1: It was the spring of 2019. Author and columnist David Brooks‘s close friend Peter Marks was struggling with depression.
They had gathered for a weekend together. “My wife noticed a change immediately,” David recounts. “A light had gone out. There was a flatness in his voice, a stillness in his eyes.”
Pete told David what he already knew: “He wasn’t himself. He was doing what he loved most—playing … continue reading
1: McKinsey consultants asked a CEO how much time he spent managing other people’s egos.
Probably 20 to 30 percent of the time, he answered.
Then, they asked him what percent of time people spent managing his ego.
Silence.
“Beyond the anecdote,” Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra write in CEO Excellence, “the research is clear: When CEOs are asked if they act as a … continue reading
1: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew 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.
One of my goals for the year is to experiment with different approaches and tools to strengthen my relationships with the people I love and care about.
We will revisit … continue reading
1: David Bradley has a unique skill.
A skill that allowed him to start two successful consulting firms and then buy and revive The Atlantic magazine.
The skill? “He’s fantastic at seeing and choosing the right people,” David Brooks writes in his book How to Know a Person.
“Job interviews are notoriously unreliable,” David observes, “in part because many people aren’t good at seeing others, and in part because … continue reading
1: Pixar is the animation studio behind some of the most beloved movies of recent times, including Toy Story, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, and Monsters Inc., to name but a few.
One of the secrets behind the studio’s unprecedented string of successes is something called the BrainTrust.
According to Pixar co-founder and former president Ed Catmull, “The BrainTrust is the most important thing we do by far,” … continue reading
1: It was March of 2011. SEAL Team Six Commander Master Chief Dave Cooper and another Team Six leader were summoned to CIA headquarters in McLean, Virginia.
“We think we’ve found Osama bin Laden,” Admiral William McRaven, commander of Joint Special Operations Command, told them bluntly.
Admiral McRaven then outlined the plan: “Team Six operators would fly into Pakistan in stealth helicopters, fast-rope onto the the compound’s roof, … continue reading
Question: What is the best way to find ten large red balloons deployed at secret locations throughout the United States?
“This is not an easy question,” Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code.
“It was dreamed up by scientists from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a division of the U.S. Department of Defense tasked with helping America’s military prepare for future technological challenges.”
DARPA announced the Red … continue reading
1: We are sitting at a table across from a complete stranger.
Each of us is given four tokens.
Each token is worth one dollar if we keep it. But it’s worth two dollars if we give it to the other person.
This game consists of a single decision: How many tokens do we give the other person?
As it turns out, this is a complex decision. If we give … continue reading
1: “I got it.”
These were the first words uttered by Captain Al Haynes after the explosion went off in the back of the airplane. He grabbed the control wheel, known as the yoke.
Later, Al would call these three words “the dumbest thing I’ve ever said in my life,” Daniel Coyle writes in The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups.
Yesterday, we looked at the … continue reading
