How to design for change
In 2015, the authors of Responsive Org wrote that “the future is becoming increasingly difficult to predict.” Today, with global instability, political partisanship, and an ever more rapid rate of change, those words seem prescient. The tension between organizations optimized for predictability and the unpredictable world we inhabit has reached a breaking point. Only organizations […]
The lie of mise-en-place
I love the phrase “mise-en-place,” which is common to professional kitchens and translates to “everything in its place”. The phrase appeals to my inner neat freak. In restaurants, chefs arrive hours prior to service starting to prepare for the evening ahead. These are the unseen and unsung aspects that make a restaurant successful. We had […]
How I’m surviving the next four years
SNAFU is an acronym for Situation Normal: All Fucked Up. The phrase was born out of the chaos of World War II, but it is just as relevant today. Snafu has become my shorthand for a world that’s always been broken, but is now undeniably so. Things that once seemed stable – governments, economies, industries […]
How to train a puppy
A friend of mine just got an 8-week puppy! I’ve raised two dogs from puppyhood, and helped a dozen other people do the same. Here’s what I’ve learned… Expect interrupted sleep Interrupted sleep comes with the territory. I often suggest raising a puppy to people who are considering having a child. It’s good practice. As […]
How to buy a (used) car
I have two friends looking to buy used cars right now, and over the last fifteen years I purchased six used cars and re-sold five of them. While I’m a novice compared to real car salesmen, I have more experience than the average layman, and thought it would be useful to write down what I’ve […]
The opposite of distress
I love when the English language has a word for something that I’m trying to describe that isn’t in the popular vernacular. Today’s word is “eustress,” which means beneficial stress. This kind of experience that is difficult but ultimately does you good. Eustress is the opposite of distress, which is harmful. It motivates and enhances […]
The day Devin died in my arms
When I was in college, my friend Devin died in my arms. He didn’t actually die. But it certainly felt that way. We were taking a nine day, 100 hour Wilderness Emergency Responder course in Portland, Oregon, and each of us took turns attempting rescues. Devin was the victim. He was lodged in between two trees on […]
A lifelong obsession with movement
In 2003, I broke my neck on a trampoline. That sounds extreme, but it is actually fairly common. Walk into any gymnastics gym in the world and someone will have had a similar injury. But that injury, and my journey since, have shaped my lifelong obsession with movement. Shortly after the injury, I graduated from […]
The portals of learning
I recently sat down with an entrepreneur who is nine months into building his business. He described the trials and tribulations of figuring out his business structure, landing his first few clients, and collecting invoices. I don’t denigrate those challenges. Starting a business is hard! But having built four successful businesses over the last fifteen […]
Nobody is coming to save you
There’s a social media account I like called Nature is Metal. Their content is not for the faint of heart. Regularly, I’ll open Instagram to see a beautiful bald eagle tearing out the guts of a snake, or a baby hippopotamus getting torn apart by a lion. Nature is Metal documents the stunning absurdity and fragility […]
Why Snafu?
I stumbled into the phrase SNAFU by accident. Last winter, my father and a close friend both asked me, quite out of the blue, if I knew what SNFU means. I’d thought “snafu” was an English word that means a small mistake. SNAFU is an acronym that originated during World War II, coined by soldiers […]
Is this safe to try?
I’m frequently doing ridiculous self-experiments like eating just three ingredients for six months, sitting in freezing cold water, or selling a cafe on Craigslist. When I first read the Respnsive.org manifesto and started talking about the “future of work,” someone offered me the question: “Is this experiment safe to try?” That phrase has become a guiding principle for my […]
How much evidence do you need to know that something is true?
When I first walked into a gymnastics gym, I had zero experience with gymnastics or acrobatics of any kind. Nor did anyone else I knew! I’d never seen gymnastics in the Olympics or otherwise. But the moment I walked into that gymnastics warehouse and saw someone doing giants on the high bar, my life changed. I’ve spent […]
How to run a self-experiment
I first heard the term “self-experimentation” as an undergraduate in behavioral psychology My professor gave a few examples of his own. He went a month with no sugar, which made carrots taste unbearably sweet. He tried sleeping with his head lower than his feet, which felt miserable and his wife refused to continue. And more. […]
On heartbreak, love and cognitive dissonance
Three days before the election, I went on a first date. I go on a lot of first dates. But I was enthusiastic enough for this one that I vacuumed my car, thinking that I might drive her home after dinner. In the week since that first date, we’ve since spent more time together than […]
How to fast
A friend of mine is embarking on his first 4-day water only fast, so I sent him a voice memo with all of my lessons learned from fasting over the last few years. Then, I realized it’d be useful to write this up. First, my bonafides. In 2024, I didn’t eat for a total of […]
Know the difference between practice and performance
As an undergraduate, I studied learning. Specifically, I became obsessed with the impact of variable practice on motor learning. Many of the classic studies in the field are done with basketball. Here’s a simple example: Two groups of people with no prior experience are given the task of shooting hoops. The first group, the control, […]
Just do something
I hit a point – ten meetings or a hundred email into my day – where anything I try feels like failure. I can’t think clearly enough even to decide what to do next. That’s past time to do something different. When my best friend feels stuck she has trained herself to take some kind of action. […]
This is how to change behavior
In the final weeks leading up to Responsive Conference, I hit an impasse. Since the beginning of 2024, I’ve written a weekly article about selling. I love sales, selling, and persuasion. But I was doing a lot of sales. In those final weeks, I was taking 15 minute calls 10 hours a day in order […]
Go deeper
Like most entrepreneurs I have the unfortunate habit of thinking that the grass is greener on the other side. In just the last decade, I have started and then quit a lot of businesses: Started and then left behind a business working with kids with autism Started Robin’s Cafe, which I sold on Craigslist Started […]
Discipline isn’t hard
A few weeks ago, someone told me I was the most disciplined person she knows. That feedback was disconcerting because, growing up, I was often told that I lacked discipline. I’ve never been particularly good at forcing myself to do things that I don’t want to do, which is how I’d always defined discipline. Discipline […]
Finding the right balance
When I first read the Responsive Org Manifesto in 2015 I liked it because it was not prescriptive. The manifesto does not say that if you pull levers in a particular order you will be able to build a perfect organization. Instead, it outlines the tensions that every organization has to balance. The right amount of experimentation. […]
Do things that leave you feeling good
I have a philosophy of addiction. I’ve never done drugs, been addicted to porn or video games, or struggled with alcohol or cigarettes. But I am prone to addiction. My grandfather was an alcoholic. My uncle died of alcohol and pills. The things that I am addicted to most people don’t think about (sugar) or […]
What have you been avoiding lately?
Two months ago I moved into a new house and promptly bought myself something that I have been lusting after for at least 3 years – a commercial cold plunge. I grew up jumping into ice covered lakes in the High Sierra. (There’s a infamous story in my family where, at 5 years old, I […]
A moment of creative insight
In the early 1970s, Bill Bowerman, the legendary track and field coach and co-founder of Nike, was determined to improve his athlete’s performance. Frustrated with the heavy running shoes of that era, Bowerman wanted lightweight shoes with better traction. One morning during breakfast, Bowerman looked at the waffle iron on the kitchen table and he […]
We all hate sales people
A well-known businessman recently started offering workshops. My Facebook feed has been flooded with advertisements. I attend business workshops, but more than the specifics, I was interested in their process of running, collecting my contact information, and the script they would use to persuade me to buy. The system worked flawlessly until I got on […]
How to get leads
Last week I discussed Alex Hormizi’s $100 Million Dollar Offers, a book about making offers so good your customers feel stupid saying no. This week, I’m applying his next book, $100 Million Dollar Leads to the same accounting firm Zander Media supports. Your offer matters. The pitch you make about what you do and the value you provide […]
How to sell bookkeeping & accounting
For the last year Zander Media has been on retainer with a firm that provides bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO services. While most of what Zander Media provides for this firm is narrative strategy, content creation, and content distribution, at various points I’ve also stepped into a more active sales role, as well. Because who doesn’t […]
Maximum stoke
As I do every July, I spent last week with my family and a few close friends hiking in the high Sierra. Each year, I hike up Mt. Conness, a 12,500 foot peak with a lot of hard scrabbling and some pretty terrifying moments before you arrive at the summit. When we reached the top, […]
A letter from the Responsive team
None of us on the Responsive Conference organizing team have had a conventional career path. From circus acrobat to lab technician, culinary magazine editor, performing artist, founder, and startup executive – each of us has worked in a variety of industries with many different kinds of teams The common thread, however, is a focus on people. Individually, […]