The humanizing power of check-ins (with Terry Lee)
Does your startup act like a “team” or a “family”? (with Terry Lee)
A lot of startup founders refer to their teams as “families”, especially in the early stages. They spend all of their time together, laugh together, cry together, and care for each other as human beings beyond their roles as colleagues. Just like a family, right? Not quite. I sat down to talk through the implications […]
Who is your real boss? How constraints shape creativity in big businesses
Can constraints make you more creative? This question is my obsession. The answer is yes–if you choose the right ones. I recently spoke to the team at Logitech in Silicon Valley about how they can use constraints to help their teams be more creative and productive. For background, Logitech is a publicly traded company with […]
The Emerging Potential for Women Leaders
In our last post, Miriam Meima and I outlined the three unspoken challenges of women in tech — being seen, being heard, and being ourselves. We have had the opportunity to coach a number of today’s most successful women leaders. Through that work a fascinating paradox has emerged — that the path to being seen […]
Get your focus back by reclaiming your final 5%
It’s a fallacy to believe your success at work can be separated from your success as a human being. And truly successful leaders know this. They focus on being successful on a personal level first – and everything follows from that intention. So, that said, what does it mean to be successful in this sense? […]
Slack
Creativity Hacks: Five steps to using constraints to solve problems fast
“Think outside the box.” That advice is about as helpful under time pressure as telling a three year old to “calm down!” in the middle of a tantrum. We all want to be creative when we face tricky problems, but how? Many creativity experts advise opening your mind to wacky ideas, and creating a sense […]
Why the Los Angeles startup scene will keep growing
You’ve probably heard that my home town of Los Angeles has startup fever. There is no doubt that the LA tech scene is heating up. But is high-tech a trend, or can “Silicon Beach” really make a dent in the culture of a town where “the industry” refers to entertainment and not technology? Silicon Beach […]
Design is an Organizational Behavior Challenge
What do top universities, international airlines, and the California DMV have in common? Answer: Terrible websites, with so much hierarchy in their navigation scheme that accomplishing a basic task requires a black belt in enterprise bureaucracy. Why do companies with so many resources at their disposal have such a hard time producing good design? Simple, […]
Growth is not magic
There’s been lots of hype lately about growth and growth hacking. I’ve even heard such nonsense as “we can turn on virality whenever we want to.” (Um, if it were that easy….. never mind.) The truth about user acquisition is that while there are some fundamental principles at work, there is no substitute for having […]
