Google decided in 2009 to apply its prowess at technical research and analysis to find out what made great managers stand out from merely good or bad ones. It analyzed mountains of performance reviews, surveys, and other sources of information and submitted them to extensive crunching, pulling apart “more than 10,000 observations about managers—across more […]
Author: benry
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Love, change
For the first time in a few years, change abounds. New opportunities, new people, new ways of working. Change is a friend not a foe and often signals opportunity more often than not. Each change seemingly a positive bit of momentum towards something better.
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Art or business?
Jill Magid, the artist, reframing a situation: In 2002, as an artist in residence at the Rijksakademie, in Amsterdam, Magid began noticing the large number of surveillance cameras in the city—anonymous gray boxes, mounted on everything from the corners of buildings to coffee-shop awnings. One February morning, she went to the police headquarters and explained […]
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The mind of an architect
In the early 1950s, the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research (IPAR) at the University of California, Berkeley began developing new and different ways to analyze personalities. The scientists at IPAR attempted what many thought was impossible: to study creativity in a methodical and scientific way, working to determine what specific personality traits make certain […]
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Time capsule
In 2012, Russian workers repairing a statue of Lenin unearthed a time capsule with a letter from a Soviet youth group from 1979. It reads, in part: ‘‘Let your character be courageous. Let your songs be happier. Let your love be hotter. We do not feel sorry for ourselves, because we are certain you will […]
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On controlling the narrative
There are different ways to control a narrative. There’s the old-fashioned way: Classify documents that you don’t want seen and, as Gates said, ‘‘keep mum on the details.’’ But there’s also the more modern, social-media-savvy approach: Tell the story you want them to believe. Silence is one way to keep a secret. Talking is another. […]
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Holacracy: all voices matter
…an organization, like a plane, is equipped with sensors in the form of its people, all of whom are capable of sensing the reality around them. Unfortunately, in command-and-control organizations, not everyone’s voice matters–some voices are considered more important than others. Consequently, the voices of the supposed less important people, like the low-voltage indicator, can […]
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Better one-to-ones
Of all the things I do in my job, one-to-one’s are my favourite – yeah I know, crazy eh? I love talking with my team about their ideas, challenges, goals; giving (and getting) feedback; and helping them (and me) grow. And I’m sure they were Captain Kirk’s favourite too. Check out my latest article on […]
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13 things that make a great leader
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about leadership. So I wrote an article on Medium about the 13 things I think make a great leader.
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Curve balls
I tweaked a glute muscle in January at the track. I had a minor slip on some water, but at the root of it was some weakness that I should have long ago tended to. So I’ve been off running largely, relegated to short under 5k runs when I can (the exception was a 10k […]