Doing all the work
October 5, 2022
Accountability is a big, heavy word. It manages to be about management, and feedback, and operational excellence, and culture all at once.
World's Best Newsletter Archive
Let us feed you
September 21, 2022
Delegation fails at work when the hand-off is incomplete, and also when the hand-off is too complete. And once you know that, you can get better at this fast.
You’ve changed
September 7, 2022
The solution is to acknowledge and process the change. To integrate it and come back to something newly coherent. And the way you do that is reflection.
The little con and the big con
August 24, 2022
This Quiet Quitting thing may be the topic du jour, but it’s not universal. There are people out there doing engaged, enthusiastic work. There are organizations shining bright and without burning out. If you’re sweating it, worried that it’s happening with your team, here’s our advice.
You don’t want to drink that
August 10, 2022
Threats. Dismissiveness. Burnout. Micromanagement. Yelling. Every bad boss behaviour is going to come out of the woodwork in the next few months.
Hello from the basement
July 27, 2022
One of us has COVID and so far, thanks in large part to the basement (and boosters! and masking! and updated rapid test procedures!), no one else in the house does.
The buzzing noise from the hotel closet
July 13, 2022
Vacations are a cross-training opportunity. They are a sponsorship opportunity. They are resilience and succession planning and visibility opportunities for your team. You just have to see them for what they are.
The opposite of coherent
June 29, 2022
So here we are. Faced with this disastrous ruling. And it makes us wonder: how coherent are your organization’s actions on this one? We heard about the relocation policy, what other actions are they taking? Do they line up?
Smile more?
June 15, 2022
If you start from the assumption that you need to make your team happy – that happiness is an input to work that you need to maximize – you reach for one set of tools. Tools that reduce stress, remove discomfort, avoid conflict. And maybe at a birthday party, or a summer camp, those would be appropriate.
The unloved doc with all the answers
June 1, 2022
The org chart is a power map. Not figuratively. Literally. It is a map of relationships, reporting structure, and accountability lines. When we talk about issues being structural, this is where that structure shows up.
The Clapback
May 18, 2022
Anywhere your senior leaders are not giving their full-throated support to a thing, you should be prepared for a clapback.
Pretend it’s a business
May 4, 2022
Faced with an extended stay in the squishy place, a lot of execs are opting out. They are making decisions with the information they’ve got. Trading liminal for solid ground anywhere they can find it. And, for a lot of workplaces, shit is about to get real.
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