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Earlier today I wrote a post about a new policy we’re implementing at my business. I thought readers here might enjoy the post, so here it is in its entirety:

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In the past few years, the weekend has taken on a new meaning for me. In short, it’s now defined by work. The weekend is when I catch up on work I can’t get done during the week, in particular work that requires long form thinking, the kind of thinking that powers drafting considered memos and strategy documents, even posting to this or other blogs. Read entire article.

Posted in Leadership, productivity

OK, so maybe that title is meant to provoke a response, but is that so wrong? This post is about arguments, after all. Or put another way: I’d like to argue that the best businesses are, in essence, arguments.

There are many definitions of the word “argument,” but the one I want to focus on is the one that comes up first when you type define:argument into Google: “A fact or assertion offered as evidence that something is true; (as in) ‘it was a strong argument that his hypothesis was true.’”

In my experience starting businesses, and in my study of other businesses that have succeeded wildly (like Apple, Google, or eBay), every great business is founded in a thesis, a statement of what should be true. It’s then the business’s job to go prove that thesis - in essence, the business becomes the argument that proves the thesis.

Wired, for example, was founded on the thesis that digital technologies were forever changing the face of human society - from culture to politics, business to pleasure. We then made a business out of proving that thesis. Every single issue of Wired, every page of HotWired, every book we published and every deal we did was an argument proving that thesis. Read entire article.

Posted in Leadership, Planning & Strategy

In an interesting discussion thread here at OPEN Forum the moderator asked “do you update your business plan?”

The comments were revealing — one comment in particular. The commenter responded by describing how early on in his business he was advised to create a business plan for investors, but he didn’t want to spend hours on that exercise, stating: “I couldn’t see 40 hours of writing a business plan on assumption (typical entrepreneurs view) when the whole plan could change in a month and then how do you tell the investors the plan you made the deal on has changed?”

However, he says that later on he came to realize he needed planning of sorts in his business as it grew larger, stating:

“I learned when you get bigger you need some sort of plan for your own execution or else you just can get mixed up, simply. Maybe not a full BP by the book but something. I do have my BP in my head but it should be written down like all told me to do. If I did everything right I would modify my written plan once a month. Once a year is not nearly enough and writing it will bring about new ideas yet.” Read entire article.

Posted in Planning & Strategy

Many companies place ‘creative stimuli’ like pool tables in their offices to inspire remarkable ideas, but what actually materializes as a result? Whether your office is made up of cubicles or open-plan architecture, your workspace should foster a culture of Productive Creativity.

You can learn a lot about a person from taking a look around their home. Since everything communicates, a brief glimpse at a bookcase is a lens for what your colleague finds interesting. Much like you can tell a lot about a person by looking around their home, you can understand a company’s culture from their workspace. Read entire article.

Posted in Leadership, Planning & Strategy, productivity