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Yes, You Can Brainstorm Without Groupthink
In articles in both the New York Times and The New Yorker earlier this year, the concept of brainstorming as introduced in the 1940's by Alex Osborn has been attacked as ineffective and linked to the concept of...
Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired, and Secretive, Company Really Works
On August 24, 2011, the day Steve Jobs resigned as chief executive officer of Apple, he attended a meeting of the company’s board of directors. He was gravely ill and had reached the conclusion that it was time to...
Powerful Tactics to Lead Without a Title
In many ways, the whole idea behind Leading Without a Title is the democratization of leadership. Yes, positions are important to the smooth running of any organization (whether that organization is a business or a...
Overcome Team Dysfunction
Building an effective cohesive team is extremely hard. But it is also simple. What I mean is that teamwork doesn’t require great intellectual insights or masterful tactics. More than anything, it comes down to courage...
Mindful Leadership
Since the fall of 2008Â we have seen trillions of dollars disappear from the global economy, causing a substantial restructuring. Indeed, few economies, organizations, or institutions in the world have been spared. Never...
Match Your Innovation Process to the Results You Want
We are often asked whether the best way to structure for innovation is top-down or bottom-up. The answer is both, but it depends. Bottom-up approaches work well for incremental (keeps you in the game) innovations....
Making the Leap to Customer Intimacy
Few events so clearly epitomize a nationwide conversion to brand intimacy as did the moment when seemingly every consumer in the country began referring to the Target store chain as Tar-Jay. In the late 1990s, Target...
Lessons on Leadership from the Canadian Forces
The Canadian Armed Forces has always embraced a very pointed theory about leadership. It’s called distributed leadership and its premise is quite simple: every member of the Canadian Forces must be able to accept the...
It's Never "Just Lunch"
With more and more business and interviewing taking place over lunch these days, I thought it made sense to take a moment or two to run through the do’s and don’ts for being an effective guest in these situations...
Why Things Catch On
The key insight behind Contagious is that word of mouth isn’t luck, it’s not chance and it’s not magic. We all know that word of mouth is really effective, but to make it work for us we’ve got to figure out how to get...
Invest More in Design and Less in Strategy
In our MBA-saturated culture, strategy-based thinking tends to overshadow design- and idea-based thinking. Wary of the big idea, investors would rather bet on the big strategy, no matter how unoriginal it is. We’ve seen...
Yes, You Can – Relationship Development Isn’t Luck, It’s a System
Relationship Development starts with the unconventional premise that relationship building is not a matter of luck, genetics, or social status. There is a system – shared mindsets, process, and skills – employed by...
Increase Your Company's Productivity With Social Media
A growing number of companies talk about the benefits of adopting web 2.0 tools inside the organization, but the list is short for companies that are using them for increased business results. Unisys, the 138-year old...
Ignoring Superficial Distractions, Canada's Startup Space Continues to Boom
With cross-country transportation limited at the turn of the twentieth century, Vancouver was isolated from Toronto and Montreal’s domestic film production communities. That should have broken Vancouver’s back. But in...
How the Chinese Became Global Branding Geniuses
In the same way China approached its preparations for the Beijing Olympics, businesses have fully detailed each sensory impression a product will have on consumers. One company's ultimate objective: Become a global...
How Do We Identify Good Ideas?
I’ve always been fascinated by the failures of genius. Consider Bob Dylan. How did the same songwriter who produced Blood on the Tracks and Blonde on Blonde also conclude that Down in the Groove was worthy of release?...
From Business Cards to Business Relationships: Personal Branding and Profitable Networking Made Easy
The most likely starting point to build a profitable network is to analyze your current network and figure out who you already know. If you have networked for years, or if you’re brand new to the concept, chances are...
From Atoms to Bits to Atoms
Something amazing happened in early October of this year. A spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida and made its way to the International Space Station carrying close to one thousand pounds of supplies. The...
Work With People You Don't Like
We have all heard the expression, “opposites attract.â€Â But in fact there is irrefutable scientific evidence that in relationships, opposites repel. Simply put, we prefer to be around others who are similar to us. In...
Why Your Good Advice Isn't Working (And How to Change That)
You Are a Machine Let’s own up to the truth right now: You are a finely-tuned, advice-giving machine. For years you’ve been trained, nurtured, encouraged and rewarded to share your point of view. You’re a walking fount...
