What’s important

It is intriguing the things that people find important. Timeliness Being fashionably late Privacy above all Saying what you think, unfiltered Mornings free to think uninterrupted Loyalty to outcomes over people Well-dressed for the occasion Not caring about clothes...

The invisible standard

We talk about culture as if it lives in handbooks. It does not. Culture lives in what we do when no one is keeping score. Japan’s World Cup team left their locker room immaculate. The fans cleared their garbage into bags provided to their supporters. Not to win...

Strangers don’t lie

Something shifts in a city when a team wins after 53 years. We don’t just celebrate the trophy. We talk to strangers. We make eye contact on the subway. We feel, briefly, as if we are part of something larger than our own ambitions. The New York Knicks...

The meal was the plan

Landed in Milan early, jet-lagged, bag still in my hand. My friend, whom I hadn’t seen in years, met me with a hug, then insisted I needed a proper espresso. Then he laid out the plan. Not a plan for sightseeing. Not a plan for meetings. A plan for eating, two...

Convincing wrong

Most persuasion fails before it starts. Not because the argument is weak. Not because the data is wrong. Because the persuader never asked one question: where is this person right now? The founder pitching alignment to a skeptical board. The sales rep pushing a...