I spend a lot of time listening. A non-trivial act for me because my mind… it wanders. However, I’ve got a system. Feet flat on the ground, slightly clenched jaw, staring you straight in the eyes. I am full body listening. You have my complete attention. I am not missing a word. We humans are… more
If you’ve had a 1:1 with me in the last decade you know that once we’re done with our planned agenda that there is good chance that I’ll stand up, walk to the whiteboard, and start drawing some version of the organization chart (“org chart”). I believe the org chart is one of the three… more
Awhile ago. I picked a font for a reason I’ve since forgotten. The typeface, Cyan, is unremarkable. Not a great body font and not a great headline font. I probably used it in a presentation once or twice, found it to be poorly kerned, and then moved on. However, the R, the lowercase R, somehow… more
Ted’s feeling pretty good. He sits across from me in the conference room and says, “Program launch is solid. We’ve been working on the details for almost a month. We vetted the concept with all the affected teams and made tweaks, and now they’re fine. The only step left is sending the announcement to the… more
The easiest way to improve your information consumption practices is to watch someone you trust to do their work. I get glimpses every day. At the beginning of meetings during the traditional inane five minutes of wondering why the AV never works, I eagerly await your shared screen on the room’s monitor see how you… more
Your most precious asset is your time. You’ve developed a set of time management practice that work for you. Super. Thing is, tools change and, more importantly. you change. Every couple of years I believe in re-examining how I work and the following is my latest and great set of information management and consumption practices.… more
Being in the Zone is such an essential concept to me, I did a shirt. The Zone is a place, and Flow is an activity that occurs within this precious mental place. Flow is the ability to consider a project or a problem deeply. In Flow, you can keep a superhuman amount of context in… more
INT. EVENING. CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA. BJ’S RESTAURANT AND BREWHOUSE. A RECENT FRIDAY NIGHT The bar is full. Two keyboards sit at the bar: APPLE EXTENDED II and MACBOOK PRO. The front door opens, TOUCHBAR looks around, sees the two keyboards at the bar, grins, and heads their direction. Skipping. APPLE EXTENDED II sits at the bar… more
I’m a hockey guy. Picked it up in college and spent the next two decades playing all forms of hockey: deck, roller, and ice. The Sharks arrived in San Jose and made my chosen sport official. I was set. However, there were two sports before hockey. It started in junior high with cross-country running and… more
The majority of people-related disasters I’ve created originate with my choice to not say the hard thing. On my short list of critical leadership skills, the ability to “say the hard thing” is right after “delegate until it hurts.” I didn’t give feedback when behavior was off because the person was new and I told… more