While we are taught how to read words and sentences when we are young, we are rarely taught how to read paragraphs or books. And most of us don’t realize there are different levels of reading. The fascinating and useful How To Read A Book is subtitled “The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.” The authors…
You might not have heard of MIT professor Gian-Carlo Rota but you should know Rota’s 10 Life Lessons. Rota was an internationally respected mathematician and philosopher, and an influential and admired teacher. He was credited with transforming the field of combinatorial logic into one with a wide range industrial applications – from computers to communications…
If you want to pursue innovation, consider next practices instead of best practices. Best practices look into the past to document processes that can be repeated for specific business problems. Next practices are future-oriented blueprints which allow organizations to better anticipate and respond to strategic issues which have inherent unknowns and risks. Best practices allow…
The Stonecutter’s Credo is both an allegory for persistence and a caution about false attribution: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split…
The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias which describes our tendency to use information that comes to mind quickly when making decisions. If we think of something quickly (i.e., it’s more available to our memory), we assume it’s a more frequent and more probable event. If we have a harder time thinking of something (less…
One of the advantages of living in Silicon Valley is you get to meet some amazing people. A recent meet-up with a friend reminded me of the time we got to meet Robert Joss, Dean Emeritus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business. During his career, Professor Joss researched how people can be developed into…
“Never look a gift horse in the mouth.” On a recent video conference call, a speaker used the gift horse idiom, much to the confusion of many of the attendees. For those who may not be familiar with the expression, it suggests people should not find fault with something that has been received as a…
When someone says ‘it’s written all over your face,’ they’re claiming the expression on your face reveals your true feelings or thoughts, which might be different than the words you just said. However, most of the time it’s not true. Other people can’t correctly guess what we’re thinking or feeling. It’s not written all over…
I have a bias for action. When a problem crops up, I quickly gather information and compare potential solutions. I use decisions-making tools to avoid paralysis by analysis. To no surprise to anyone who has worked with me before, I want to do something. My bias for action can be a strength when others are…
The theory of post-traumatic growth (PTG) suggests people who go through psychological trauma can have positive growth as a result. Developed by psychologists in the mid 1990’s, PTG is a process by which people develop new understandings of themselves and the world they live in, making it easier for them to face the future and…