One of my holiday jobs as a student in London was to count people entering Harrods. We operated in shifts in crack teams of two with a clicker and a clipboard. It was mind-numbing, but watching nearby street vendors fascinated us. Every day, two men would set up on a pavement nearby and display a range of perfumes. They would …
The business of busyness
In a classic clip from an old I Love Lucy episode, Lucy gets a job in a chocolate factory and she and her friend Ethel are placed on the assembly line. The draconian supervisor tells them: “Girls, this is your last chance. If one piece of candy gets past you unwrapped, you are fired!” The production line starts slowly and …
When Goliath stands up for David
“We don’t ask you for free iPhones,” pop star, Taylor Swift, wrote to tech giant, Apple, in an open letter titled To Apple, Love Taylor. “Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.” Taylor was expressing her disappointment with Apple’s new music streaming service and the company’s decision not to compensate artists during its three-month …
That dreaded F-word
An eager young author in Alabama, USA received news that made her heart sink: her book submission had been knocked back. But the editor offered some feedback: focus on the childhood of one of the characters. Most budding authors would have continued plodding away on the same old manuscript, thinking someone else will surely recognise their genius, or even considered …
Are you skating to where the puck is?
Have you heard of Wayne Gretzky? Your answer will definitely be yes if you are either Canadian, into ice hockey or a general sports nut. In Canada, Gretzky, a brilliant ice hockey player, is a national hero. Gretzky was so good that when he retired, his number – 99 – was retired from all North American professional hockey teams. He …
With thanks and gratitude: A love letter for you!
A knock on the door. A courier presents a large brown box. What could it be? I eagerly open the box and find copies of the second printing of our book, Hooked. But wait – there’s more. This new version of Hooked has a bestseller sticker on it: YIPEEEEEE. My amazing co-author, Gabrielle Dolan, and I have now joined the …
Why so serious?
Imagine if you could boost engagement and wellbeing, encourage creativity and collaboration and improve analytical precision and productivity. Better yet, imagine if you could do all that with one tool? Alison Beard, in her 2014 Harvard Business Review article, Leading with humour, says “Make ‘em laugh to reap all those benefits.” You know how you feel after a good belly laugh. Your brain …
Rebel with a cause?
A beautiful blonde woman in an elegant evening dress receiving an award in a glitzy ceremony on TV. It felt like just another celebrity moment. Then she pulled out a blue beanie and put it on her perfectly-coiffed head, presenting an incongruous yet moving image. The star was Carrie Bickmore, and she was receiving a gold Logie for being voted …
Nourish don’t numb
Numbers are the nub of many presentations, yet the challenge is not to numb but inspire, nourish and nurture our ideas with numbers. One way to do this is by adding an interesting fact, or sharing a customer observation, after the number. A presenter at a large conference started by saying: One in three people will suffer from public speaking anxiety …
How does this make me a better…
I saw a children’s movie recently and came away – somewhat surprisingly – with a fantastic business hack. Big Hero 6, an action-packed comedy-adventure movie, features Baymax, a plus-sized robotic health care companion, and 14-year-old protagonist Hiro. To fight evil, Hiro is always ramping up Baymax’s powers. Every time he gives Baymax a new power, the robot’s first response is “How …