I am a person who believes in questioning what I see around me. 

I am a firm believer that proper decision making requires knowledge and context, both of which come from looking around, asking questions and challenging orthodoxies.  This is one of the reasons why I am all-in on the use of quantitative, qualitative, and ethnographic data to help me understand the world around me.

When I realized my training as a doctor didn’t provide me the needed insight into the bigger picture, I went off and learned the business of healthcare.  And when business school didn’t fill in all the gaps, I sought out a reliable framework to explore how human needs, behaviors and differing world views create some of the “WHY” behind what I see around me.  My experiences as a physician, healthcare executive, and designer enable me to see ideas and challenges from multiple points of view, and knowledge needs to be put into context.  I’m not just here to represent the interests of a single idea, vision or constituency, I’m here to use context to arrive at solutions that have the greatest impact on the whole. 

I believe that context is everything.

I am good at guiding well-informed decision making.

One of my greatest strengths is my ability to create a framework to guide decision-making.  My framework is just that, a framework.  Knowing that different people, different organizations make decisions differently, the framework I employ is adaptable to the characteristic of each situation.  The approaches I use begin by framing the challenge to solve, exploring and aligning around available information, clarifying how success will be defined and then leveraging structured process to arrive at a decision.   My clients have told me time and time again that my approach has helped them break implacable logjams, delivering long-term value and leading them to greater levels of success.

I was raised with a strong moral code that has resulted in an imperative to help those in need.  This has taken the form of a passion for working to make the world around me more inclusive, equitable and fair.  Everyone deserves an equal chance, equal access and equal opportunity.  I seek to understand the barriers that stand in the way of doing the right thing and then figure out how to respond to those barriers. 

I always try to do the right thing.

I will tell you what you need to hear.

The world is full of too many people who simply want to go along to get along.  The results has been an explosion of mediocrity.  We have become so fearful of hurting someone’s feelings that we have shunned crucial conversations.  I respect people enough to tell them truth and hope they will do the same with me.   

I see honesty as being core to the change I hope to see in others and to holding myself to the highest levels of accountability.  This honest and frank approach can and should create respectful, safe spaces where together we can face whatever lies in front of us head on, as trusted partners who can count on one another to find the right path forward.

I am not so arrogant as to believe that I am perfect.  Do I speak with confidence?  Absolutely, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to get it wrong sometimes.  Life is a journey; an iterative process, and we are all learning as we go.  Some of my most teachable moments have come from some of my most epic failures.  I am not going to get it right every time, but I am going to dedicating myself to life-long learning and doing better tomorrow than I did today.  

I am not perfect, but I believe in the value of learning by doing.