Who owns the miss

We blame the override on the person. It belongs to the org chart. A system flags a risk, recommends a decision, or turns a metric red. We expect the people closest to the work to trust it. Often, they don’t. We call it resistance and schedule more training. The latest...

The honeymoon hire

We know the feeling. A candidate walks in and within minutes the conversation flows. Shared references. Shared values. Shared irritation at how things used to be done. We leave the room certain. Certainty that arrives that fast deserves suspicion. Attraction is how we...

Perfect is a verb

We admire finished things. The polished launch. The signed deal. The product that finally works. And then we stop. Hold the first iPhone today, and the gap is almost comical. No App Store. No copy and paste. A 2G connection that made the internet feel like a waiting...

The change room rule

Every change room has a rule. Say what needs to be said, and what’s said here stays here. Most people hear that as a rule about silence. It isn’t. It’s a rule about location. The team that keeps its laundry inside is usually the team that washes it inside....

Say it once

The first time you say it, they listen. The second time, they listen for the tone. By the third time, they no longer hear the message. They are hearing you. Frustrated, precise, a little louder. The conversation is now about your feelings, and the work that needed to...