Another example of asking people to work around the design instead of improving it I recently spent time in a hospital while a loved one was hospitalized. In situations like that, my attention is obviously focused on the patient and the clinical deci...
Andrea Carpenter and Elizabeth Ledoux, co-founders of The Transition Strategists, were mid-negotiation on a business succession deal when Andrea found out she was pregnant — and her real mistake wasn't the timing, it was treating the deal as a fixed...
At 25, Larry Kasanoff risked his dream job to greenlight a movie nobody at his studio wanted to make — and Platoon went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. He shares how that bet became a philosophy he carried through Terminator 2, Mortal K...
To save herself the hassle of mixing a pen name with her real name, publishing strategist Wiebke Tasch opened two Amazon accounts — a move that quietly violated Amazon's rules. One morning she woke up to an email saying both accounts were gone, her b...
To save a few thousand dollars in legal fees, six-time Silicon Valley CEO Mike Grossman acted as his own lawyer on a routine contract — and nearly torpedoed the acquisition that would later save his company. He shares how a single ambiguous sentence...
Kate Lowry — CEO coach, venture capitalist, and author of Unbreakable: How to Thrive Under Fear-Based Leaders — joins to share why reporting misconduct early in her career backfired, and what it taught her about the gap between good intentions and ef...
Eric Ries's favorite mistake wasn't a failed product, it was not knowing what “strategy” meant until a panel of Boston consultants told him so. We trace that lesson from The Lean Startup to his new book, Incorruptible, and the structural reasons good...
Joe Hennes built a career around what he loves most — first as editor-in-chief of the Muppet fan site Tough Pigs, then as an employee at Sesame Workshop itself. In this episode he opens up about what it actually costs to get that close to your fandom...
Deborah Coviello, known as The Drop-In CEO, shares the leadership presentation that fell flat with her boss but resonated with her peers – and the deeper lesson about change management when introducing new ideas. We also dig into her three Cs framewo...
Jesse Jackson, contact center leader and host of Set Lusting Bruce, on the mistake of going gun-shy as a new leader when veterans push back with “we tried that, it didn't work.” He explains why deferring to that resistance costs you your best ideas –...