Obstacle Course Racing and Avoiding Injury

Happy Monday,

I have a bonus blog for you about obstacle course racing and avoiding injury.

Whenever I do a race, I have 3 goals: don’t get injured, enjoy myself, and finish. My safety and health always come first because not only do I want to be able to do more races, but I have a life outside of racing where I want to be a great husband, dad, and friend. When I began my race on Saturday, I started off running. Very quickly, I felt the pain in my leg, giving me a signal that something wasn’t quite right. I have a history of stress fractures and knew this could lead to an injury. At this point, I had a choice. I could keep running and risk injury or I could slow down and walk. The young and less wise Andrew would have kept running and likely hurt himself. I decided to slow down and walk. While I might have been slower than I had hoped, I enjoyed the trails, had fun tackling the obstacles, and overall had a great time. Best of all, my leg (and the rest of me) feels pretty good today!

What does this have to do with work? I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen and heard of a lot of people running themselves into the ground at work. It’s like they are running with leg pain and keep running until the bone eventually snaps. Have you seen this? Have you experienced this? I know I have.

In the story this week, I mention how there is more to my life than just races, which is why my health and safety is so important. In a similar way, while work is important, it’s not the only thing in our lives. We are more than just employees. When we push past exhaustion at work, not only are we less effective at work, but we’re not the spouse, partner, parent, friend, etc. that we’d like to be. At least that’s what I’ve found from first-hand experience.

The Challenge: How can we pay attention to the pain signals and adjust accordingly before we get injured?

The Leader Challenge: How are you creating an environment that protects people from being ran into the ground?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Perspective and The Wicked Witch (4-30-25)

A person in a person garment

AI-generated content may be incorrect.

I’m excited to continue our series focused on storytelling tricks and mechanics. Last week was about world-building and culture. This week is about the Wicked Witch and perspective.

Is the Wicked Witch evil? It depends on what perspective the story is told from. The Wizard of Oz is told from Dorothy’s perspective. It’s about her finding friends, and the Wizard of Oz telling her she has to defeat the evil Wicked Witch of the West, so she can go home. Wicked is told from the Wicked Witch’s perspective. Before she was the Wicked Witch, she was Elphaba. The story follows her growing up as an outcast and being a rising hero until the Great and Powerful Oz turns on her and brands her as the Wicked Witch. (By the way, the Wicked move was amazing!)

What does this have to do with anything? I find it so fascinating how an entire story can change, just by altering your perspective. I grew up on The Wizard of Oz, always just accepting Dorothy’s perspective. Then, I saw Wicked for the first time, and suddenly I saw an entirely different side of the story.

Think of your own life. How often does something similar play out for you? Have you ever thought you understood a situation, and then had your opinion changed when presented with a different point of view? I’ve learned over time that we all have our default perspective on things, and it’s our responsibility to stay open to other ways of viewing things. I’ve also learned it takes a lot of strength to suspend your own beliefs and judgment to take the time to see the story though someone else’s eyes.

The challenge- How will you take on the perspective of others?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

World-Building and Culture (4-22-25)

Last week we kicked off a series focused on different storytelling tricks and mechanics, and we analyzed unreliable narrators. This week we are going to dive into world-building and culture.

World-building is the creation of a fictional world that is believable and consistent within the context of the story (WORLDBUILDING Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster). It is comprised of all of the details that describe the world, how it works, and how the characters operate in that world. Some fictional worlds are grounded in realism, while some are grounded in fantasy.

Pretend for a minute that you’re reading a story that takes place in England. There are dragons in the story. Does it make sense to have dragons in the story? It depends. If the book is Pride and Prejudice, and the world is built more on realism then the dragons don’t fit. If the book is Harry Potter, and the world is built on magic and mythical creature than a dragon fits right in.

You’re probably wondering how this connects to work. Pretend for a minute that someone challenges the leader in a meeting. Is this okay? It depends. If the culture is one that is built on hierarchy and fear, then this is not acceptable behavior. If this is a psychologically safe culture where people are encouraged to challenge ideas, then not only is challenging the leader acceptable, but it is also expected. I’ve been on teams in both situations, have you? How did you feel about living in each of those cultures?

With all this in mind, what if building culture is the same thing as world-building? Building culture is comprised of all of the details that describe the group’s mission, how the team works, and how the characters operate within that culture. We can influence all of those things. We can set the mission. We can set the tone for what mindsets and behaviors are acceptable and rewarded. We all have the power to influence and build the culture we want to be in.

The challenge- What kind of world, what kind of culture will you build?

Bonus deep reflection- What kind of culture/world do you think your actions create around you? How do your behaviors create that culture/world?

I’d hope that people say, “Andrew creates a culture of care, creativity, and nerdtastic fun and authenticity.” These are the things I’m intentionally trying to build. I try to invest time in understanding people and showing them I appreciate them. I build a culture of creativity by embracing messy problems, making connections, and being willing to try new things. I’m nerdtastic fun from my socks to my Team’s background, which sends a message that I’m comfortable with who I am and I want you to be who you are too. I may not always succeed at building this world, but that’s what I constantly try to do.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Self-Doubt and Being an Unreliable Narrator (4-16-25)

This week I’m going to kick off a series inspired by different storytelling mechanics. This entry is about self-doubt and being an unreliable narrator.

An unreliable narrator is a storyteller whose account of events can’t be fully trusted. They might be lying on purpose or they might unintentionally have things wrong. The Sixth Sense is a great example of having an unreliable narrator. The story is told from the perspective of Malcom, a child psychologist, played by Bruce Willis. Throughout the movie we see the world unfold through his eyes, and assume the events are true. Then the twist is revealed. Malcom had been dead the entire time and had not known it. As all the pieces start connecting you begin to realize that the events we saw from Malcom’s eyes weren’t the real ones.

You’re probably wondering how this connects to anything. What if we can be an unreliable narrator sometimes like Malcom? What if we allow our self-doubt, skepticism, or other things to infiltrate our minds and distort our perception of the reality around us? Has this ever happened to you? Sometimes, we need some perspective from the outside or another person to nudge us to ensure we have an accurate view on reality.

Let me share a recent personal story with you. My new boss started a couple of months ago. We were having a pretty good heart to heart during a 1 on 1. At the time, self-doubt was shaping my narrative, and I shared something along the lines of, “I feel like I’m just moving soooo slow right now. It’s like I’m not being effective.” My boss looks at me and says something like, “I don’t feel that way or see that being true.” This jolt was similar to the twist in the Sixth Sense, where all of the pieces started to fit together in a different and more true way. This comment made me realize that I might have been an unreliable narrator. Maybe, my perception of what was going on was not actually reality. Maybe, my perception had been distorted by self-doubt. Fast forward from two months ago to yesterday when I had my first performance check-in for the year. Now, I had a better grasp on reality due to a more balanced self-reflection and by listening to the feedback and encouragement from others. Instead of being burdened by self-doubt, I went into that conversation confident. I was able to sit down and tell a story like, “I’m so proud and so excited about everything I’ve delivered so far, AND I also know I’d like to grow in A, B, C areas.” It was a total shift from just a couple of months prior.

The challenge- How will you ensure that self-doubt doesn’t turn you into an unreliable narrator?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

AI, Metadata, and Doing the Foundational Things Well (4-9-25)

Last week was about AI and being brave enough to fail forward and fail fast. This week is about AI, metadata, and doing the foundational things well.

I started in my current role about 2 years ago. Before then, I didn’t spend much time thinking about metadata, how clean a data set was, or how a data set was structured and formatted. I never thought about those things, because they weren’t particularly shiny or exciting.

As I’ve learned more about AI and partnered to build solutions, I’ve come to appreciate how those foundational things can make or break an AI tool. For example, having the right metadata can mean the difference between the AI giving you a great answer, a bad answer, or a bad answer. I think about metadata a lot now, more than I ever thought I would. I’ve dedicated entire afternoons to creating metadata strategies and tagging approaches, because foundational things like this matter.

Let’s make a couple connections. First, if you’re working with any kind of data, understand that one day that will be fed to some AI tool. The more you can intentionally build the foundations now, the better off you’ll be. I wish you the best of luck when it comes to metadata tagging and data hygiene. Second, even if you’re not working with data or AI, take a moment and reflect on how well you are doing the non-shiny unexciting foundational things. At work when you are communicating, how much time do you invest in making a totally unsexy plan and outline for what you are about to communicate. When you are facing a challenge, how much time do you invest in the boring task of defining the problem before rushing to create solutions? If you’re trying to be a good human, how much time do you invest in boring building blocks like sleep, moving your body, nurturing relationships, and taking time to rest?

The challenge: Whether it’s AI or something else, will you invest in doing the foundational things well?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

AI and Being Brave Enough to “Fail Fast” and “Fail Forward” 4-2-25

This week is about AI and being brave enough to “fail fast” and “fail forward”. I dedicate this to Jax Penso and our tech team.

A few months ago, Jax approached me with an idea. She had a complicated dataset filled with quant and qual data. She wanted to explore if AI could help dissect, analyze, and make connections faster and more effectively than humans could. I loved the vision and the willingness to experiment.

I told Jax that what she was asking was going to be incredibly difficult, and no one (in our company or beyond) had quite figured out how to do this with AI yet. Jax wasn’t phased. She was willing to explore, so we got a team together and started working. The team acknowledged that what we were setting out to do would be incredibly difficult. We knew that there was a good chance that things would not work out perfectly. We also knew that by pushing the boundaries of what was possible we would learn a lot. In the end, our prototype didn’t meet our lofty expectations. HOWEVER, we gathered a lot of learnings along the way.

Let’s make connections. How often do you hear people talk about being brave enough to “fail fast” or “fail forward”? I’m sure you hear it a lot. Those are some of the all-time most popular corporate buzz words. Now, how often do you see people who are truly brave enough to fail fast or fail forward? That’s a rarity. It would have been easy for Jax and the team to decide not to pursue the project, once they understood that the chances of perfect success was slim to none. It would have been easier, BUT it would not have been as fruitful.

Imagine how different work would be if more folks acted like Jax and the team? At the end of the day, the team didn’t fail. They learned. The team didn’t fail, they created a new foundation. Pursuing the impossible led us to exploring new technologies and approaches. It also challenged us to rethink and better embrace the Agile mentality. We didn’t make it to the summit, but other folks will be able to leverage our learnings to get them a head start.

The challenge: Are you brave enough to explore, even when you’re not 100% sure how it will turn out? Are you one of the rare people brave enough to “fail fast” or “fail forward”?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Q1 2025 Self-Reflection (3-26-25)

It’s a bonus blog! I hope you’re excited 😉 For the past few years I’ve used the last Wednesday of the first quarter to share a blog on doing quarterly check-ins for work and yourself. This will be a long email, because I’m sharing my own self-assessment.

We have our first performance management coming up in the next month. During this check-in we will talk through some of these questions. What are 2-3 highlights? What are 2-3 opportunities to do better? What are some learnings from Q1 I can apply moving forward?

What does this have to do anything? While this is great for work, we could apply this same thinking to our personal lives as well. What are some of your goals for 2025? How did you do with them in Q1? Have you stopped to CELEBRATE your progress? Stop RIGHT NOW and celebrate something you’ve achieved. After you celebrate, then you can reflect and see if there are any gaps. If you have gaps, why do you have gaps? What happened? What got in the way? How can you adjust to reach your goals for this quarter?

The challenge: Will you take the time to do a quarterly check-in? What changes will you make to set yourself up for the rest of the year?

Bonus: Here is my review based on the dimensions in my life I set goals for. Hopefully, it sparks a thought or two for you. In case no one has told you lately, “YOU GOT THIS!”

Rebuild (B+)- This is my word/theme for the year. I wanted to make repairs AND extensive changes. I’m giving myself an B+, because all of the momentum I’ve built back and am taking advantage of. I’d say the trend for all categories is that the first 6 weeks of the quarter were bumpy, and from there I’ve been on a great upward trajectory.
Mental Health (A)- The goal is to feel like I’m in a good, strong, solid mental state. I feel I’m in the best headspace that I’ve been in a hot minute. I have a lot to love and celebrate in life right now. I think I’m also doing a better job of practicing radical acceptance and recognizing “it is what it is.”
Physical Health (B-)- The goal is to build strength, aiming for increasing strength by around 15%. I couldn’t find an exercise routine or rhythm in January or February. I’ve been crushing it in March and making sure I’m prioritizing my time to hit the gym. I’m reestablishing my strength baselines, so I can track that more throughout the year. I would like to walk/run more, mainly so I can make sure I’m prepared for my obstacle course races. First one is in May!
Family (B+)-The goal is to feel like I’m being an amazing husband and dad. I’m feeling pretty good about things right now. I can feel my family start to evolve into the next phase with my son turning 11 and my daughter almost 13. It’s cool watching them grow and leading beside my wife. I will honestly say I’ve been working more hours than I’d like, but I think that will balance out in the future.
Career (B+)- The goal is to feel like I’m delivering magic. From the end of the year through Q1, I feel like I’ve been delivering some Hufflepuff magic, and that folks are valuing it. The whole feeling valued piece is huge. I’m also on the verge of rolling out a few things I’ve been working on for the better part of a year, and that’s adding even more positivity. With that said, the past few months have also been a humbling experience and a reminder that it’s impossible to juggle everything all of the time. I’ve definitely had a few balls drop in Q1. Some of them have been rubber. A couple of them have been glass. As part of the radical acceptance piece, I’m doing better at embracing it for what it is and I’m proud that despite all of the crazy I was still able to do some pretty darn amazing things. Luckily, the crazy is starting to become more manageable. In the midst of all the change and organizational evolution, I feel like I’m getting some stability, which might be a weird thing to say 😉. As we continue to fill open roles, we can better distribute the workload. Additionally, as we take confident steps toward embracing a new future, this stability will become stronger and enable the team and I to reach our potential.
Financial (B)- The goal is to ensure we are saving/investing money in the right way. I’ve already shifted money for investments. I am wasting a bit too much money on eating out right now. I want to tighten that up in Q2.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

iPhones, AI, and Embracing a Product Mindset (3-26-25)

Last week was about AI, tools, and expectations. I want to dive deeper into this area by exploring iPhones, AI, and adopting a product mindset.

It’s hard to believe that the first iPhone came out in 2007. I think I still had a Motorola Razr phone then. 😉 The first iPhone launched with a 3.5 in LCD screen, basic camera, and maximum storage of 16GB. Today’s iPhone 16 Pro has a 6.7 in Super Retina XDR display, triple camera, and a maximum storage of 1TB. That is a MASSIVE tech evolution.

This didn’t happen by accident. This happened because of the choice Apple made. Apple had the opportunity to choose between two things. They could either launch the iPhone fully knowing it was good but not perfect, or they could make the iPhone perfect before they launched it. If they would have tried to make the iPhone perfect, it never would have launched. Instead, they were brave enough to embrace a product mindset. They were willing to launch version 1, fully knowing they would have to evolve it over time.

What does this have to do with AI or anything else? I’ve been leading and working on various AI initiatives over the past couple of years. There is ALWAYS the pressure to make something perfect before rolling it out. There is ALWAYS the fear that the AI solution won’t instantly meet all of the audience’s needs. This pressure and fear often leads to never delivering something tangible, because we are scared to not be perfect. Have you ever felt this about any of your work?

Similar to Apple, I’ve had to work to embrace the product mindset. This has been a shift for me. I’ve had to learn to accept that something that is delivered with room to grow is SUPERIOR to something that never gets off the shelf because it’s waiting to be perfect. I’ve had to learn to embrace all the feedback and questions that come with a version 1 as fuel for growth vs criticism about my shortcomings.

The challenge- How can you embrace more of a product mindset? Will you be strong enough to embrace that delivered with room to grow is better than something that never gets off the shelf?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

AI, Tools, and Expectations

Last week was about my kids using ChatGPT and not limiting our thinking. This week is about AI, tools, and expectations.

Let’s say that you needed to assemble something, so you grab a wrench out of your toolbox. You use the wrench to fasten the nuts and bolts. Then, you realize there are screws you need to insert. Your wrench won’t be able to insert the screws. Does this make the wrench bad? Would you throw the wrench away, because it wasn’t good at solving this challenge? I’m guessing you wouldn’t. I hope you’d recognize the value and the limitations of the wrench, and every other tool in your arsenal.

Let’s connect some dots. We should apply this same thinking to AI. I’ve been in conversations exploring different AI tools and heard people say, “It can’t do X, so I don’t know if it’s any good.” Have you ever heard someone say something like that? This would be like saying, “This wrench doesn’t work for every single situation, so that means wrenches are bad.” It’s true that the tool couldn’t do X. However, the tool could do A, B, and C and get you 70% of the way there in minutes vs the weeks it would take you to do this manually. That is powerful. That is valuable.

Whether it’s wrenches and screwdrivers from a toolbox or types of AI applications, it’s important to have the right expectation for each tool. We don’t expect a wrench to be perfect and solve all problems. Instead, we understand we need a variety of tools to be successful. In a similar way, we shouldn’t treat AI as if it is just one tool. AI spans a variety of tools and use cases, each with their own benefits and limitations.

The challenge: How will you properly set expectations for various AI tools?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

My Kids, ChatGPT, and Not Being Limited in our Thinking (3-12-25)

This week we are going to kick off a new series focused on things I’ve learned about AI over the past almost 2 years in my role leading various AI initiatives. This one just so happens to be about my kids, ChatGPT, and not being limited in our thinking.

Shortly after ChatGPT was launched, I introduced my kids to the technology. While they may not have understood what a large language model was or how it worked, I helped them understand the role it could play. Essentially, I told them it was like an assistant for them to use to explore ideas.

A couple of weeks later, we were sitting at the dinner table and I asked everyone what they had done that day. My kids explained to me how they created a new game with ChatGPT. I was shocked by this and asked them to tell me more. They explained how they told ChatGPT that they wanted to play a game inspired by their favorite cartoon, Owl House, which included epic battle against evil villains and took about an hour to play. With this prompt, ChatGPT created the rules, plot, and setting for their game. I asked how they came up with the idea to do this, because I never would have thought of it in a million years. Their response was basically, “You said it could help brainstorm, so why wouldn’t we try that?” By the way, that’s some pretty good prompting. #prouddad

What does this have to do with anything? At the time, I would have never thought of using ChatGPT to create a game. I had been stuck in my normal day to day frame and unable to see beyond it. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but I had limited AI to only certain use cases. When my kids shared their experience, it was a nudge that I need to make sure that I’m not the one limiting the potential of emerging technology. Now, instead of asking, “Where does AI fit?” I ask, “How can we use AI to enhance what’s possible?” The first question assumes there are limited places where AI can be helpful. The second question assumes that there is always a chance to leverage AI to enhance things. This second question causes me to lean in with curiosity and a willingness to explore potential.

The challenge: How will you ensure your thinking is free and unlimited?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry