Your first question after stumbling onto this blog might be: what the heck is The OW Factor? It’s a good question. Let me explain.
Many years ago, while working for a Fortune 100 company and in the midst of a chaotic and troubled time, I coined the term to help me cope. The OW Factor stands for The Organizational Weirdness Factor. Similar to the ubiquitous pain scale in hospitals, the range is from zero (non-existent) to ten (very high), and is a measure of organizational health. Lower on the scale, and the organization is functioning pretty well. The higher up you go, the more dysfunction there is.
Every place I have ever worked has a degree of organizational dysfunction. Thus the OW Factor has become a staple of my own (mostly inner) dialogue about coping with that dysfunction in a humorous way. OW can also mean ow, as in, “Ow, that hurts!”
But while I plan to sometimes write about organizational dysfunction here — I can’t help it, I see it all the time — that won’t be my primary purpose. Instead, this site is designed to encompass a variety of topics, deliberately without one particular focus. Some blogs do very well by having a particular focus, and good for them. However, that is not how my mind works, and I have many different interests. This lack of focus may therefore limit my appeal, and that is completely fine with me. In some ways, I’m writing here for me, not for you. (Sorry.)
If you have read this far, congratulations. Since this is an about page, you might still wonder, who am I? I’m a Christian, husband, father, and lover of books, flora, and fauna. I’m also a longtime librarian who has worked in a variety of non-profit and for-profit roles, but primarily my focus has been on academic librarianship. I love my family, travel, photography, reading, and technology. I’m a full-time professor at one institution and a part-time adjunct lecturer for another while also working on a second graduate degree on the side. Yes, it’s a lot, it’s messy, and it’s complicated.
I’m still trying to figure life out. This blog is one way to help me do that.
You can follow me on social media (Mastodon) at @theowfactor@mastodon.world.
