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Fired up about modern management?
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Build Something Better.
This is our free, biweekly newsletter about management, leadership, and ridding the world of Sunday Scaries. For good.
20k of headache
April 30, 2025
If one more exec pastes one more link about workplace dips in productivity, the managers are going lose it.
Director means something
January 10, 2024
And pretending it’s a title or a pay bump without a new set of responsibilities is a disservice to everyone.
Nice, nice, very nice
October 16, 2024
The longer you’re in a culture of niceness and side-channels and things left unsaid, the more you have to wonder about the conversations happening out of earshot.
If you’re doing their job, who’s doing your job?
April 17, 2024
The cure for a structurally overwhelmed team is a better structure. It’s clarity about what matters most, and permission to hand off or put down the work that doesn’t.
Browse the archive
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20k of headache
April 30, 2025
If one more exec pastes one more link about workplace dips in productivity, the managers are going lose it.
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The poser manifesto
April 16, 2025
We talk with people building amazing things all the time, from founders to interns, and none of them sound like this.
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The enshittification of work
April 2, 2025
The froth has subsided. And in its wake, organizations have found some truly short-sighted approaches to labour.
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Where are the people-pleasers?
March 19, 2025
The biggest issue for people-pleasing leaders isn’t that they need to be tougher. Or scream more. Or play a different boss on TV.
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Run it like a business
March 5, 2025
You should have just said “run it badly.”
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The heart of it
February 19, 2025
To be worthy of your time, work needs to have dignity, meaning, and impact.
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Nothing about this is temporary
February 5, 2025
The thing you can’t do, even when the entire world is upside down, is freeze.
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Apropos of everything
January 22, 2025
If we all show up with different ick, whose wins? How do we break ties?
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What to do about time goblins
January 8, 2025
The core theory any time any organization hires anyone — employee, intern, contractor, law firm, outside agency — is leverage.
Build Something Better
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