difference
380 posts
Raising The Bar
When I was a teenager, I joined the local athletic club. I’d never been much of a runner, but since I went to an all-girls school, the draw of the athletic club where boys hung out was abundantly clear. It was time to dust off my running shoes. The worst thing about contemplating long-distance runni
That Certain Something
A new local grocery store around the corner from us finally opened its doors last weekend. For weeks we’ve been pressing our noses to the window as the new tenants swept the floor and stocked the shelves ready for the big day. The previous grocer stocked only organic produce, operated a juice bar an
A Good Job
George is in his seventies. His hearing has deteriorated over the years, but he’s reluctant to wear a hearing aid. He hates missing out on parts of conversations and often feels isolated because he can’t hear what’s going on. He’s embarrassed about his disability. But he feels self-conscious about w
In Praise Of Incrementalism
One of my favourite TV programs, when I was young, was Columbo—which followed the sometimes scruffy, seemingly absentminded, always polite, homicide detective, who solved murder cases in Los Angeles. What struck me about Columbo was the stepwise way he made progress towards solving the case. He wasn
Giving Attention Vs. Getting Attention
The more people have to attend to, the harder it is to get their attention. Attention is a precious resource. And as with any resource, scarcity creates value. Our culture has taught us that those who can capture the most attention win—never more so than in the digital age. So, we devote a considera
The Best Laid Plans
This day ten years ago you probably had plans in place for the year ahead. Maybe you achieved some of those goals in 2010. But I’m guessing that you could never have planned for some of the unexpected events, opportunities, twists and turns of the decade you’ve just lived. It turns out that it’s har
Care Most
We mistakenly believe that we are powerless to make a difference in an all is lost moment when in fact the opposite is true.
Gap Bridging
What gap does your product or service help your audience to bridge?
The Daily Opportunity
Meaningful progress doesn’t happen in a single, magical alignment of the stars. Opportunity can’t pass us by because it’s available to us in this moment and the next one.
People Want Places, Not Platforms
Whatever you’re building, think beyond features, functionality and design and think first about how the person you serve wants to feel when she arrives at the place you’ve built.
Showing Value
We can all benefit from learning to demonstrate, not just explain the value we create. Marketing and sales are about showing and telling.
Believed In
The one thing all successful ideas have in common is that they spread. But why?
The Power Of Owning Your Work
When we own the work we’re proud of it becomes more valuable to the people we serve. How are you owning the work you’re proud of?
The One And Only
Competing is a zero-sum game. We succeed when we make peace with the fact that we don’t need to compete when we know who we are.
Message Before Medium
Since our objective must always be resonance over reach, it isn’t the medium that should dictate our communication strategy—it’s the message.
Earned Loyalty
We have the privilege of working to be indispensable to customers and making them feel like they belong—instead of stuck. True loyalty is earned, not rewarded.
Soft Metrics
Hard data alone paint a two-dimensional picture of success. There’s nothing to stop us prioritising things we care about that can’t be reliably measured.
Reaching Resonance
The impact you make will depend on your ideas resonating with the right people—not just reaching the most people.
The Power Of Describing The Problem
t’s tempting to jump ahead to creating solutions before describing the root of the problem. But we can’t we begin to have honest conversations about how to solve problems before we own them.
The Role Of Rules
Doing what’s accepted or expected isn’t necessarily the right thing to do. It’s worth checking if the rules we hold dear, and fast to are helping the people we serve.
