Have less meetings: The triage method

A triage approach to meetings

For my money, the twin scourges of the modern workplace are: Meetings E-Mails Those two things suck up so much time, and oftentimes they’re not even real work. They’re people talking about work — oftentimes without a lot of context… Continue Reading

Is social media making the rat race even worse?

Is social media making the rat race worse?

From Fast Company, on purpose and passion vs. money in terms of how you evaluate jobs: In the age of social media, we’re bombarded by pressure to continually achieve. Facebook is simply an online archive of people’s mini-achievements. Because we’re so… Continue Reading

No workplace can be ‘creative’ under current management models

No workplace can really be creative under current management models

Managers love to talk about having creative teams, or creative people, or creative ideas — but most of that is a crock. Just like we confuse “strategy” (which is a long-term vision) with “operations” (which is the day-to-day execution of… Continue Reading

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Five factors you need to create change

Five factors you need to create change

Take a look at the graphic above. Your goal is change. Every organization needs to change sometimes — business plans adjust, revenue streams change, leadership turns over, etc. So if your goal is change, how do you achieve that? Here… Continue Reading

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Prioritizing: The 5 balls you juggle in life

Priorities and the 5 Balls You Juggle In Life

I think there should be much more of a robust science and research underpinning to the idea of “How people set priorities.” That’s somewhat everything in life, because I mean, you need to determine what’s important and what needs to be focused… Continue Reading

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Attracting top talent is actually fairly simple

Attracting Top Talent Can Be Simple

Back in June 2014, I sat in a Starbucks near Copley Square in Boston and wrote this post on whether recruiting should even be a function of Human Resources anymore. At the time, I was applying for jobs — I was… Continue Reading

How to ‘manage up:’ The ‘what-if’ approach

Managing Up and "What If?"

One of the hardest things for most people at the low/middle arc of organizations to do is “manage up,” which I think means “stretching yourself” and/or “having a better relationship with your boss.” I had a bit of a mental breakdown… Continue Reading

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Naw, you’re really not that busy

You're not nearly as busy as you think

Here’s a thing I’ve literally never understood in the period of time I’ve been working: everyone runs around all the time talking about how busy they are. OK. So maybe they are. There is this idea that we live in… Continue Reading