How do you avoid the slow waterfall of goals? A draft of a chapter for Radical Focus 2.0. I […]
Cascading OKRs at Scale
The Art of the OKR, Redux
The original “Art of the OKR” was written in 2014. I returned to it as I began […]
Let the Wrong One Go
Clear Feedback and Compassionate Firing The biggest problem with firing is we’re afraid to do it. If you’ve […]
Let the Right One In
Hiring. Everyone says it’s the most important thing you need to get right in your company. And yet […]
Mind the Product Keynote on Teams
My Mind the Product opening keynote on High Performing teams is up. They do a great write up, […]
From the half-bakery: Temporal Landmarks
I am about to start a new habit. I’ve starting writing more and more formal essays, and I […]
Using OKRs to Increase Organizational Learning
This is a draft chapter from the second edition of Radical Focus. It’s coming… eventually. Hopefully soonish. Leave […]
Working the Weekly 1:1
A better approach for the most important meeting of the week There are a lot of work “rituals” that […]
Norms Exercise
I learned this exercise from Andre Plaut and have used it, tweaked it, and loved it. I do […]
Three Writing Frameworks to Get You Through Nanowrimo
If you plan to do NaNoWriMo, you’re going to write 1,667 words a day. That’s a lot of […]
Book of the Week: Thanks for the Feedback
Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well Very few people are good at […]
Book of the Week: The Culture Map
I thought I might try a new series. I read a lot of books, between pleasure and teaching, […]
Beyond OKRs: The Formula for High Performing Teams
Every wonder if there was a better way to form and manage teams? Before I disappeared for the […]
Supercharge Your Team with Effective Feedback
This is part three of a three-part series on high performing teams. I recommend you start with the first two […]
Designing High Performing Teams
This is Part 2 of a three part series on high performing teams. Part one is of Design the […]
Design the Team You Need to Succeed
Part One: Types of Teams Written to sort out my thoughts for my UXDC keynote. If you’d like […]
A Visual Vocabulary for Concept Models
Part One: Rendering Relationships Sign up to be alerted when Pencil Me In, my book on visual thinking, […]
MicroStories for Pitching
If you want to craft a compelling narrative for a book or a presentation, I recommend the format […]
Pencil Me In
Working with Pictures was so well received, I decided to do a “real” book. Eight months later (a.k.a. […]
Drawing Books
I usually try to write up the books I read each year. This year I apparently read 250, […]
Five Models for Making Sense of Complex Systems
In one of the classes I teach at CCA, students were confused by mental models, conceptual models, concept […]
Feedback for Teams
This is a write-up of a key learning from my fall class “The Creative Founder,” open to Juniors […]
Story Secrets for Understanding and Communicating
My Convey UX presentation is up! Live drawing, improv and heaps of storytelling! Learn how to incorporate story […]
Alphabets and Logographs
When I first got into Visual Thinking, I came across a core concept that no one agreed on: […]
One Big Idea
I was enjoying a sazerac with a old friend of mine at a local watering hole. And by […]
Block Your Talk
This one of a series of essays on speaking. Find more here. You’ve written a great talk, you’ve […]
Presenting is Performance
This one of a series of essays on speaking. Find more here. When the Game Developer’s Conference invited […]
Personal OKRs, Three Years Later
Don’t know anything about OKRs? Read The Art of the OKR first, and/or Personal OKRs. Also, personal OKRs are […]
For TinyLIpsum, with Love and Stories
I’ve been teaching storytelling for a couple of years now, and have discovered there is a particular shape that […]
How to Make a Concept Model
Originally published in Boxes and Arrows May 6th, 2014. I realized recently I never published this here, on my […]