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How’s it going?

Is your team moving forward?

Or are they stuck, or even worse, headed in the wrong direction?

Did you notice that each of the above questions contained a metaphor related to navigating through space? 

In her amazing book Mind in Motion, Barbara Tversky argues that the human mind evolved to help us move through the world, in a very literal sense. 

It’s optimized to help us chase rewards (food, shelter, sex, etc.) and avoid punishments (danger, pain, discomfort, dog poo on the grass, et…

Back in the day grandfather was a pretty big star in the Yiddish theater in New York. He acted, sang, danced, wrote, and conducted an orchestra bearing his name: Hymie Jacobson’s Orchestra.

And he used to tell my father: 

“You know what the conductor can do with his baton if the orchestra doesn’t show up.” 

This was, in my father’s retelling, accompanied by a hand gesture that left no doubt or ambiguity as to the answer. 

Hymie’s point was, the conductor seems to be the most important member of the …

Unsolicited advice creates resistance. 

I’m on the phone with a business friend, whom I’ll call Erin. She’s frustrated and distracted, though, because she’s struggling to figure out which is the most version of the contract that she emailed to a client last month. 

I immediately start telling her about a better way to manage her emails. Folders blah blah blah tags blah blah blah one touch blah blah blah task management integration blah blah blah. 

I’m so smart, no? And helpful?

Shockingly, Erin does…