Behind the scenes at the magic kingdom
November 16, 2022
We don’t need it to be all doom and gloom. But what does it mean when there’s no longer space to talk about what’s working and what isn’t?
World's Best Newsletter Archive
Who gets Humperdinck?
November 2, 2022
For many bosses, it’s clear that the more you look and talk and vibe like Elon, the more permission you’ll get to be capricious and abusive and cynical.
What to do when you’re all out of puffins
October 19, 2022
The bullshit is supposed to be in service of something. Ideally, say, work that you’re proud of, whose impact matters to you, and which allows you to live a life you enjoy.
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.
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.
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 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.
The laziest form of management
April 20, 2022
At the core of every boss quoting some article about kids today is a two-part management failure. First, a failure to adapt to the changing workplace. And second, a failure to listen to the feedback that they are part of the problem.
The donuts aren’t working
April 6, 2022
We’re hearing from the bosses and people and culture teams asked to implement the Bums-in-Seats directive. Even when they, themselves, are skeptical.
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