During the parade for newly minted United States NBA champions, the New York Knicks, Mayor Mamdani didn’t simply say, ‘Well done, boys.’ He turned his speech into a rally and referendum on the spirit of the city. If you haven’t seen it, spare a minute and watch this short edit. During Game...
There’s a shaky, slightly blurry 2009 video showing a guy dancing alone ona grassy hill at the Sasquatch Music Festival. After a few minutes, first one person, then two, join him. And soon a crowd is exuberantly jumping around to the music. Author Robert Cialdini calls this ‘social proof’, and his weighty tome...
Commonly recommended practices for how to 'do' culture often include the idea of champions. I’m not a fan. Because it suggests there's a special set of people responsible for it. So now, I don’t have to do anything. Instead, I advocate that everyone should champion the culture. And the distinction is...
Seems like every time I open a newsletter email these days someone is touting what I call unheroic work. Which makes me happy. We’re well past time for people to start talking about it. Perhaps the rise is a commentary on our times. When the world feels daunting and dangerous it’s...
Wading through Barbra Streisand’s exhaustive 900-plus page biography, My Name is Barbra, I didn’t expect to stumble upon a lesson in maturity that applies to organisations and how their brands store value. In chapter seven, Streisand recounts her audition for the movie Funny Girl. She was trying to convince the director that...
“And then we started the brand work“, said the CEO while I listened to her talk about the behind-the-scenes effort to reimagine their product. Then, later the same week, I received another company’s business plan. A comment hidden in the notes for one area said, “Brand doesn’t play a part in...
On the bottom shelf of my bookcase, I’ve got a small library of books and a stack of papers that explore promises and commitments.The authors ramble at length about the moral foundations and legal consequences of making, keeping and breaking promises. Yet, beyond the examples they use, none provide tools...
The trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of disgraced blood-testing startup Theranos, has begun in a San Francisco courtroom. Holmes sits accused of defrauding patients, doctors, and investors of more than $700 million — charges which she denies but which may land her in jail for up to 20 years. It’s...
Values are not there as a billboard for your goodness.Frankly, I don’t care what someone who doesn’t work for me, with me and buy from me thinks of them and nor should you.So, when I talk about good and bad values, it’s not with any moral judgement. Instead, it’s the...
Breaking promises has consequences, and Crown Resorts and its Melbourne Casino are under the microscope because they chose to break theirs to the government about how they would run the casino. Not because there weren’t enough people keeping watch. It’s like a kid stealing from the cookie jar, and now they’ve...