While we are busy working countless hours to keep the flood at bay, we neglect to spend adequate time, energy, and resources looking at the overall environment around us to identify that it might be time to build a bridge over the flood waters.

In the midst of a crisis, how can organizational leaders weigh risk, and then do what they believe to be right for their institutions? It takes confidence, not hubris, not a sense of invincibility, but a belief in who your organization is and who you strive to be in order to communicate your truth to those impacted by the actions of your organization. My observation is that transparency rarely, if ever, loses, because transparency in communications reduces long-run institutional risk. I am...

For the past twenty summers, I have played pickup basketball with a group of guys at the local gym on Thursday evenings. Once a week, I take Aleve two hours prior to playing, warm-up, and then push through pain in my aching body to run up and down the court. There is a joy that comes with playing basketball that no other activity matches. The movement, the flow, the muscle memory, seeing lanes emerge on a fast break, hitting a shot in someone's face, the collision of bodies in the paint - it...