1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Britain.

The following day, July 3rd, final revisions to Thomas Jefferson’s draft of The Declaration of Independence were agreed to.

Which brings the story to the 4th of July, 1776.

“In later years the excessive summer heat of Philadelphia would frequently figure in accounts of Thursday, July 4, 1776,” David McCullough writes in his … continue reading

1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare independence from Britain.

“That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” so read the motion.

But “there was … continue reading

1: “Monday, July 1st, 1776, began hot and steamy in Philadelphia, and before the morning was ended a full-scale summer storm would break,” David McCullough writes in his book John Adams.

John Adams, then one of Massachusetts’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress, was up before sunrise.

Early that morning, he wrote a long letter to Archibald Bulloch, the new president of Georgia: “This morning is assigned … continue reading

1: “Julia Rozovsky was twenty-five years old and uncertain what to do with her life when she decided it was time for a change,” Charles Duhigg writes in Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity.

After graduating from Tufts, Julia worked for a consulting firm, but she didn’t find it satisfying. She then worked as a researcher for two professors at Harvard, which Julia enjoyed, but wasn’t … continue reading

1: Then Intel CEO Andy Grove was sitting in a conference room with other members of the Intel team.

The topic? “Evaluations of a certain highly touted new software from a company whose other products we already use,” Andy writes in his legendary business book, Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company.

Intel’s head of Information Technology shared the challenges her team … continue reading

1: There are two traps CEOs and leadership teams fall into regarding innovation.

Trap #1: “The minute we think we truly understand the customer and can take our attention off discovering what matters, we’re dead,” Panera founder Ron Shaich writes in Know What Matters: Lessons from a Lifetime of Transformations.

“Sooner or later,” Ron notes, “even the most brilliant and innovative concept will fall behind the times and become … continue reading

1: It was the team’s very first strategic planning meeting.

Everyone who worked at the New York City restaurant Eleven Madison Park was there. The team had been divided into ten groups.

The question General Manager Will Guidara had charged them with answering was: “What do we want to embody?”

As Will went from table to table, listening in, he noticed a certain tension.

“Some people were arguing passionately about … continue reading

1: A decade before their restaurant Eleven Madison Park (EMP) would be recognized as the world’s best restaurant, Will Guidara and Daniel Humm were young and hungry entrepreneurs.

The year was 2007.

“We wanted to be one of the best restaurants in New York,” Will writes in his book Unreasonable Hospitality. “We wanted to make our restaurant excellent without sacrificing warmth, contemporary without compromising standards.”

“But before we … continue reading

1: The thing about Laura?

“She never complains.” Will Guidara writes in his terrific book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect.

Will was about to assume the General Manager role at Eleven Madison Park (also known as EMP). This New York City fine-dining restaurant was part of legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer‘s Union Square Hospitality Group. 

One “should never waste an opportunity … continue reading

1: Skip was complaining to his boss, Fred Kofman, that he wasn’t getting the service he needed.

Earlier in his career, Fred Kofman had cofounded Axialent, a consulting firm. Skip was the manager of the Sydney-based Asia Pacific subsidiary.

“The firm’s operations center was located in Buenos Aires,” Fred explains in his book The Meaning Revolution, “where we ran administration, finance, marketing, executive assistance, and materials production. It was … continue reading