Britt Gage

The actual measures of productivity that might be useful range quite a bit:

• I did enough to not get fired.


• I did enough to get promoted.


• I did enough to get hired by a better firm.


• I solved a problem for a customer who was frustrated.


• I changed the system and now my peers are far more productive.


• I invented something that creates new possibilities and

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Identify a unique strength that your company/product has that aligns well with the current opportunities in your environment. Then leverage that strength in a way that others cannot easily replicate. Focus on what sets you apart and use it to create a sustainable competitive advantage.

The arrogance of improvement

Who are you to make things better?

How dare you raise your hand to help, offer an idea, take responsibility...

Perhaps it might be helpful to reframe that feeling as the generosity of improvement instead.

If not you, who? If not now, when?

If you’re efficient, you’re doing it the wrong way. The right way is the hard way. The show was successful because I micromanaged it—every word, every line, every take, every edit, every casting. That’s my way of life.

“With technology advancing so much, and humans needing to learn how to collaborate with technology to get their work done, the skillset we need more and more to collaborate are the power skills,”

Here’s the bright side of groupthink: It enables the dissenters to quietly break apart in their own direction with little competition and free of nosy onlookers.

Culture is what happens when the community insists.