Category: Management

  • Sportsmen’s Clubs: On Governance and Structures

    Sportsmen’s/Conservation Clubs are typically short 3 key officer roles: Steward, Membership Director, and Events Director. The common-sense reality of such clubs demands that these responsibilities are filled, but because they aren’t defined in bylaws, the existing officers often have to juggle to make sure the work is covered. Particularly for volunteer-run groups, this is far too sloppy.

  • Musk’s madness with Twitter: a rationale

    Musk bought a really expensive asset in Twitter that is losing horrible amounts of money (making it a net liability, actually) and he has to renovate it to be cashflow positive—the alternatives of letting it continue on its broken path or actually ending it as a company or far too expensive to be realistic.

  • Budgeting for UX Managers

    Budgeting for UX is a conflict of mental models: Ours and Accounting’s. If we start with Accounting’s model, we’re more likely to make mistakes. So, do the version that makes sense first, and then reformulate it for Accounting’s needs.

  • Covenant Eyes on Inc. 5000 for the 6th time since 2010

    I’m happy to share the news that Covenant Eyes, Inc. made position 3674 on the 2016 Inc. 5000 list, showing an 85% growth in revenue over the past 3 years. What’s even better is that this is our 6th time on the Inc. 5000 since 2010. A one-time listing might be a fluke, but 6 times in […]

  • Organizational Physics OmniGraffle Stencil

    Here’s an OmniGraffle stencil based on Lex Sisney’s Organizational Physics.

  • Does design precede strategy?

    More than any other type of worker, earnest designers and design researchers wrangle with real strategy formulation, often blazing a trail for a company and its management.

  • Five-Time Inc. 5000 Honoree: Covenant Eyes

    While I don’t often write about work on my blog, I’m happy to share the news that Covenant Eyes made the Inc. 5000 list again this year, now having made it 5 times since 2010. Congratulations Covenant Eyes on pursuing your worthy mission with successful business practices! And while not an official award, Glassdoor.com shows […]

  • On Leading Organization-wide Change

    In October 2014, I was asked to share how I have led organizational changes at Covenant Eyes. The following text is from an e-mail message I wrote in response to that question, covering design thinking, decision making, asking better questions, and influencing behavior in order to reach shared understanding.

  • The 5 most important texts for a business leader

    These are the books, or in one case an essay, that I think every leader in a business should study. This is not an academic list paying homage to some MBA syllabus. Rather, if you want a business that has a healthy culture, that is profitable, that is sustainable, and that delivers real value, the […]

  • On delegating work better

    When delegating work, it isn’t enough to pick a good person and give them