I’ve been reading Ricardo Semler’s fantastic book, Maverick on how he turned around SemCo in the 1980’s. Each chapter ends with a nugget of organizational wisdom concisely delivered in a sentence or two. This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post, Once More, In Half the Time. In addition to also …
Author Archives: Garrick van Buren
Gate 3 Work Club Opens
The Gate 3 Work Club officially opens this week in Emeryville, CA. The culture of work in the US is dramatically changing. No longer segregated to the industrial parks and office buildings, knowledge workers and other members of the Creative Class are more mobile, more collaborative, and more flexible with their work. This cultural change …
Once More, In Half the Time
I apologize for the length of this letter, but I didn’t have time to make it shorter. – Mark Twain Twain was referring to the fact that refining something down to it’s essence takes iteration. Each iteration abbreviates the time necessary to produce and consume the item. I offer the Van Buren Law of Iteration: …
Yes, and – not But
Improvisational comedy, like all team sports is about effective, high-energy, spontaneous collaboration. One of the seven major tenets of Improv is building off each person’s comment and suggestion with “Yes, and…” rather than dismissing it with a “but…”. “Yes, and…” extends, explores, and enhances the previous suggestion – building trust among all the team members, …
The Smoke in Need of a Fire-Breathing Dragon
“This sounds like part of an idea. It’s the smoke, and we still need a fire-breathing dragon.” This statement was exclaimed by one of the students I’m working with in my involvement with MCAD‘s Visualization program. I was leading the team through a ideation evaluation exercise – culling down their large number of brainstormed concepts …
Continue reading “The Smoke in Need of a Fire-Breathing Dragon”
Get Your Email Read with Specific, Compelling Subject Lines
One of my biggest pet peeves is vague email subject lines. This is for two reasons; Sometimes I only have time to read the subject lines – anything urgent needs to jump out. If I need to file and revisit the email, a clear specific subject line is easiest to re-find. My experience analyzing open …
Continue reading “Get Your Email Read with Specific, Compelling Subject Lines”
Stop Doing Dumb Stuff
When I need a quick kick in the pants, I reach for Tom Peters’ Brand You 50. Each one of his 50 tips are tow trucks pulling me out of what ever rut I find myself in. This is why I’m so excited about his new manifesto from Seth Godin’s ChangeThis project. This I Believe! …
When Brand is the Bottleneck
Recently, a collegue and I went to lunch at Pancheros, a 14-year old burrito chain started in Iowa City, IA. I’ve spoken about the power of lunch before as well as the lunch experience. Always enlightening. This time was no exception. I’m a big fan of Chipotle, they’ve taken the Subway model and transferred it …
5 Organizational Tips from Academia
This semester I’m one of the coaches in the excellent Visualization program at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. As part of that involvement, I attended their recent new faculty orientation. I’ve culled 5 organizational tips from that meeting. Have a Warning Sign for Poor Customer Relationships: Each faculty member is asked to contact …
Wal-Mart.com Tests Ship-To-Store
Big box retailers are continuing their search for the Holy Grail of Retail – increasing merchandise selection without increasing real estate costs. For years,