1: “Human flight is an ancient dream. It took us five thousand years to go from the first winged human cave drawing to the Wright brothers putting their Kitty Hawk launch into the record books,” one of author Steven Kotler‘s mentors told him. “Yet we didn’t stop there. Next it was transatlantic flight, then space flight, then the first lunar landing,” Steven writes in his book The Art of … continue reading
Getting better at getting better is what Rise With Drew is all about.
Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.
1: What makes for a great set of company or organizational values?
In last Friday’s post, I talked about the process we went through several years ago … continue reading
1: The year was 1992. Republican pollster Frank Luntz was running a focus group in Detroit to test television ads. Frank was looking at tactics to undermine support for Ross Perot, an Independent presidential candidate. Frank showed the first focus group a series of three ads: a biography about Ross Perot and his rise from poverty through entrepreneurship to becoming one of the world’s wealthiest people, then one of the candidate’s speeches, and finally, … continue reading
1: Yesterday, we looked at why we must tell a positive story with a happy ending to spark change.
But what if things are difficult right now? What if times are tough?
“Sometimes people tell me that there are no happy endings in their organization,” writes Stephen Denning in The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling. “Everything is terrible. It’s as if they work for the Doom Channel.”
So be … continue reading
1: As leaders, one of our most important responsibilities is communicating new, sometimes complex ideas and inspiring action to implement change.
What’s the best tool we have to accomplish this critical objective? We tell a “springboard story,” writes author Stephen Denning in The Leader’s Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative.
In past RiseWithDrew posts, we’ve looked at key elements of this specific type of … continue reading
1: What are the two most important words in the brief story below?
“In 2019 in Paris, the head partner of a law firm noticed that the staff of the IT department became markedly more productive when they arranged the work in self-organizing teams that worked in short cycles and delivered value to their clients at the end of each cycle.
“He then introduced the approach to the paralegal staff … continue reading
Getting better at getting better is what Rise With Drew is all about.
Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations. On Friday, I share something about myself or what we are working on at PCI.
What is the #1 strategy to create a great place to work?
Articulate the organization’s values and then do our very best to live by those values.
One question … continue reading
“We had seven minutes left on the clock until the event was officially over,” Priya Parker writes in her book The Art of Gathering.
1: It was the end of a two-day workshop. Priya and two other facilitators had spent countless hours preparing the content of the sessions. “Everything–every session, every transition, every break–was tightly designed, down to the minute. Everything except for the final ten minutes of the … continue reading
1: Priya Parker had been hired to facilitate a meeting on “one of the most politically divisive issues of our time,” she writes in her book The Art of Gathering. A dozen prominent civic leaders would attend.
The only problem? No one wanted to be there.
All of them “worked on the same hot-button issue, but from radically different angles,” she notes. “The leaders were, technically, on the same … continue reading
1: Everyone fears the “Thanksgiving problem.”
The “total free-for-all of pent-up grievances that often brings out tears and a screaming match, culminating in your cousin’s announcement that he will be attending his “Friendsgiving” back home from now on,” writes Priya Parker in The Art of Gathering.
So, instead, we default to harmony. No controversy, we say. We stick to bland topics—”something about collaboration or partnership, prosperity or building … continue reading
