All hat, no cattle
November 26, 2025
If your org is on your seventh layoff or Lord-have-mercy, your 82nd re-org, we suggest that it’s time to take a hard look at your underlying planning issues
World's Best Newsletter Archive
If you’re not reading this email, you’re fired
September 3, 2025
The first and easiest gut check in terms of whether your workplace surveillance is helpful or harmful is this.
Busy is not a personality
June 25, 2025
What would you do if you had a week to just clear out backlog?
Run it like a business
March 5, 2025
You should have just said “run it badly.”
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.
I do not think it means what you think it means
November 27, 2024
Attaching the word performance to something doesn’t automatically make it a good idea.
That afternoon headache is a sign
June 26, 2024
It’s invisible and it’s tricky and it involves things you didn’t think you had to care about before, but air is a thing you can act on.
I don’t really have anything this week
May 29, 2024
There’s a difference between surviving and thriving.
You already know how your year is going
January 24, 2024
So much of being an effective operator is noticing problems early, because groups react differently to problems early on.
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.
If it’s urgent, call my cell
December 27, 2023
Do this work long enough and every aspect of the human condition will at some point show up for someone you manage. Or for yourself.
What to do with a gift you can’t return
December 13, 2023
That sad, not particularly thoughtful gift with your name on it? That’s how many people experience performance review season.
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