Posted on May 7, 2026May 8, 2026 by Stephen — Leave a comment

Southern Oregon University: From Institutional Decline to a Vibrant Learning Community

The following is a vision for the transformation of Southern Oregon University (SOU) in response to the Deloitte plan of April 2026.

While institutional planning often focuses on managing decline through specialization and fiscal constraint, the true opportunity for SOU lies in a radical reframe: becoming a place-rooted hub for humane community leadership and lifelong collaborative inquiry.

Diving Into The Foundational Rabbit Hole

The White Rabbit proposal is compelling and fairly complete. My thoughts on the entire proposal would be too much for this post, so I will suggest some modifications to their Lines for the Room on their page 18, later in this post.

But first, I believe there are more foundational questions to be asked in the board’s conversation.

Posted on February 26, 2024April 11, 2026 by Stephen

Prevacuation: Using Information and Time to Make Evacuation Easier

Prevacuation defined

If disaster may come your way, get out early.

Not everyone can do that, but the more people who get out early, the better for everyone, both people who really need help and first responders trying to keep people safe.

If you have somewhere safe to go, to family or friends, go there before an official evacuation is ordered.

That seems like a good idea.

Unfortunately, it’s not simple, but it’s important to think about the option if you can.

Official Evacuation May Come Too Late

Waiting for an official evacuation notice may be too late for you and your people.

Posted on February 12, 2024April 11, 2026 by Stephen

DLAD Update February 2024

Thank you for your support for our work to create a people-centered post-disaster registry. Good data will make efficient and equitable recovery easier for our neighbors in any future disasters.

Luckily, we avoided any major disasters over the summer of 2023 in Southern Oregon, so our Vanguard Group didn’t have to swing into action.

It’s been a few months since our last update, so there’s a lot of good news to share.

Posted on June 23, 2023April 11, 2026 by Stephen — Leave a comment

Humane Leadership Ideas Build Young Leaders

Humane Leadership is on the move again.

The core ideas of Humane Leadership – continuous performance innovation in the self leadership lab, internalizing and applying new mental models with Wisdom Jigs, and professional self and project leadership skills – have found there way into some fascinating places over the past few years.

One of the most exciting places is in the Local Innovation Lab, a highly impactful internship experience meeting important community needs in partnership with Southern Oregon University. To support the interns, we created a 10-week online course including live online workshops that uses project-based learning to develop student project and self leadership skills. Empowering young people with professional level skills creates the next generation of leaders who know how maximize effectiveness and humanity at once.

The program has helped city governments, local community groups, and businesses recover from the 2020 Labor Day fires in Southern Oregon while giving students valuable experiences that bridged into full time work for nearly 40% of the first cohort.

Posted on June 21, 2023April 11, 2026 by Stephen — 1 Comment

DLAD Vanguard Team Meeting 1 Notes

We want to make sure that everyone who wants to be involved can be, so we are publishing the notes of our initial meetings to keep you up to date.

Also, so that anyone who might benefit from our work in the coming days has access to not only the product but the process that launches a local DLAD effort.

Meeting 1 of the DLAD Vanguard Team was on 20 June 2023 at 9am via Zoom.

The meeting included representatives of

Jackson County Community Long-term Recovery Group – LTRG
Jackson County Community Organizations Active and Disaster – COAD
Southern Oregon University, Institute of Applied Sustainability
Local Innovation Works
Humane Leadership Institute