It seems more productive to judge tomorrow by something more relevant, useful and in our control than whether or not it’s raining, doesn’t it? We can judge a day by how many tools we ge… | Continue reading
All moths are the same. For the right species, if you light a candle, the moths will show up. They’re drawn to it for little-understood reasons related to how they’re wired. Just as mot… | Continue reading
Over the last few months, I’ve added a few recipes to the pages of this blog, mostly so I have them handy, partly because I haven’t found anything like them online. If you want insight … | Continue reading
Principles that we suspend during difficult times aren’t really principles. Principles really count when they’re difficult to maintain. That’s not the same thing, though, as refus… | Continue reading
On Fisherman’s Wharf, there’s one restaurant after another. Is that a smart place to open a business, right next to all the others? At the bookstore, there are tens of thousands of book… | Continue reading
Of course they do. The interesting insight is to realize that our line seems to be in exactly the right place, every time. Getting used to the fact that our lines are unique is the first step in fi… | Continue reading
Technology shows up and changes the culture. The culture then enables new industries and movements, which further change the culture. And then technology shows up and puts an end to the system we w… | Continue reading
Conventional CEO wisdom is that top management is worth a fortune because of the high-leverage decisions they make. But consider the work of Wade, an unheralded AirCanada gate agent. Yesterday, I w… | Continue reading
Really? More data is usually available. It takes time or money, but you can get more data. But you’re probably not using all the data you’ve already got. I’m guessing what you mea… | Continue reading
The only choice is to launch before you’re ready. Before it’s perfect. Before it’s 100% proven to be no risk to you. At that moment, your resistance says, “don’t ship … | Continue reading
The easiest way to get someone’s attention is to compare them to someone else. When people compete on the same metrics (how many followers, how much income, how many points scored) the focus … | Continue reading
That’s the two-part secret of smart eating–you don’t have to eat everything on your plate, and if you’ve got trouble with that, put less on the plate to begin with. But the … | Continue reading
Independence sometimes seems easier than the long-term, disciplined, generous work of connection. But it’s connection that enables us to add value. The math is simple: when people with differ… | Continue reading
Some projects suffer from a lack of awareness. If only more people knew about what you were offering, you’d be fine. But most projects don’t have that problem, not really. The problem i… | Continue reading
These are the two axes of professional design and engineering. Did you produce within the constraints? Did you deliver measurable results? That’s it. Good design doesn’t exceed the available resour… | Continue reading
The first week of business school was pretty miserable for me. I had no idea if the others were feeling as underwater as I was, because I was focused on my own challenges. And then, a few days into… | Continue reading
It’s possible to build a car that will never injure the driver, regardless of the severity of the crash. The thing is, it will be so heavy, it won’t move, and so wide, it won’t fi… | Continue reading
Is probably not a useful metric to measure yourself by. If it’s important and you can spend money to fix it, by all means, go do that. But the helpful metrics are the ones where cash isn̵… | Continue reading
If it’s the wrong stone, walk away. Infinity is a trap. The frenzied search for more is a distraction and a place to hide, all in one. Pick the right stones and cherish them as you turn them … | Continue reading
You can only break it open once. Organizations (and political candidates) that forget this and treat their biggest supporters like bottomless ATMs learn the piggybank rule at great cost. Every inte… | Continue reading
The usual marathons, the popular ones, are done in a group. They have a start time. A finish line. A way to qualify. A route. A crowd. And a date announced a year in advance. Mostly, they have exci… | Continue reading
These are the two axes of professional design and engineering. Did you produce within the constraints? Did you deliver measurable results? That’s it. Good design doesn’t exceed the available resour… | Continue reading
The simple but hard to follow rule is this: Only borrow money to buy things that go up in value. In the old days, that meant a house and a college education, because you’d probably earn enoug… | Continue reading
That’s exciting to hear. Until you realize that if you switch just one letter around, it spells eyes eyes eyes… As soon as you’re applauded, you have eyes on you. Eyes that belong… | Continue reading
The problem with A/B testing is that people don’t like to fail. So they test option A against option B, where both options are quite similar. Blue boxes vs. green boxes. $199 vs. $205. Why no… | Continue reading
What do you do when you face an alien looking vegetable? It’s all over the farmer’s market, it’s cheap and plentiful and you’ve never had it before. Most people walk right o… | Continue reading
The Baseball Writers of America vote for induction into the hall of fame. Eleven of them voted NO when Babe Ruth came up. If Babe Ruth gets eleven ‘no’ votes, why are we so worried abou… | Continue reading
Just? The meaning of the word is the reason we used the word. If we don’t agree about the meaning of the word, we haven’t communicated. Instead of, “that’s just semantics,&#… | Continue reading
Most organizations have someone that they call the head of marketing, but unlike the other departments, this person’s job is usually more tactical and less strategic than it could be. That… | Continue reading
That’s not the question, not really. The question is, “what are you going to do about it?” And, to follow up, “what effort are you willing to put in to make it better?”… | Continue reading
The spread of TED talks means that more and more people are being put on stage and told to memorize their talk. This almost always leads to failure. It’s not because people memorize too much,… | Continue reading
Jerry Colonna, the quiet coach of so many successful leaders, has his first book out, publishing tomorrow. It’s raw, personal and life-altering. It’s called Reboot. Lewis Hyde, author o… | Continue reading
We spend all day communicating, and we’ve invented a myriad of ways to do it. You can buy a stamp, press a button, rent a room or use a microphone. Choose wisely. Don’t send an email wh… | Continue reading
If your delivery drivers have to do six deliveries a day, they’ll rush from the first moment. They’ll be super efficient at easily measurable metrics. They’ll cut a few corners. I… | Continue reading
If your delivery drivers have to do six deliveries a day, they’ll rush from the first moment. They’ll be super efficient at easily measurable metrics. They’ll cut a few corners. I… | Continue reading
Consider writing. Not plastics. Not Wall Street. Simply writing. As we race toward a post-literate world, the surprising shortcut is compelling indeed: Learn to write. Audiobooks outsell print. AI … | Continue reading
There always is. The song you’re listening to will end, a surprising news story is going to change the status quo and you’ll get feedback you didn’t expect. It’s easy to ima… | Continue reading
That’s how many words get scanned the first time through. Perhaps five on a billboard. Which means that your memo, your ad, your announcement, your post–you get ten words. Highlight the… | Continue reading
Our society separates them. Somewhere along the way, we decided that one interfered with the other. Go to school for 8 years to become a doctor–most of that time, you’re learning about doctor… | Continue reading
Bit by bit, this is how we ended up with our organization, our job, our life. It’s impossible to move forward without them. And so we compromise on schedule, or quality, or on the pace of our… | Continue reading
Decorating a car with bling, mudflaps and an airhorn is a form of signalling. You can show your peers that you have the resources to waste on superfluous adornments. (Did you see what I just did th… | Continue reading
If you are asked a question in a job interview, on stage or even on a date, there’s probably a reason, and the reason might not be because the person asking wants to know your answer. Teenage… | Continue reading
A dozen states in the US have a Junction City. A place with the claim to fame that it’s on the way to somewhere else. You can do well being a stepping stone, a pathway, a place people go to g… | Continue reading
We learn better together. Marketing works. Marketing allows us to make products and services that we care about. Marketing requires telling true stories about our work. Marketing makes change happe… | Continue reading
When you’re traveling ahead of the curve, it’s silly to imagine that the road will be straight and flat. It’s actually more like a cliff. With bumps. That’s all part of the … | Continue reading
When you’re traveling ahead of the curve, it’s silly to imagine that the road will be straight and flat. It’s actually more like a cliff. With bumps. That’s all part of the … | Continue reading
For generations, people dumped crap into the Hudson River. The river was so large and so swift that they assumed that the effluent wouldn’t come back to haunt them. Of course, it did, killing… | Continue reading
If you want to make a long-term impact, build the roads. Stewart Brand points out that if you compare two maps of downtown Boston–from 1860 and 1960, for example–virtually every single … | Continue reading