Who Loves Your Work?

Who loves what you do? Who tells their friends? Who waits in line? Who buys the lot? Who can you help? Who makes you care? Who has the problem you can solve? Who is your muse, your right customer, your reason? When you know, you’ll be one step closer to doing your best work. Image…

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The Convenience Trap

The homeless man sitting at the Brunswick Street junction doesn’t look up as people walk past. He doesn’t try to catch the eyes he knows are trying to avoid his. He lets the cardboard sign at his feet do the talking. The headline in red crayon tells us that he’s genuinely homeless. There isn’t enough…

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The Power Of Actionable Feedback

How many times do you politely leave a restaurant after a bad experience, vowing never to return, without letting the manager know what you think? How often have you stopped buying from a brand you once trusted without telling them why? How valuable would your feedback be, if only these companies were in the habit…

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Lucky By Design

The cathedral was packed. More than a thousand people arrived on a warm Tuesday morning to attend cafe owner, Sisto Malaspina’s funeral. Many more stood outside—others watched the service at home on their laptops or giant screens in Melbourne’s Federation Square. We were there, not to mourn Sisto’s death, but to celebrate how he had…

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Nurture Vs. Growth

It’s virtually impossible to think of building a successful business (or life) without having the intention to grow. But sometimes growth for growth’s sake can be a trap. The idea that we have to make a particular metric go up at all costs can lead to unintended compromises. What if instead of thinking about growing…

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The Shorthand Trap

Everywhere we look in our digital world we increasingly see options to choose digital shorthand over a handcrafted, personal response. Gmail’s Smart Reply and Smart Compose features for responding to emails, and LinkedIn’s convenient Quick Replies will save us time today, but what might they cost us in the long run? Who do we become…

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A Deliberate Advantage

Voting is compulsory here in Australia. To make it easier for people polling places now open the weekend before election day. Early voting in our state and local council elections opened last weekend. As we lined up at the entrance to the polling place we were met by representatives of all candidates and parties. Each one…

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Becoming Better Storytellers

We’ve all heard the news that attention spans are shrinking. We’ve come to believe that the people we’re trying to reach are always distracted. If that’s so, how do we explain the rise of binge-watching, the success of serialised podcasts and long read articles? What we’re witnessing isn’t just a shift in the way content…

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How We Do Matters

One of the owners of Melbourne’s most iconic café died tragically a week ago. Sisto Malaspina had been serving espresso to Melburnians at Pellegrini’s since 1974. Tributes poured in from across the community about the impact he and his café had on people and the city. The one that struck me was the story told by…

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