# SusanScrupski.com

> Advisor, Speaker, Coach


## Posts

- [Working out Loud for a Better World - Part II](https://susanscrupski.com/working-out-loud-for-a-better-world-part-ii/): A friend sent me a story this morning that describes how officials in New York City have been frustrated with the city’s domestic violence problem, “Domestic Abuse Killings Climb as Murders Drop, Frustrating New York Officials.”  Among several issues, the story highlights the “spotty coordination and communication among the police, prosecutors, city housing officials and organizations that provide services to victims.”  This lack of information-sharing is not unique to New York City or any other jurisdiction. I’ve often observed, quizzically, that a field so focused on “power and control” issues has so many power and control handicaps in addressing solutions associated with intimate partner violence.  One […]
- [Trust Me, You Need to Read This](https://susanscrupski.com/trust-me-you-need-to-read-this/): Leading in the 21st Century network era requires skills we have not honed in the achievements and accomplishments that delivered us to this position of leadership.  Yesterday, I was watching Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State, talking candidly about the careful art of negotiation: “The longer I do this, the more convinced I am that mistrust and misunderstanding are often the real fundamental obstacles to bringing people together…  and that means people from both sides of whatever divide it is… people have to start listening to each other to build habits of cooperation that might possibly lead to greater […]
- [Let Go and Let Human](https://susanscrupski.com/let-go-and-let-human/): “Leaders’ fear to give up control trumps their ability to trust…” – Frédéric Laloux, Reinventing Organizations We now cite “The Laloux Book” as if it were the Big Book at an AA meeting when we think carefully about decisions we’re making at Change Agents Worldwide.   We see ourselves as a Teal company, but I’ll admit, it’s easy to become addicted to power.  And command and control instincts seem to sprout up naturally from the adrenaline rush that comes with power. About a month and a half ago, we made some executive decisions that came as a surprise to our network.  It […]
- [The Transparency Ditch](https://susanscrupski.com/the-transparency-ditch/): Transparency is easy when it’s all going really well.  Everyone’s eager to share, share, share and be open and excited about working together in a jumble of harmonious zeal. Until something goes wrong.  Someone is offended.  Someone doesn’t agree.  Someone feels slighted. That’s when transparency takes a back seat to age-old human habits.  Transparency is the first casualty when trust breaks down in a network. Even if the motivation is to just get a second opinion on XYZ that spooked your trust, networks start splintering into off chutes of “what do you think?” We’re only human as our friends at the […]
- [Show your Work!](https://susanscrupski.com/show-your-work/): Today’s fast-paced, complex environments require a new approach to communicating and knowledge-sharing.  Old ways of electronic communications, such as e-mail (you do know that’s what the “e” stands for, yes?), simply pave over the cowpaths of existing hierarchical chains of command.  Email preserves everything bad about the industrial age including status, authority, CYA, and even certain malevolent behaviors such as bcc’s and forwarding private messages.  I found a great example of this sort of thing on this post from a few years ago by our fellow change agent, Carrie Young. I’ve often commented that email breeds a culture of mistrust. […]
- [Orange is the New Black (Death)](https://susanscrupski.com/orange-is-the-new-black-death/): Once in a while, a book comes along that validates everything you’ve come to believe about a specific topic or trend.  Frederic Laloux’s new book, “Reinventing Organizations” did that for me in a way nothing else has over the past seven years I’ve been focused on applying the principles of the second generation web to business. Laloux makes a simple, astute observation: “Perhaps we need to access a new stage of consciousness, a new worldview, to reinvent human organizations.” Laloux is a former McKinsey consultant and executive coach who invested a few years of research into uncovering organizations that were operating differently with more progressive […]
- [Beer, Social Networking, Guitars, and PowerPoint](https://susanscrupski.com/beer-social-networking-guitars-and-powerpoint/): Next week I’m off to Houston to join the Yammer team  who’s kicking off Microsoft’s Working Social Tour in Texas.  I’ll attend the Houston event, but will speak at the Austin event here on Thursday at Scholz’s Beer Garden, May 22 starting at 1pm. The day will include a variety of speakers including customers and a few partners.  My presentation is near the end.  I’ll be presenting one of our Change Agents‘ (Simon Terry) presentations he did recently at another Yammer event.  It includes an interesting way to explain how to scale a social journey. After the day’s presentations, we’ll be treated to […]
- [Reason #30 Why We Can't Change: We Don't Have the Time](https://susanscrupski.com/reason-30-why-we-cant-change-we-dont-have-the-time/): My friends and colleagues at Change Agents Worldwide are kicking off a “blog carousel” to address all these reasons why organizations can’t change.  This list was carefully compiled by a Product Engineer of the Milwaukee Gear Company in 1959.  These objections still live on today in memos, meetings, analysis decks, and teleconference calls over a half-century later. I decided to start with #30.  “We don’t have the time.”  This one always bugs me.  You’re busy; we know.  We’re busy too.  But, it really takes no time at all to participate on the social web and to communicate internally via a social […]
- [What Boomers Know](https://susanscrupski.com/what-boomers-know/): Networks and spheres of influence have been around a long, long while.  Communications and computer advances have just given network actors agency and expediency.  I’ve been starting to partition my career into two distinct eras: BT and AT (Before Twitter and After Twitter).  I first wrote about the Internet in my newsletter (a real, paper newsletter) in 1994, but I discovered TCP/IP, the Internet protocol suite, in my very first job out of college in 1984.  It wouldn’t be until 1990 that Tim Berners Lee would start weaving the World Wide Web at CERN. I also remember experimenting with UNIX in […]
- [Leading from the Center](https://susanscrupski.com/leading-from-the-center/): What’s the most important quality a leadership will require in the Network Era? Humility. This might be the most difficult lesson to learn for future executives.  Power will not be automatically anointed by virtue of title, salary, corner office, or company jet.  You’ll have to earn the respect and commitments of the individuals who are connected to you in the network.  Hubris will be the fastest way to turn off your most capable, most creative, and best associates.  A leader who leads with humility knows how to listen and can tap into the empathy required to fully embrace complex problems by seeing […]
- [The Enterprise Social Web We Lost](https://susanscrupski.com/the-enterprise-social-web-we-lost/): Around the time I was enmeshed in a deep existential crisis over my life’s work and current occupation, Anil Dash wrote this piece on his blog: The Web We Lost.  Somehow I missed that post when it was originally published, but it’s uncanny that he wrote it the same month I was essentially ruminating on the same basic premise. That the big promise of what we started out believing, started doing, was somehow slipping away. When I look back to 2006, when Twitter was just a baby, there was such an amazing groundswell of passion around the possibilities we had […]
- [That Sound You're Not Hearing in Your Business Could Be Fatal](https://susanscrupski.com/that-sound-youre-not-hearing-in-your-business-could-be-fatal/): “Fools,” said I, “You do not know. Silence like a cancer grows.” -Simon and Garfunkel If we’ve learned anything over these past six, going on seven years of covering the internal social collaboration sector, it’s that the social web has become a catalyst for intellectual curiosity. Tribes are forming everywhere with the growing popularity of niche sub-groups from LinkedIn to Google Communities. As quickly as you can say “add me,” this socially savvy collective is connecting, learning, and sharing with effortless, timeless ease. In other words, the long tail of interesting projects and topics is attracting talent to shared interest groups […]

## Pages

- [Contact](https://susanscrupski.com/contact/): Consulting & Speaking Engagements. I bring decades of experience at the intersection of tech, innovation, and storytelling. If you’re interested in working together, please drop me a note. Creative Collaborations. From documentary film to photography to AI-generated music—I’m always exploring new forms of expression. Let’s make something beautiful. Press Inquiries If you’re a journalist, podcaster, or media producer looking to cover topics like GenAI, storytelling, or women in tech and the arts, I’m available for interviews and commentary. Contact me: susan at susanscrupski dot com. Or message me on LinkedIn. 
- [About](https://susanscrupski.com/): Susan Scrupski Technologist. Storyteller. Change Agent.   For over three decades, Susan Scrupski has been at the vanguard of digital transformation. From the early UNIX wars to the rise of GenAI, she has relentlessly championed the idea that technology—used wisely—can shape a more just, connected, and creative world. A girl geek who studied computer science before it was trendy, Susan built a career identifying paradigm shifts before the mainstream caught up. She’s launched consulting firms, research boutiques, large-scale communities, and a data-driven social impact startup—all aimed at redefining how we work, lead, and live in the 21st century. In the […]


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