The one very specific feature I want to talk about today is the one that never leaves you alone. Look, I spent part of this summer with the Stoics. Marcus Aurelius mostly, some Seneca, and every version of the Odyssey plot that isn’t actually the Odyssey, because I cannot stand Ulysses, and I’m not going […]
Some of the most capable people I know are quietly running on information that never shows up in a business case. Not intuition in the vague, decorative sense. Something closer to data they can’t fully explain and have learned not to ignore. I think dismissing that, in ourselves or in the people we work with, […]
It’s the last weekend in August. Which means September begins shortly. And we all know what that brings. Our energy changes, our focus gets very clear, and with four months left in the year, some of us, after taking stock of our progress this year, declare our efforts as simply not enough. Yikes! Optimism does […]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about ditching my title. Here’s what happened after I released that opinion piece. Four people read that piece and told me I’d just described their secret sauce. I know all four of them personally. Not one of them had ever crossed my mind as someone I might hire. Here’s […]
There is something I keep noticing in the conversations I’ve been having with colleagues and clients this month. The pattern is consistent enough that I think it belongs here, in the wider community. For years, I was the person with the colour-coded planner, the non-negotiable morning routine, and the running list of serious, ambitious things […]
Have you ever thought about flow? I know, it sounds woo-woo, doesn’t it? But bear with me. Some old writings on Taoism crossed my desk recently. Specifically, something I hadn’t read in decades, and I read the same passage three times. In Chinese, Wu Wei is written 無為. The first character means “without” or “absence.” […]
Last week, I argued that efficiency is a manufacturing concept we swallowed whole and have been choking on ever since. This week, the harder question. If that’s the wrong metric, what do we replace it with? I want to start with a word. Ripening. Not growing. Not scaling. Not optimizing. Ripening. The kind of […]
The other day, someone who will one day be a client asked me if my diagnostic process could make her more efficient. I sat with that for a while. Then I wrote back: Efficiency is a word that should be banned for all time Particularly when it comes to humans. Here’s where it came from. […]
One of the hardest lessons I’ve ever had to learn is how to graciously receive. Today I’m asking you to learn it faster than I did. Because your heart will rejoice, your shoulders will lift, and you will stand so much stronger in your own skin. Don’t be like me. Please don’t be like me. […]
Everyone is talking about the jobs. Which jobs AI will take. Which jobs are safe. Which skills to learn, which to abandon, which to pivot toward before the window closes. It’s a reasonable conversation. It’s also missing the point by a considerable margin. Because entry-level jobs were never really about the work. Yes, they paid […]