The game we never stop playing

“The speed of the leader is the speed of the pack.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Kids don’t read the memo. They watch. The founder who cuts corners teaches her team that corners exist to be cut. The executive who dismisses questions trains his people to...

Too much, too fast

I think about this often. We are living in the most extraordinary information age in human history, and I am not sure we have fully reckoned with what that means. The access is stunning. In 2012 alone, IBM estimated that 2.5 exabytes of new data were generated every...

One size fits none

McDonald’s built an empire on consistency. Same Big Mac. Same Coke. Same experience in Tokyo as Topeka. And even then, you add condiments. You order diet. You ask for no pickles. So why do service firms still sell one-size solutions? A 2021 Harvard Business...

The consenting assassin

They nodded. They signed the charter. They shook your hand. And then they went back to their desk and did nothing. The consenting assassin is not a villain in a movie. There is no dramatic monologue. No obvious betrayal. Just a quiet, deliberate withholding of effort,...

Negotiated targets

“All or nothing” sounds bold. But watch what happens when the target gets set. The founder says 40. The team hears 40, thinks 28, commits to 32. Nobody lied. Everyone discounted. That’s not all or nothing. That’s math dressed up as ambition....