It’s an important question, one that helps you understand if you have standards and a vision in mind. A great chef knows when a dish is done. She knows that any changes to the temperature or … | Continue reading
Most of the time, we approach our tasks with the mantra of, “this better work.” Far better to say, “this might work.” If you’re designing a bridge or a pacemaker, I… | Continue reading
In 1805, if you listened to music, you heard it live. Every time. Today, perhaps 1% of all the music we hear is live, if that. In 1805, if you listened to a lecture for school or work, you heard it… | Continue reading
In 1805, if you listened to music, you heard it live. Every time. Today, perhaps 1% of all the music we hear is live, if that. In 1805, if you listened to a lecture for school or work, you heard it… | Continue reading
Are today’s 50 richest billionaires happier than the 50 richest people who lived twenty years ago? It’s unlikely. And yet they control many times as much wealth. If you take a date to t… | Continue reading
To be an ally means that you won’t get in the way, and, if you are able to, you’ll try to help. To become an accomplice, though, means that you’ve risked something, sacrificed som… | Continue reading
Tell a story that is about the listener, not about you. Tell a story that is worth sharing. Tell a story that’s unforgettable. And tell a story that makes things better. Storytelling is a ski… | Continue reading
Anyone can be busy. All you need to do to feel busy is to try to get two things done at once–or seek to beat a deadline that is stressing you out. Productivity, on the other hand, has little … | Continue reading
I wonder what Carole King is up to? Did that kid who was in your third-grade class ten years ago get into his first choice of college? How did that couple that had a squabble in your store last wee… | Continue reading
A few years ago, Nancy Lublin discovered something obvious. Nancy was the CEO of Dosomething.org, the largest teenage charity in the world. In order to keep up with its members, Dosomething shifted… | Continue reading
School trains people to work as maintainers. “The sculptures are all here in the gallery, make sure they are still here at the end of the shift… The floor is clean when you start, make … | Continue reading
In order to learn something, you must understand it. You might become so insightful and facile with the ideas that it appears you’ve memorized them, but that’s just a side effect. Rote … | Continue reading
If two people are having a discussion about the resilience of the food chain, and one says, “as a farmer…” it’s likely that this statement carries some weight. The same goes… | Continue reading
A few years ago, Nancy Lublin discovered something obvious. Nancy was the founder of Dosomething.org, the largest teenage charity in the world. In order to keep up with its members, Dosomething shi… | Continue reading
Umbrellas are a fabulous invention. You can use one when you need it, but you shouldn’t confuse it with a grapefruit. Just because something is handy doesn’t mean it’s the right t… | Continue reading
A publisher recently sent me a 1,000 page book. The paper was perfect in its balance between opacity and thinness, but the margins were too small. The production designer made a choice–push t… | Continue reading
Create a new channel for every project. Invite the right people to join the channel to work on it. Every project has a beginning, and it has an ending as well. Don’t start a channel if you… | Continue reading
Create a new channel for every project. Invite the right people to join the channel to work on it. Every project has a beginning, and it has an ending as well. Don’t start a channel if you… | Continue reading
When we’re wrestling with outsourcing project work, a key question is: Do we give someone the entire project, or do we break it into pieces? Should you have the architect also handle the budg… | Continue reading
Does being annoyed serve any useful purpose? If it does, are there classes you can take or experiences you can pay for that help you become annoyed? We have gyms to get fit and mindfulness exercise… | Continue reading
Will today’s emergency even be remembered? Will that thing you’re particularly anxious about have been hardly worth the time you put into it? Better question: What could you do today th… | Continue reading
A sports fan, a zealot and a hack all look at the outcome before they decide if they’re happy with the process that led to it. On the other hand, a scientist, an engineer or anyone searching … | Continue reading
You can change the way people get the things they want. Or you can change what they want. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are two of the wealthiest people in history. They got that way by changing how pe… | Continue reading
Twenty years ago, I met the most famous baker in the world. I was in Paris for a speech, and visited Poilane, a bakery much smaller than its reputation would lead you to believe. I was hoping to ta… | Continue reading
That’s the call of our times. Run a marathon without getting tired. Lose weight without dieting. Get ahead without working hard. Earn big money without risk… When you expose it this cle… | Continue reading
A powerful thing a freelancer can do for her career is to figure out when to fire the bad clients. Firing bad clients is an essential step on the way to finding better ones. Identifying a client mi… | Continue reading
One approach, which is tempting in the short run, is to wait until people are on the bus and then ask each person where they want to go. Seek to build consensus. Try not to leave anyone out. The ot… | Continue reading
If we only forward the easy, short and funny things we read online, why are we surprised that our inbox is filled with nothing we’ll remember tomorrow? What would happened if instead, we shar… | Continue reading
A simple question, often overlooked, as if ignoring it will make the problem go away. Everything worth doing has a hard part. If it didn’t, it would have been done already. The hard part, we … | Continue reading
Projects often require tools. The right tool gets the job done (all of it) and an inferior one leaves it undone (none of it). There’s a spectrum of cost, though. Tools require different level… | Continue reading
Every person in your organization needs to wear a button. And they can choose one of two. The choice is up to them, but they have to own it. One button says, “I don’t care.” The o… | Continue reading
The typical performance chart has two axes. And one is time. We can’t do anything at all about time, so there’s really one axis. How fast did your profits grow? How many followers did y… | Continue reading
It’s possible that you no longer need to get better at your craft. That your craft is just fine. It’s possible that you need to be braver instead. | Continue reading
The local retailer says, “I’m sitting here all day, with a limited selection and a paid staff, waiting for you to come and buy something I have in inventory. I’m paying rent, just… | Continue reading
Sniffing at the others who care is a form of virtue signalling. It’s also an ineffective way to create real change. “My Prius Hybrid gets 140 miles per gallon.” “My Tesla is… | Continue reading
That fan at the game, the one who was cheering the whole time… That audience member, the one that gave a long standing ovation after laughing through the whole show… And that team membe… | Continue reading
If you run a rush delivery company, expect that the customers will be rushed. If you run a health food restaurant, expect that your customers will care about the ingredients you use. If you run a p… | Continue reading
Better, I think, to spec for the best instead. It’s comforting to hire a contractor, give them a rough spec and hope for the best. Wish to be positively surprised. Leave room for lots of unex… | Continue reading
When I quit my job in 1986 and went out on my own, it was shortly after my picture had appeared in a small feature in a national magazine. My grandmother proudly kept a copy of the magazine (not th… | Continue reading
Large organizations seek to decrease variability. Starbucks wants the very best latte you buy from them to be exactly the same as the worst one. If you define a spec and work hard to meet it, you c… | Continue reading
Large organizations seek to decrease variability. Starbucks wants the very best latte you buy from them to be exactly the same as the worst one. If you define a spec and work hard to meet it, you c… | Continue reading
Put a bag of cookies in the break room and it might sit for days. Open the bag and leave it out, and within an hour, all the cookies will be gone. We are happy to take a tiny slice off the thing th… | Continue reading
I recently saw two men arguing about who got to use the urinal next. As a result, neither got what he wanted, and neither could honestly say that his day got better. The need to win every interacti… | Continue reading
Every element of the organization has a spec, a minimum required performance. Accounting has standards, so does the department that measures the air quality. Everything beyond spec is marketing. Th… | Continue reading
The only way to get initiative is to take it. It’s never given. And some people hesitate to take it, perhaps because they’re worried that we’ll somehow run out. We’re not go… | Continue reading
Your job might be a series of tasks. Tasks are work where money is traded for time and effort. You put in a fixed amount of time, expending effort along the way, and you get paid. In the end, tasks… | Continue reading
I called the front desk early in the morning. “Where’s the gym located?” It’s a big hotel. They have a thousand rooms, and they’re part of a chain. Still, I was surpri… | Continue reading
In all markets, the market leader gets an unfair advantage. That’s because casual and unsophisticated customers choose the leader because it feels easier and safer. The strategy, then, is not… | Continue reading