Not Enough Time? Try Doing Nothing
I thought I took my bike on a ride through New York City's Central Park. But really? My bike took me on one. My experience changed many times as external forces determined my mood. Happiness anticipating a great ride, frustration imagining it would be ruined by the race, relief when it wasn't, fear when people ran in front of me, fear again, followed by guilt and self-criticism, when my distractio... posted on Oct 19 2010, 6,887 reads

6 Ways Ants are Good For Business
When one finds food, others immediately gather to help bring it to storage. When one gets wounded, the rest evacuate, re-group, and pull the injured to safety. There's no formal supervision, yet ants somehow accomplish enormous tasks. That's right, ants. Sitting at a highway rest-stop one afternoon, nonprofit founder Ndubuisi Ekekwe discovered that the way ants work together has profound implicati... posted on Oct 11 2010, 5,421 reads

A Law for Cooperation
What do you call a lawyer who helps people share, cooperate, barter, foster local economies, and build sustainable communities? That sounds like the beginning of a lawyer joke, but actually, it's the beginning of new field of law practice. The evolving nature of our transactions has created the need for a new area of law practice. We are entering an age of innovative transactions, collaborative tr... posted on Oct 09 2010, 4,356 reads

Leadership Lessons from a Dancing Guy
Watch a movement happen, start to finish, in under 3 minutes, and glean some lessons: A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. The first follower is critical in showing everyone else how to follow. The second follower validates. A movement must be public. After the nth follower tipping point, it becomes risky not to follow, and more join in. And the commentators take-away from a... posted on Oct 07 2010, 9,448 reads

You've Made a Mistake. Now What?
Anyone who has worked in an office (or anywhere, really) for more than a day has made a mistake. While most people accept that slip-ups are unavoidable, no one likes to be responsible for them. The good news is that mistakes, even big ones, don't have to leave a permanent mark on your career. In fact, most contribute to organizational and personal learning; they are an essential part of experiment... posted on Sep 22 2010, 8,459 reads

The Business of Giving
Recently divorced Mike Hannigan was in a grocery store looking for spaghetti sauce when he came across Newman's Own for the first time. Discovering that all the profits of the competitively priced brand were donated to charity made something to click for the office products company manager. "As a consumer I wasn't making any sacrifice," he says. "Use business as a tool to accomplish a community go... posted on Sep 16 2010, 3,318 reads

Live Life as an Experiment
It was an experiment. Peter Bregman was returning an item to a store. The item was well within the return period, but there would be a 20 percent restocking fee. Having recently decided to live life as an experiment, Bregman decided to see if he could tap into the store manager's compassion to waive the fee. In the grand scheme of things, it was a small act. Yet in the process of experimenting, th... posted on Aug 19 2010, 7,516 reads

Misfit Entrepreneurs
Imagine Walt Disney at the age of nineteen. His uncle asks him what he plans to do with his life, and he pulls out a drawing of a mouse and says, "I think this has a lot of potential." Or Springsteen. After a show one night, his father, who hated the guitar, asked him what he thought he was doing with himself. How does he tell his father, "I'm going to be Bruce Springsteen"? All great things begin... posted on Aug 03 2010, 5,343 reads

The Art of Effective Apology
We've all felt it. The dreaded blow to our gut or the blush of pride when we realize that we did wrong, we were at fault, and now it's time to own up. Though unpleasant at first, apologizing is actually a sign of strength, not weakness. Author John Kador notes, "Leaders who apologize are seen as confident, signaling the three qualities that most modern leaders desire to communicate: humility, tra... posted on Aug 02 2010, 9,367 reads

Oprah: A Case Study Comes Alive
Intuitively, there's something very powerful about Oprah Winfrey. At least that's what Professor Nancy Koehn of Harvard Business School thought. Of the entrepreneur who juggles her own talk show, magazine, and book club, one might ask, What exactly is Oprah in the business of? Why is she such a compelling leader? According to Koehn, it boils down to two elements: Purpose and Service. "It is a stor... posted on Jul 29 2010, 9,041 reads