Value Creation
The real AI threat is what it's always been: distraction
More bad AI news that will lead to more handwringing... all the while you've got a business to build, and you need trust more now than ever.
It's a big day here (sorry about August)
Tomorrow years of work becomes real in a way I didn't imagine. And I want you to be a part of it.
Culture
AI detection is the wrong fight, and it may cost us the one worth fighting
AI detection is the wrong fight. It’s a virtue signal in the midst of a war for the fundamentals of how to build an economy. A rainbow logo you roll out every June 1. And, it doesn’t work. The internet loves a virtue signal, obsesses over moral victories, but its true passion is a witch hunt.
The meteoric rise of DIY in B2B: Or what to do when the client is the competition
Sales is where we negotiate value. You have to make the case for your value not as a replacement of the in-house team, but as a compliment. Which will require two skills: The Art of Co-Creation, and Framing the Proximity Problem.
Solving for the ShitLOAD
When resistance is high (as I'll make the case it is... everywhere), likability, even transparency, or friendliness are unreliable signals, pointing to economic norms, long in our review mirror.
Culture
What is keeping founders locked up... and what unlocks it.
What is required is a subset of leaders who still believe that there is a world to make and our actions are multiplicative in making that world. That the job of a leader is to decide in the face of uncertainty.
What I want for my birthday and the conversation I keep having off-web
When I'm having these conversations about fear, we talk about how insecurity is the primary economic product of an economy built on distrust and addiction that is daily feeding on human vulnerability. The only way to be free of this is to reject its premises.
This one's not for everyone
Not knowing what to do will be a terminal condition for most of us and for most of our ventures. There's just simply too much of the past slipping under our feet to reconstitute anything recognizable as "normal" in the next twenty years. But the lesson is obvious: Lead anyway.
You are in a class war (whether you like it or not)
The "no politics at work" vibe (often the wise choice) has led many leaders to miss the socio-economic forces changing the culture of their teams. Subtle and strange battle lines are being drawn. And it's all about class—no ascension to Marxism required.
A Bit of Disagreement... and Staying in the Conversation
I had a real life experience of of resistance and how easy distrust is. This episode is about that experience, about disagreement, about staying a conversation when we're seeing the same thing in from two different sides, and learning to pay attention.
Org Design
A body of resistance, changing winds, and Justin Timberlake is here
I'm sensing a rising readiness to get back to growth, in the historic ways that people build, collaborate, and buy, an escape from click-chasing, clout-chasing, scale-chasing, and all that goes in its wake. The good news, the phenomenal news, is there is a way forward
Value Creation
Why They Like You But Won't Hire You: Selling in a Trust-Made Way
This episode is about why nice people get ghosted. Why saying "yeah, I can do that" on a sales call is a death trap. And why you're burning trust all the while they are telling you how much they like you...