We seem to have come to a reckoning point in American history where explanations we have relied upon for years should be re-examined. From various analyses of voting data, many are surprised that it’s white people who made the difference in Trump’s numbers. We need to better understand the issues that have the most influence over voters and how to present them better going forward, even from thin minority positions in both Houses. There is a mid-term election in two years.

We're six days past the election of former President Trump as our next president. Both the press and social media are devoting inches if not pages of copy to try to analyze why Vice President Harris lost to Trump. The fact of the matter is that there are many reasons, and to focus on the loss itself does not leave much room to make plans that anticipate the new administration's first days in office. Complicating such an effort is the fact that we live in different states, so different efforts are already underway in blue states like Washington and California.

"That no free government, nor the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles; and by the recognition by all citizens that they have duties as well as rights, and that such rights cannot be enjoyed save in a society where law is respected and due process is observed.”                -- George Mason

Most Septembers, I write here about 9/11, a day where nearly 3,000 people died at the hands of foreign terrorists -- surely a day that will never be forgotten in our nation’s history. I use this month to press for four recommendations from the 9/ll Commission Report that have yet to be implemented 20+ years later. This year, I’d like to use my time to salute the courageous members of New York City’s fire and police departments who died or were injured on the job, as well as emergency medical technicians and emergency room personnel in Manhattan hospitals who cared for those who survived or who were injured while helping others that day.

Setting aside the political landscape for a moment, it’s been a whirlwind of a month. There have been incidents that look like repeated examples of the same old challenges – the search for a permanent ceasefire in the Mideast, watching Ukraine struggle valiantly against Russian aggression, and what NOAA calls “an early and violent start” to the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, illustrated by Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Debby. These have been interspersed with newer infrastructure challenges like getting the two astronauts in the Boeing Starliner home from space and hardening obvious attack surfaces from aggressors, whether the victim is Microsoft, entire judicial districts, or the former president. 

Twice in my long and varied career I stepped away from structured institutions to build unconventional business models. The first was Delphi Computers & Peripherals (1984-1999), early in the PC technology evolution that we all take for granted now. I learned a great deal from the experience, hired an amazing staff, won a number of awards, and grew Delphi to a multimillion dollar company.

This country has experienced chaos since it was founded. It was born out of a belief that there was a form of government that could be organized out of the consent of the governed, different than a monarchy, where the peoples’ rights were not acknowledged or protected.

As we see repeatedly in reports of current events, a workplace’s culture is often at the heart of ethical and regulatory misconduct. Corporate leaders are grappling with strategies to win back market share and deliver profits to the bottom line. In eliminating or downsizing groups inside an organization, a certain amount of institutional memory gets lost – and governance models are rarely reworked to reflect the new reality. While some processes to identify, report, and repair misconduct are operational because of the role of government regulatory oversight, most companies struggle with how to identify problems early and create a more transparent workplace where “speaking up” is expected.

The corporate paperwork that created my firm was filed in May of 2009. We spent a few months designing the ASA website as a vehicle visitors could use to understand our services and serve as a research library for publications we would create. Though our primary focus would be on operational risks to the nation’s critical infrastructure sectors, our mandate included ethics reviews, policy recommendations, and improvement of existing laws – with a special focus on six key sectors: banking and finance, IT, energy, communications, public health, and emergency services.

For the last 40 years, across multiple work engagements, I’ve observed unequal treatment and advancement of women in technology or related fields. I have been part of women’s technology groups advocating a more level playing field, such as the Executive Women’s Forum and the International Network of Women in Emergency Management and Homeland Security. At Washington Mutual overseeing specialized groups, I made hiring women in technical positions a priority and oversaw a mix of technical groups, ranging from business intelligence to vendor security management, from technology audit and compliance to crisis and event management, from root cause analysis to technology change management.