulletin Board System (BBS) called Thunderbolt. A BBS was essentially the first web sites where people could dial in (using their 300 baud modems!) Of course, these things were very basic with just text and forums where you could post message. In my particular case, people could also build fighters and build a castle and fight other people. It was all text, so lot’s of imagination was required.

20 years ago, I launched my first personal web page. I was in school at Washington University in St. Louis. I had to edit the page using a text-based tool called Vi. The page itself was mostly text, though I had learned a trick from another student to use a small image to simulate bullet points.

10 years ago, I launched my own web site. It was very static and had some pictures of myself and my family. Not terribly impressive, and I rarely kept it up to date.

And, in 2014, I helped to launch the new Thought Ensemble web site. It’s based on a web publishing tool called WordPress. Not having done a lot of hands-on work over the last decade of my career, I really enjoyed spending some time fine tuning the site and making changes. But it brought me back to 1984 when I first ventured online. Wow. The capabilities and sophistication of WordPress is incredibly impressive. It’s built with a very pluggable and extendable design. It can be used in so many ways, and it has created a commercial marketplace. As I compare with the tools I had back in 1984, it is really night and day. While I learned a tremendous amount back in the summer of 1984, I accomplished an incredible deal more in the summer of 2014. I’ve personally been using WordPress for about 6 years now, but until you really have a big project that you need to finish do you appreciate how incredible (and how fun) it can really be.

READ MORE

The Magic of Mortals

The Magic of Mortals

Daily we wake up to new developments in automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). Across sectors and industries, automated solutions prove highly successful in surpassing the capacity of the human brain for certain tasks, improving...

read more
Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leveling Up: How to Hone Your Skills at Home

Leaders have been trying to crack the code on talent development for years. Recent studies have shown, however, that strength-focused leadership [read: intentionally elevating the qualities that already come naturally to us] is the clear winner for developing talent...

read more
Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

Fake Case Study: Jack of all trades vs. Master of One

  Listen to any earnings call or executive presentation and you will likely hear the terms “top line” and “bottom line.” These are words used to describe a business’s performance. According to Investopedia, the words are defined as follows: Top line refers to the...

read more
Your Personality Is Showing

Your Personality Is Showing

There I was, minding my own business one evening, digging into my organization's SEO performance (as one does), when I came across something interesting. Search terms related to "MBTI" — or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel...

read more
Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Lessons From a Change Manager Who Hates Change

Hello. My name is Monique, and I’m a change manager who hates change.   After years of receiving “consulting therapy” from various mentors, I am now able to say these words out loud and proudly. But for a long time, it felt more like an admission of guilt. I mean, who...

read more
Creativity as a Cure

Creativity as a Cure

The topic of creative solutioning has been front and center these days as we talk more and more about organizational adaptability in the face of dynamic and uncertain times. For example, I recently read about a project that got me thinking about specific priorities...

read more
Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company — Why Now?

Big news over here as we close out the year - we have been acquired by Pariveda, a 750-person consulting firm in 12 markets across North America! We are now “Thought Ensemble, a Pariveda Company” and I’ll be serving as the Managing Vice President continuing to lead...

read more
Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Thought Ensemble Joins Pariveda Solutions!

Dallas, December 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Pariveda, a leader specializing in solving complex technology and business problems, announces the acquisition of Thought Ensemble. With the addition of Thought Ensemble, Pariveda now provides holistic business strategy,...

read more
Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

Thoughts on Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act

It was about a year ago that we first started hearing about Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act (SB19-085) and I knew it was going to be national news. We’d just gotten past the “Rocky Mountain High” jokes, and our lovely state was trying to break new ground...

read more