Your brand is useless

December 4, 2010

It doesn’t feed people. It doesn’t help them get from one place to another. It doesn’t teach them anything. It doesn’t make them safer. It doesn’t help them store their data. And it most definitely does not help them find themselves or form an identity. It doesn’t do anything. Maybe your products and services do. […]

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Your company doesn’t exist

December 2, 2010

A company is just a legal entity. A concept. That’s all. I’m sure it feels real to you. But what exactly about it is real? I submit, that when it comes down to it, there is only one thing about it that is real – people. Your company is people. The company doesn’t do anything, people […]

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Can we talk?

December 1, 2010

Communication is the most important bit of infrastructure in the creation of society. Without communication there is no way for any two people to connect, to share ideas, to determine whether they have shared interests, to collaborate, etc. We all know that communication can be difficult. But we all believe that it basically works. I […]

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All about the money

November 22, 2010

All about the money is easy. The objective is clear. It makes good business sense. It’s practical. The only problem is – it doesn’t work. Not for very long. Most people want their lives to have meaning beyond the accretion of material wealth. Even if you could find employees or coworkers who were all in […]

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On de-friending a friend

November 1, 2010

I have some pretty clear rules for my Facebook friend list. I’m not interested in winning a numbers contest. I want high quality Facebook friends and I don’t care much about quantity. What does quality mean to me? It means adding value. Provoking my thinking. Sharing useful information with me. Connecting me to social occurrences […]

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A revolution is coming

October 26, 2010

For years, big business has waged a war against humanity. It has done everything in its power to rid the workplace of the messiness of human souls. Angry at work? You need a stress management hotline. Disagree with your teammates? You need a conflict resolution workshop. Have an idea that challenges the orthodoxies of the […]

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Teach it

October 25, 2010

Sorry, no snappy title today. I recently found myself explaining to a colleague how and why we would approach a certain problem. It was a problem with considerable ambiguity and though I had thought about it prior to this colleague asking me for an explanation, I hadn’t really arrived at a firm point of view. […]

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At what price?

October 19, 2010

Emerson wrote “Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater.” This is the deal we make in order to get […]

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Sometimes the torpedo wins

October 7, 2010

I must admit that I am inspired by heroic moments in which people commit themselves fully to a course of action, consequences be damned. When Rocky in Rocky IV goes all out to fight Ivan Drago, knowing it could kill him. When Carl Brashear in Men of Honor goes all out to get himself reinstated […]

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Full pay for half a day

October 6, 2010

I have an idea. Tell all of your employees that from now on you will pay them their current salary but they only have to work half a day. You in? Of course not. It’s a dumb idea. But that is exactly what you are doing right now. Sure, you’re making your employees show up […]

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