Slingshot Designs
Writing
Essays, field notes, and applied observations about how people orient under pressure, notice what systems are doing, recover agency, and decide what happens next.
This is a working library, not a niche blog. The throughline is orientation: people, systems, relationships, work, place, recovery, creativity, and the practical consequences of what we notice—or fail to notice. The communities and disciplines beside this work are treated as neighbors and collaborators, not territory to occupy.
Choose a way in
Leadership & Systems
Decision-making, communication, operations, complexity, accountability, and the structures that shape behavior.
Family & Community
Belonging, relationships, local systems, stewardship, and what it takes to remain human when the system is under load.
Steel Toes & Plaid
Manufacturing, work, women, grit, field lessons, blunt truth, and practical rebuilding.
Cardinal Chronicles
Personal essays and narrative observation where memory, place, relationships, identity, and meaning intersect.
Recovery & Repair
Survival easing, grief, repair, capacity, and the work of rebuilding without turning lived experience into a diagnosis or doctrine.
Land, Seasons & Observation
Gardens, land, seasonal work, and the lessons that appear when attention gets quieter and more precise.
Find something specific
Follow the work
Subscribe for new essays and field notes as the body of work develops. No artificial cadence is promised; the signal matters more than filling the calendar.
Latest writing
-
Ask the Question That Removes the Burden
A good survey question does more than collect feedback. It reduces burden, clarifies value, and shows whether the system is asking the right people to do the right work.
-
The Goal Was Always Zero
This essay is one of the more personal pieces I have shared. It sits at the intersection of motherhood, adoption, leadership, and quality—and asks what becomes possible when we finally acknowledge the human systems…
-
Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks
A backyard game with Dylan became a leadership lesson in trust, change, play, and why resistance is often risk assessment—not refusal.
-
Worry Is Creativity’s Shadow
Worry and creativity both create something from nothing. The question is what we are building with that imagination.
-
I Wish Perspective Was Available at the Gas Pump
The conversation about artificial intelligence isn’t really about technology. It’s about judgment, discernment, and how we choose to lead through change. The lessons I learned growing up in my family’s gas station…
-
What Problem Are We Trying to Solve Today?
Leadership begins long before the first meeting. A cup of coffee, a yoga pose, and one simple question reminded me why alignment always comes before strength.
-
Recovery Isn’t Returning. It’s Finally Becoming Yourself.
Recovery isn’t about returning to who you were. Sometimes it’s about becoming the first version of yourself whose body, mind, and leadership finally align. Reflections on grief, resilience, chronic illness, leadership,…
-
When KPIs Tell You It’s Too Late
The best organizations don’t wait for metrics to tell them something is wrong. They pay attention to the behaviors creating those results in the first place.
-
🇺🇸 Happy 250th Birthday, America
On America’s 250th birthday, a reflection on liberty, accountability, entrepreneurship, and the stories that shape who we become.
-
Root Cause Starts with the Leader
Most leaders don’t wake up looking for leadership advice. They wake up knowing something feels different. Before we diagnose an organization, we should learn to observe the system making the diagnosis—including…
-
Winning Is a Practice
Five years of Winning Wednesday taught me something unexpected: winning isn’t about achievement. It’s about learning to notice evidence of progress, one week at a time.
-
Your Efficiency Program Didn’t Eliminate Work. It Moved It.
Technology was supposed to eliminate friction and free us for higher-value work. Instead, much of the work still exists—it has simply been transferred. From healthcare and customer service to authentication systems and…
-
The Stetson
A dog drops a rope ball and walks away. What happens next becomes a lesson about resilience, recovery, scientific thinking, and the mentors who teach us to trust ourselves.
-
Alignment Requires Measurement
A photo in the garden wasn’t about yoga. It was about prediction, measurement, and learning. The same questions that guide coaching, leadership, and continuous improvement can guide personal growth too: What do we expect…
