Staff Picks

Brick by Brick, or How LEGO Was Awesome, Failed, and Then Became Awesome Again

We have reached a point in time when those of us who missed out on playing with LEGOs as kids have by now had the opportunity to buy the iconic toys for our own children. I am fortunate enough to have experienced the joy of LEGO both as a child and an adult, so my interest in David C. Robertson’s Brick

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Reinventing You

“What do people think of you? What do they say when you leave the room? ” Maybe you don’t think you have a brand.

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Untapped Talent: Unleashing the Power of the Hidden Workforce

By Sally Haldorson

Kudos to the author and publisher for coming up with such an intriguing title. It's impossible not to wonder just who this "hidden workforce" is, and surprisingly, organizational development expert Dani Monroe reveals that an untapped source of talent is right under our noses: our current underutilized

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Nice Companies Finish First

Bad management—chances are we have either worked under bad management or we know someone who has. The harmful effects of a bad manager often extend as far as the private lives of staff, but the more obvious effects can be seen inside the workplace. Sadly, bad bosses are not all that uncommon.

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How to Be Interesting

By 800-CEO-READ

This week, Dylan and I went to go see Jessica Hagy speak at the wonderful Lynden Sculpture Garden. Hagy, an ex-advertising copywriter who now creates doodles and charts with keen observations on people and the situations they find themselves in, presented a summary of her "10 Simple Steps" from her

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Global Dexterity

While reading Andy Molinsky's new book Global Dexterity, I was reminded of an experience I had shortly after starting my first job as a working professional. I had been on the job for about a month. A colleague in my department was turning 30, so we were celebrating in a vacant office with some grocery

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Why Managing Sucks (and How to Fix It)

In the world of professional work, there is a growing conversation about how work can be done and what is most important to a company and its staff. In 2010, we selected Rework as Business Book of the Year because if offered fresh thought on everyday business operations; it gave affirmation to the companies

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Visual Leaders

Leadership on its own is hard work. Leaders require many skills, but one particularly important ability successful leaders must have is vision. Despite being clichés of success, companies like Amazon and Apple are time and again exemplary largely because their leaders have been able to visualize the

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Startup Communities

In the foreward to Brad Feld's most recent book, Startup Communities, Steve Case begins: During the past three decades, startups in the United States have created 40 million American jobs, all the net job creation in the country over that period. As we recover from a deep recession, our ability to

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The Outstanding Organization

A couple weeks ago I read and reviewed Bob Pozen's Extreme Productivity, which turned my attention to some excellent concepts and strategies for streamlining day-to-day operations. It's important to give attention to the more pragmatic side of operational improvement, an area in which Pozen has demonstrated