The tools we use to create and communicate should be so easy to use we rarely ever think about them. With simple tools we naturally focus on what the tool allows us to do. The famous typography designer Matthew Carter has said that when you read you should not see the letters on the page, […]

So how do we tell the truth? Here are a few ways I found work: Inform the uniformed: Challenging the accepted situation by citing reality may get you sent to Siberia. But it depends on whom you’re talking to. Over time executives become ill informed – ironically – because timid employees avoid giving them bad […]

Over time a company’s official history becomes ideology and people need the truth of reality to help them grow. On my first trip to Berlin I toured the former Deutsche Demokratische Republik including a number of museums and memorials describing the former communist state, the Berlin Wall, and life within its boundaries. We’re now well […]

There are times when working with a single other person – pair management – is better than working alone or with a team. Some professions such as police have a long tradition of working in pairs. Recently software programmers have started to practice pair programming where two people sit together and alternate roles of writing […]

A group of people working as a team is often the best way to complete a project because teams can generate more work of higher quality than individuals or large groups. Do it now Form a team of people for a project requiring new ideas and more work than one or two people can do. […]

There are times when working alone is more productive than working with a partner or a team. Working alone is useful when you need to expand on an existing idea, to carefully synthesize information, or do imaginative thinking. Working alone can also be useful to finish a familiar task quickly without interference. Working alone isn’t […]

Working directly with other people to design or build something – co-creation – can produce significantly more productive results when creating a product than talking only. Do it now At the next meeting of your team, set a single goal for everyone to accomplish together. Post big sheets of paper on the wall and give […]