Tom Waits from a long time ago. His voice doesn’t sound like a thousand cigarettes in a meat-grinder yet. It’s that kind of evening.
Tom Waits. Back when his voice was beautiful.
I’m thinking about organizational development tonight. I’m thinking about how to best intentionally build leaders in our organization. You see, our team is down a few key positions right now. We’re missing half our leadership staff, a management position, and a couple staff. For various reasons, we can’t just hire our way out of this right now. We’re going to have to deal with being short staffed for a bit.
You know what? I couldn’t be happier. Don’t get me wrong, we desperately need these positions. But this challenge has brought a certain clarity–a level of precision to our vision–that I haven’t experienced before. Our people are doing more each day, with greater quality, than I’ve ever seen. One thing that’s clear to me is that we need more leaders–and our people are, indeed, leading. So now, I owe it to them to put infrastructure behind their efforts. To help build the systems to connect their work to the praxis of the university. 
The old Tom Waits album is pretty good. It’s okay, really…sort of an edgy Frank Sinatra thing. But it isn’t Tom Waits yet. Tom Waits wasn’t that special back when he had a voice. He didn’t become his bad self until his voice went.
Thank you, Mr. Waits. This is much better.