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• Group: Technology Leaders Association
• Subject: Announcement from Technology Leaders Association

TLA Newsletter – 04/15/09
From: President Patrick Moroney
To: All TLA Members (website and LinkedIn Group)
RE: For full newsletter please visit the TLA website -edfa
Posted By Patrick Moroney

PRESIDENTIAL MUSINGS
Good news and bad news exists but probably a little more keenly felt these days on both counts. The good news that I see is that June-December job postings were really skimpy but since January the leads have picked up noticeably even though I am still waiting for the quality of the leads to show up. The bad news is that the supply of people looking for work is so much higher than any of us reading this note have ever seen before that the improvement in job activity is not showing up as making a difference. I think there is some improvement going on in the economy but it is going to take a long time to get to ‘normal’ again. Why? – because we all need to transform. For those of you who have done business transformation work you know intimately that real change, lasting change takes time. I am convinced that government is focused on getting us back to normal as quickly as possible – that said, I am not sure we should go back to normal. Politically and conceptually speaking, getting back to normal keeps well intended politicians in office and keeps the roar from the street down to dull levels. It is a survival instinct at play – and the same things would be happening whether Democrats or Republicans are calling the shots. It is the short term cycle of our political system juxtaposed against long term cycle issues – a mismatch to be sure. We just all came from ‘normal’ and ‘normal’ is what got us into this fix. ‘Normal’ was living a global lifestyle that was not sustainable whether your metric is economic or environmental. Debt-fueled consumerism is not a normal we can return to else all we do is recreate the madness that we are all currently trying to leave. My hope is that somehow, business and government start doing the hard things that take time and discipline and are decided from a place of true patriotism for country and world long term best interest without concern for personal best interest. Right…….

OK, really I am a supreme optimist when I am left to myself – my glass is always full (I think elementally). But I just have never seen business or government make those hard selfless decisions. For this I admire our parent’s WWII generation who sacrificed and pitched in like never before). Getting back to the point of my musings here, I think if transformational change is to occur it is going to have to occur at the individual level. Each of us (as in you and me) is going to have to start making different decisions in our personal lives and in our careers directed towards a future state that is not normal to us but rather much more sustainable, both economically and environmentally. I still see a lot of us trying to obtain full employment just like it used to be – but I just don’t think the way it used to be is going to be available for all of us in a transformed future. That said, I think we are going to like the future when we get there but there is that ugly ‘C’ word we are going to have to face up to to achieve it. Change is hard. Visualize what change might look like specifically to you in your career and ask yourself what you are doing to transform yourself to get there. Are you learning new skills? Are you possible adjusting your personal lifestyles to not require so much income in the future and give yourself more flexibility? Are you perhaps relocating closer to public transportation? Are you innovating?

Change is hard – only when we fear it and we fear it when we don’t know what it looks like. Begin to imagine a different future and you are taking the steps to your new normal. When we all do that we will all be better off.

Pat Moroney
President, TLA
www.techleaders.net
- comments welcome