The relationships that underpin a strong community don’t happen by accident. They require “social infrastructure” – the physical spaces in which people have direct, face-to-face interaction. Communities emerge from places like schools, playgrounds, parks, athletic fields, sidewalks, courtyards, community gardens, churches, civic associations, markets, cafes, diners, barber shops, bookstores, and libraries. Libraries are the focus…
One of the most exciting trends in coming years will be the formation of cooperative working groups made up of independent contractors. Whether they are called networks, guilds, cooperatives, collectives, flocks, or something else, these groups will bring back many of the benefits of working collaboratively with others, without the bureaucracy and overhead of traditional…
In 1962, philosopher Thomas Kuhn published his landmark work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, forever changing our view of the history of science. Kuhn showed that scientific revolutions follow a certain pattern, in which periods of conceptual continuity in normal science were interrupted by periods of revolutionary science. In this article I’ll argue that the…
MESA Co considers their method not just a problem solving tool but an entirely new way of working As their ambitions have grown they ve begun looking toward a future in which this way of conducting work is nothing more than common sense
In this article I ll outline a vision for what
The MESA Method is full of firmly held beliefs and sharp distinctions To understand why they re so important you have to understand where they came from I recently sat down with Bárbara Soalheiro the founder and CEO of MESA Co and Lígia Giatti her number 2 to try and understand the origins of this
In Part 2 I laid out what I believe are the 10 principles that MESA Co uses to fine tune the working environment
But what are they fine tuning the environment for Unlocking people s creative potential
The open secret of MESA and other Accelerated Work Experiences is that beyond the
Enter your email here if you’re interested in hearing more about MESA in the future. In Part 1, I described the basics of the team-based work sprint methodology known as MESA. In this article, I’ll take a closer look at the underlying principles that tie together MESA and other kinds of Accelerated Work Experiences (AWEs)….
Once upon a time, we faced the scourge of Information Overload. Too many emails with too many details producing too many open loops to keep track of. But now we have a new challenge: the Information Apocalypse. Not only is there far too much information to consume or manage, much of that information has now…
When I moved from San Francisco to Oakland in 2014, I was just trying to pay cheaper rent. I never expected to be influenced by the movements that flow through Oakland’s veins: the movements for social justice, for environmental justice, and for black liberation. I’ve since had the privilege of working with some of the…
My partner Lauren and I are moving to Mexico City later this year. This post explains why, both to clarify for myself, and to be able to share with others. We’ve been able to identify 5 reasons for why we’re moving. I’ll elaborate on them below, from most to least important. 1. It’s time for…
I’ve published a few ebooks over the past year, and have plans for a couple more before the end of the year. In contrast to fears about the “end of reading,” my self-publishing experiences have led me to believe that we’re in the midst of a transformational revolution in reading. But it remains to be…
I recently finished listening to the audiobook of Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek (Amazon Affiliate Link), by Manu Saadia. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had thinking about economics, due to the outstanding premise: What if we treated the Star Trek universe as if it was real, and used it to draw…
Join 125,000 people receiving my best ideas on productivity & knowledge management every Tuesday.
I’ll send you my Top 10 All-Time Articles right away as a thank you.
SPEAKING INQUIRIES