I grew up inside the Washington Beltway during the 1960s and, as a result of my experience there, I have been fundamentally concerned about the extent to which people (including myself) practice what we preach.  

I grew up inside the Washington Beltway during the 1960s and, as a result of my experience there, I have been fundamentally concerned about the extent to which people (including myself) practice what we preach. Few of us do this as well as we would like – not because we are hypocrites (though that is true in more cases than I would like to admit), but primarily because human beings are creatures of habit and enmeshed in different variations of the Insanity Trap.

The best definition that I ever heard for insanity is that it involves doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results. The problem is that when we keep doing what we’ve been doing, we keep getting what we’ve been getting. This occurs because most of us handle the complexity of life in narrowly-focused and overly-fragmented ways, on both a personal and a professional basis.

My life’s focus has been to use my knowledge and skills as systems scientist/cybernetician to help people (individuals and institutions) improve their ability to work out of the Insanity Traps in their lives by working more strategically, integratively, and collaboratively on challenging issues in ways that enhance the greater good.