Meetings are a necessity. Meetings also often stink. Typically, they are a waste of time. There are too many meetings—and most of them are often poorly-organized, lack coherent agendas, serve to do little more than reaffirm hierarchies than achieve results. As a result, poorly-run meetings cost companies $37 billion a year in lost productivity. Employees […]
4 Steps to Foster Creativity
How to Bring Out the Best in Your Team
Creativity is not some remote and solitary island. Each day, from the studios of legendary visual effects outfit Industrial Light & Magic to the conference rooms of ad agencies to the mission control rooms of NASA, teams of people come together to conceptualize, develop, and realize innovations in everything from movies to public policy. Yet […]
Thank God It’s… Thursday?
Getting Over Institutional Obstacles to Focus
The best and most creative thinking and problem-solving can only take place during uninterrupted periods of time. You know it and so do your colleagues. Which is why your company wants to give everyone time one day a week—let’s say Thursday—to work alone. Easier said than done. It is difficult to control the array of […]
Our Soured Romance with Overwork
Why We Keep Falling for It Over and Over Again
The idea that working ever harder and longer leads to better results is as American as apple pie, despite all evidence to the contrary. Chronic overwork is unproductive, unhealthy, and destructive of a balanced life. Yet against the evidence—and against the advice of incredibly successful people such as Henry David Thoreau and Henry Ford—overwork remains […]
Living the Impossible Dream
From the 4-Minute Mile to Major Bets That Paid Off
Your ambitious goal isn’t impossible to accomplish—and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. The first step in making any endeavor possible is dismissing the naysayers who insist that the possible isn’t.
Certainly, you shouldn’t think that you can defy Newton’s Third Law of Physics or pretend that gravity doesn’t exist. You can, however, learn three priceless lessons from those who defied the skeptics.
4 Steps for Dealing with Self-Doubt
How Barack Obama and Sheryl Sandberg Beat the Imposter Syndrome
It’s natural to feel like an imposter sometimes. But don’t dwell on your self-doubt. Instead, the solution is to recognize your feelings as a healthy part of your professional and personal development, realize that other successful people feel the same way, understand that you already have the strengths needed, and use this fear as a […]