These rules were originally tweeted by Emma Coats, Pixar’s story artist. You admire a character for trying more than for their successes. Keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer.… Read More »Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling
There is a dark side of training. A few years back there was an article in The Wall Street Journal about corporate training. It said flat-out that training without follow-up coaching doesn’t work. It’s a waste of time and money.… Read More »Dark Side of Training
I respect data, but I don’t revere it as I revere wisdom and judgment. That’s why I believe leaders need soft skills. After all: Data is not complex. It doesn’t get context, it’s developed by subjective humans, it doesn’t reach… Read More »7 Reasons Why Leaders Need Soft Skills
A researcher in a large pharmaceutical company was getting ready to sell his idea for a new drug to the executive committee. His molecule showed promising activity in the test tube and in animals, and he wanted funding to test… Read More »A True Presentation Disaster Story
God, I was embarrassed. It was a rookie mistake. A few weeks ago I got a call from a large real estate company in New York. Janice, the leader of a large group of brokers, said they needed help in… Read More »My big fat rookie mistake
Cherish people who are eccentric. They see things differently. Kurt Vonnegut authored several books that transfixed the reading public from 1959 to the posthumous publication of his last work in 2013, including The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Cat’s Cradle,… Read More »18 Quotes from a Brilliant Eccentric