We walk past gold

We are terrible appraisers of our own kitchens. Massimo Bottura grew up fighting his brothers for yesterday’s bread, soaked in warm milk with a splash of coffee. Years later, at Osteria Francescana, he rebuilt that bowl as a dessert. It tasted better than the...

Chasing the next song

A handwritten note. That’s how it started. Fifty years ago this week, a 14-year-old drummer named Larry Mullen Jr. pinned “Drummer Seeks Musicians To Form Band” to a noticeboard at Mount Temple in Dublin. Four teenagers turned up in his kitchen. Bono...

Escaping to focus

Every hard project reaches a moment when pushing stops working. We push anyway. More hours. More meetings. Another pass at the same spreadsheet. We tell ourselves the only alternative to perseverance is quitting, so we grind, and the problem stays exactly where it...

The metrics you’re watching

A CEO pulled up their phone during a session last month, scrolling through analytics before we’d even said hello. Follower count was up. Engagement was up. Everything looked good. Then I asked: did revenue move? Silence. That pause tells you everything about...

Before contact

We wait to be touched. That’s how most organizations are built. Something has to press hard enough for us to respond: a resignation, a missed number, a complaint that finally gets loud enough to hear. A touchscreen doesn’t work that way. Capacitive touch...