Reading Time: 2 minI’ve always considered myself a trusting person, perhaps to a fault. Trust is good, but unearned trust can lead to trouble. That’s why I was surprised a few weeks ago when our team was working through some DISC testing that it showed I wasn’t particularly trusting. Similar to the Enneagram (or any kind of personality […]
Trust
Earn the trust first
Reading Time: < 1 minThe other day, I got a message on LinkedIn from someone that I barely knew (I had met them at a Meetup some years ago, and hadn’t talked to them in at least three years). The message was something like: We have a new xxxx service with a “xxxx.” business model. It’s great for xxxx. […]
Retweeting the click of the day
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve posted many times on here why I believe most people should blog every day. Writing daily is forcing me to read more, it improves my thinking, and I feel that it takes the benefits of journaling and expands them. Much of my inspiration for daily blogging comes from Seth Godin, and he has another […]
Knowing everything versus thinking again
Reading Time: < 1 minAs I’m reading through Adam Grant’s excellent book Think Again, I keep being struck by one big thought — if Donald Trump had read this book, he might have been able to get reelected. There are two big problems with that, of course: the book only recently came out, and “reading” versus “fully executing” content […]
Yes, it can hurt to “just ask”
Reading Time: 2 minYou’ve heard the phrase “it can’t hurt to ask”, and while that’s true in many situations, putting it out as a blanket statement can lead to some bad things. A great example is spam, whether that’s via email, phone calls, or things like LinkedIn connections. In every case, they figure “it can’t hurt to ask”, […]
Trusting authentic recommendations
Reading Time: < 1 minOver at GreenMellen, we don’t host websites. We help people choose hosting, and we take care of all of the technical work, but we want our clients to have ownership of their sites. We do this for their long-term benefit (owning your own stuff is a good thing), but recently I’ve noticed a great side […]
Three simple rules for sharing
Reading Time: 2 minSocial media is often filled with memes and information that are just flat-out incorrect. Most of it comes from one type of sharing: “That fits my viewpoint, so I’ll pass it along!“. Truth becomes secondary to speed. That’s not to say you shouldn’t share things that you agree with, but taking a moment to verify […]
I am now less wrong than I was before
Reading Time: < 1 minBeing wrong about something often feels bad, but if you view it with the right lens it can be a great thing. I’ve mentioned Daniel Kahneman on here a few times, previously when he talked about using simple language when possible. I’ve also talked a good bit about Adam Grant, particularly in the past few […]
Principles versus policies
Reading Time: 2 minAll businesses should have a core set of principles, and policies should follow after that. It’s easy to conflate the two, and it can be dangerous if you do. I recently heard Adam Grant share the story of Robert Reffkin of Compass, and how this kind of overlap between principles and policies caused some problems […]
Consistency is the lamest of all human virtues
Reading Time: < 1 minConsistency isn’t always a bad thing. However, if your desire for consistency is larger than your desire to learn, you’re heading for a rough time. We see that a lot when it comes to politics (which sometimes, oddly, bleeds into science), but it can be relevant to many areas of our lives. Malcolm Gladwell and […]