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Spending time designing a system, message or business requires getting clear about how something should work, flow or connect. I have not found that this can be done in isolation. I need to bounce ideas off of others and work to get insights to integrate into the design. Socially, we
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Every week you have the opportunity to move the needle and get your business notching up a level. Not only do you have to get the necessary work you committed to others done in your projects and tasks, but you have to make space and time to work on your
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Yes, you could have done that after you have seen it done. We get that benefit today watching how people put together solutions by benchmarking what others do first. The Egg of Columbus story where Columbus challenges his mocking critics to make an egg stand on its end highlights the
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When we are buried in the details of our work, it's hard to look around and see connections to worlds outside ourselves. We can be talking to the same people within our crowd, read the same blogs, and look at the world through a myopic lens. Some of
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I have shared about the need to unlearn and reinvent continually because of market forces all around you and the pace of change. Once you see something that was once hard become convenient, commoditized and automated, you have to unlearn and relearn. I think that the Harvard Business Review has
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Your routines set you up for performance, creativity and peace of mind. We have this long road ahead to accomplish projects that matter day in and day out. And if we simply go with the randomness and urgencies of the day, we don't win the long game. We
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We had this age of efficiency and continuous improvement for a long time. When the Japanese were destroying us in the auto industry with better quality cars we buckled down and hyper focused on quality. It worked. ISO standards, Deming Cycles and Six Sigma drove quality to new standards, and
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If you are a business owner or manager, you have the ongoing challenge of solving daily problems with your team. Inevitably, people will bring problems to you. And how you handle those requests becomes a signal to the people on your team of what to expect. What you communicate will
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We are all trying to get something more and get problems solved every day. And a counterintuitive approach to problem solving is often to get away from your problems. I like to get away to remote and serene places to get my mind off of things. It opens things up
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Abraham Lincoln is often quoted as saying, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." Is that what most people do? Most people start sawing away at their problems. I think it feels safe because you don&
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Opportunity tends to be all around you. Have you ever thought that the people you randomly meet you likely have 5 opportunities together? But you have to: 1. Care enough to listen carefully 2. Understand what the other person is all about 3. Match what you do with what they
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I sold everything off and hit the road exploring the United States with my wife and 3 kids. We have seen many of the national parks, landed on a glacier in Alaska and have lived in cities all across the country getting to know locals and exploring the diversity of