There’s a flame, a fire, in the corner of our eye. It comes in and out of view. We want to look. We want to fuel it. We yearn for its primal energy – for what it can do for us, and what we can do with it. If we…
SXSW 2020: The Remix
A blog post I keep coming back to is The Rise of the Remixer. I wrote this quite a while ago, and didn’t think much of it at the time – or rather, I sensed there was something interesting to explore further but wasn’t sure exactly what that something was….
The Educator in Residence
Why a different type of EIR could be your firm’s new secret weapon In 1989, the Hollywood talent agency CAA moved into its new $25m offices designed by star architect I.M Pei. In a little over a decade the company had grown from a $21,000 bank loan and no employees…
Coaching: Three agendas for exploration
This is part of a series of articles derived from my coaching certification assessment. There are numerous coaching models used in certification programs: this particular one focuses on three agendas; presenting, deeper, and transformational. Here’s a brief breakdown of each of those three agendas, along with an example from a…
When you see…
There are some things that once you see, you just can’t un-see. Your view of the world changes. However, you can’t just see these things. You have to be personally exposed to them through more than just seeing before you can really see them. And it’s important to acknowledge that…
Orbiting the Orbit: On Tour Again
A couple of months ago the Webster Hall music venue reopened in New York City. As a relatively new arrival to the city, I’m not an expert on the city’s nightlife history, but I know although it’s not in the same category as the likes of CBGBs, Webster Hall is…
Talking to Humans: Go anonymous
“praise by name, criticize by category.” Warren Buffett Or to put it another way: Praise Specifically, Criticize Generally When it comes to telling our personal stories to a group we’re working with, there are some situations where we can use this same principle to build rapport and decrease the distance….
Talking to Humans: No intro, no get-go
The value of the introduction when you’re running workshops, leading a class, or doing most types of speaking to an audience Skip your introduction and something happens. At least some of your audience will sense something’s out of kilter. Perhaps you have a name tag, or said hello to some…
I don’t do name tags
The other night I went to an information event for a program I’d registered interest in. It was held in a conference room at a sleek building in Midtown Manhattan; the type of place where the gunmetal elevator zooms you straight up to the 40th floor in the blink of…