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Eric Torrence's Articles
Surviving Chaotic Seasons
I’m in a strange season of life right now. Four months ago we welcomed a little boy into the world and into our family. We also have a two year old toddling all around the house. Oh, and I noticed I have a few gray hairs popping up. I think that’s completely unrelated, though. Two…
The Importance of a Daily Defrag
I remember my first computer like it was yesterday. It was a Christmas morning gift – a bulky Christmas gift at that. I remember how that big, beautiful, and extremely heavy monitor whirred like an airplane engine as it powered on. I remember how a black screen would suddenly come to life with strange combinations…
3 Ways to Honor Your Organization’s Past
HGTV’s House Hunters is television comfort food. The formula is always the same, which is strangely soothing. An individual or a couple looks for a home, they have a budget (and expectations for that home that far exceed that budget), are presented three choices of residences, and come to a happy ending. The only variable…
How to Ask Better Questions
One of the most important skills of a leader is the ability to ask great questions. But it isn’t always easy. Here’s how to ask better questions.
Why You’re Never Too Old For Cookie Monster
Earlier this year, Apple aired a commercial that starred Cookie Monster, the blue treat-craving monster who is a mainstay on Sesame Street. I remember it popping up on my Facebook feed because I watched it, re-watched it, and then watched it again, each time laughing more and more. There’s nothing complicated about the ad. Cookie…
The Good Kind of Overwhelmed
A few weeks ago as I was leaving work, I looked up and saw a strange, ominous, and darkening skyline. While thunderstorms aren’t unusual for Dallas, this one was different. Shooting up thousands of feet into the air was a fearsome thunderhead. Underneath it, a strange, turquoise glow emanated from a lower band of clouds…
My Love/Hate Relationship with Repetition
Repetition has a bad rap. It’s not hard to see why. If your childhood was like my childhood, at some point you had to write lines as a form of punishment. There were more than a few afternoons spent writing, “I will not hit my brother,” one hundred times, or longer depending on the severity…
The Difference Between Debating and Discussing
With primary debate viewership soaring, how are these spectacles affecting the dialogue in our culture? How can we get back to thoughtful discussion?
Give In to Peer Pressure
If there is one thing every child learns in elementary school, it’s the dangers of peer pressure. I remember watching countless film strips (yes, film strips – complete with an accompanying audio recording on a cassette tape) on how kids on the playground were subversively trying to get me to smoke a cigarette. Like any…
The Chipotle Question: How Good Is Your Personal Supply Chain?
Chipotle’s Conundrum It’s been a rough year for Chipotle. Last November, the restaurant chain closed all 43 of its locations in Oregon and Washington to address an E. coli outbreak which sickened over 50 people. A norovirus outbreak affected 234 people in California in August, along with a separate outbreak near Boston College. Salmonella-tainted tomatoes…
Four Biographies for Every Leader’s Must-Read List
Some of the best leadership books aren’t leadership books – they’re biographies. Biographies don’t run away from challenges, frustrations, confusions, or failures the subject experienced (at least not the best ones). They allow us to enter into a world we never could on our own, whether it’s someone from the past who is gone, a…
Knowledge Isn’t Always Power
I once took a class on flirting. They had a better name for it on the university syllabus to satisfy academia (and, more importantly, parents paying for tuition). They called it, “Dyadic Communication,” which refers to face-to-face interactions between two people. But, a big part of the class, or at least the part I remember…