Yup, Goals = Focus I’ve worked for large companies and not so large ones. Each one had goals set out as reminders of what we were all striving for. We hear about goals all the time and it makes sense to put some focus around what everyone’s working toward. To give it more meaning. To give… keep reading
I’ve recently started a new YouTube channel to talk about the things I normally write about: psychology, science, and history, and how they intersect with helping us run better businesses. And it’s grown at a nice clip so far with over 340 subscribers. That’s tiny in the realm of YouTube where my favorite channels are… keep reading
We’re happy pacifists when it comes to finding great people. The best are everywhere, hiding out in all sorts of quiet places. “The only winning move is not to play” — WarGames Snapchat poaching from Airbnb. Uber poaching from Twitter. Facebook poaching from Google. If you run a tech company, you’re familiar with the talent war. You may… keep reading
When I was an employee four years ago, I felt stuck. I had some ideas about how I thought the company could be better… but I had no clue how to bring it up to my boss at the time. How could I mention these ideas without it feeling like an attack on him? I… keep reading
The Single Server Room In a perfect world all of your servers are hard-wired to each other in a room. There would be one opening with which the world connects to your little slice of the Internet. That way all of your cross-service communication into databases, infrastructure and other services happens within the single set of… keep reading
On Inbound.org Michelle Frantino asks: How to you create a multi-channel marketing plan? (events, inbound, etc.) Should have events, paid media, inbound, email campaigns, etc. included. Trying to include costs of each item as well. Lots of detail to show here.. Here’s an expanded version of my reply. It’s a non-answer to her specific question,… keep reading
You might have heard: The bigger the scope of your problem, the more rigorous your approach must be. It applies to projects and organizations alike. It’s a correlation often associated with the notion of “getting away with something”. Like, you can get away with not having large, frequent status meetings because you’re still small, but… keep reading
It’s 2008, and a soon-to-be mom is overwhelmed with preparing for her new addition. As she readies baby clothes by pre-washing them, she breaks into an allergic reaction with hives all over her skin. The detergent her mom recommended as safe for kids wasn’t even safe on adults. She freaked out. She hunted to find… keep reading
Many policies are organizational scar tissue — codified overreactions to situations that are unlikely to happen again. The second something goes wrong, the natural tendency is to create a policy. “Someone’s wearing shorts!? We need a dress code!” No, you don’t. You just need to tell John not to wear shorts again. Policies are organizational scar tissue. They… keep reading
Spend an afternoon with us and you’ll see it all — how we communicate internally, how we decide what to do, how we divvy up and manage work, how we’re structured, how teams interact, how designers and programmers work together — even how we disagree and resolve conflict. Everything’s on stage, nothing’s off-limits. The workshop is Thursday, July 7,… keep reading