There are state flags everywhere, but they are seldom investigated. In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I focus on Maryland's state flag, a quartered design that seems to be contrasting a lot with itself. The tension was a decision though about a state sense of place and identity.

Let's be clear: The Civil War was not a conflict of equal moral standing, and acknowledging division or later reconciliation amongst divided parties is not the same as legitimizing both positions during the conflict. The question today is how a state constructs a shared civic future without pretending the past never happened.

Using Communication Theory of Identity (Hecht et al.), I explore how Maryland’s Calvert and Crossland imagery shifted from civic war symbolism to an official state flag in 1904 all the way to today.

I examine Maryland's evolution from the diffused early symbols from the 17th and 18th centuries to a flag the retains the original houses in Maryland before independence. Maryland has managed to hold an identity infrastructure that moved history ahead and allowed for a civic future. That's what I'm getting into today on decisions at the fulcrum.

Maryland.gov source:

https://sos.maryland.gov/Pages/Services/Flag-History.aspx

Part II of the DuPont episodes begins after the armistice following World War I. The episode begins in November 1918, when the explosions cease, contracts disappear, and a munitions-based firm determines what to become afterwards.

This episode follows DuPont's postwar shift from an explosives firm to a materials empire, beginning with nylon. Nylon was that material in American department shops. We start there, but the episode concludes with the lengthy and unresolved narrative of PFAS. Along the way, we look at how industrial risk shifted from a loud, visible threat to something far more difficult to perceive, assess, and regulate.

Rather than portraying DuPont as an antagonist or an unlikely hero, the current episode investigates how companies react to uncertainty, how innovation becomes framework, and the ways that harm might come from duration, magnitude, and latency.

Drawing on organizational sensemaking, regulatory precedent, and social context, this tells a story about what happens when materials perform thoroughly enough — and remain effective long enough — that their consequences exceed the decisions that formed them.

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we look at BrightSide Produce, a produce distributor that works in impoverished parts of San Diego County, and discover that food availability isn't only a matter of supply, demand, or good intentions.

It's a complex situation with coordination, not optimization.

Let's follow BrightSide Produce through forecasting discussions, uncertain delivery trajectories, and the hushed aftermath of decisions that never prove to be right or wrong. Along the way, I explain how uncertainty in food distribution is not a mistake to be corrected, but rather a reality that organizations must learn to live with.

Using principles from communication studies, notably the premise that organizations are formed through communication, this episode investigates how inventory models, explanations, and common interpretations keep fragile systems together. I investigate how judgments about waste, stockouts, and risk do more than just allocate produce: they define what accountability, access, and success mean in practice.

Cited Case: Pyke et al. (2024) Sage