Ideas that Matter

The Idea: Recently, I was shocked to discover that over one third of the growth in last month’s S&P 500 was driven by four disruptive catalysts: Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. These four have transformed how we shop, build brands,... read more

“A man who can't bear to share his habits is a man who needs to quit them.” ― Stephen King, The Dark Tower The Idea:  I have a love/hate relationship with structure and discipline in my life.  I hate it when others... read more

“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” --Brandon Sanderson, fantasy and science fiction writer   The Idea:  We all have a story. It explains our past and inspires our... read more

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream.... read more

“I would have written you a shorter letter if I had more time.” Blaise Pascal The Idea:  A few years ago, Microsoft uncovered that the average attention span has fallen thirty three percent, from twelve seconds to eight. We now live in... read more

The Idea:  University of Michigan enthusiasts call their school the “Harvard of the West” because of a long-forgotten Ivy League quota restriction that funneled the east coast’s best students westward. But a more curious comparison to Cambridge’s university is that... read more

The Five Behaviors The cornerstone of execution is the ability to get the right things done on time and on budget.  Yet studies show that less than a third of projects meet this criterion.  Our research shows that senior executives... read more

First Impressions are Wrong                                                                        Did you know that first impressions are wrong 70 percent of the time?   According to former Harvard researcher, Jamie Holmes, “We tend to see patterns where none exist and embrace certainty when none is justified.”  Our... read more

The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different. -Peter Drucker The Idea:  George Bernard Shaw got it right: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." Odds are, most... read more

“If I am estranged from myself, I am likewise a stranger to others.” ― Brennan Manning, author of Abba's Child The Idea: One of my favorite people, the late Franciscan mystic Brennan Manning, cut through thousands of leadership books with one idea:... read more