“Good checklists are precise,” writes Atul Gawande in his terrific book, The Checklist Manifesto. “They are efficient, to the point, and easy to use even in the most difficult situations.” One hopes the summary below does justice to the best-selling author’s guidelines. Safety first. They say flying is safer than driving and for good reason. If drivers were required to…
Book Report – The Airbnb Story by Leigh Gallagher
Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were flat broke. Unemployed and desperate, the two art school grads decided to raise money by renting out air mattress space in their San Francisco apartment when a big design conference came to town and hotel rooms proved hard to come by. While the brainstorm was meant to buy themselves another month of lodging to…
Book Report – Who Gets What – and Why by Alvin Roth
All business people know there’s a lot of risk-taking that goes into hiring associates and other professional folks. Alvin Roth, author of Who Gets What – and Why, goes to great lengths to reveal this in his 2015 book, cautioning against jumping the gun on job candidates. That expression, reports Roth, comes from the 19th century Oklahoma Land Rush during…
Where Is the Love?
As we all know, some folks get it, others just don’t. We moved recently. As I write this I realize it was six months ago to the day and what an action-packed half-year it’s turned out to be. Ostensibly a downsize – and indeed we have shed a shed, half a garage, roughly a half-acre, and 1,000 square feet of…
Book Report – Traction by Gino Wickman
Anyone who’s been stuck in the mud in Alabama knows, you step on the gas, one tire spins, the other tire does nothing. One assumes this is sorta the precarious business position Gino Wickman’s clients find themselves in when he first engages with them. Systems and processes are so sorely lacking that to call these companies merely immobilized would practically be…