Essays on creative leadership,
culture, and the human side of work.
Becoming
These are personal essays about growing up as a fostered, then adopted child — and about what that does to a person over the course of a life and career. The passivity you develop to survive. The shame that shows up uninvited in elevators and conference rooms decades later. The moment you finally recognize the bully pattern, in a boss, in a father, in yourself.
The most-read piece opens with a meat cleaver. My wife, coming down the hall. Me, curled under the covers at thirty years old, having just been fired and not yet told her. It’s not a comfortable essay. But by the end, it explains — more directly than anything else I’ve written — why I understand what happens to people when they’re made to feel small at work, and why that understanding is the foundation of everything I do professionally.
These essays aren’t separate from my advisory work. They are the source of it.
Advisory Notes
These are essays about the emotional realities of creative professional life — the anxiety of leadership, the psychology of negotiation, the particular ways creative people get in their own way, and the particular ways organizations let them down.
One of the most-read pieces, “Why Creative Firms Break Differently,” argues that creative firms don’t fail from bad strategy — they unravel from the inside, through fatigue, misalignment, and a gradual loss of trust no one can quite name. That piece captures what all of these essays are reaching toward.
I write from four decades of experience inside creative firms, but I write the way I talk: directly, without jargon, with stories. Each piece includes one of my own illustrations. If you work in a creative firm and ever feel like the game is rigged against you, this series is for you.
What really is the right thing to do? When tents fill the streets, And food banks empty Did our votes decide the thing, Or are we still riding the despair? Is it the virus that got us here? Or did the virus show us where we are? From loser to cult leader? From president for…
We’ll need a new model if we want to come out of this alive. MI5 Boss Says Russian and Chinese Threats to UK Growing in Severity The Guardian headline was the last of the news before I lost my connection. First the power had gone out, then both cellular and Wi-Fi went down “Maybe a…
I work as a consultant to creatives. Most of my clients provide creative services to corporate clients as small firms or as individuals. Some work in house. Others are employed by agencies owned by the giant ad/design holding companies. Last week one of my clients asked me what kinds of issues people ask me for…
The most vivid dreams include my dogs. I dream of my last dog and all the sweet doggies that preceded him. These dreams are always brought on by stress. The doggies must be a part of my psyche that wants to comfort me. The dream In the dream I was searching for the place where…
Marketers, designers, PR pros, and ad people: As communicators, what should we do with our world in turmoil? Make an ad? Launch a campaign, design a logo, create a brand, influence the influential? On the brink? The pandemic continues to infect and kill. Awareness of the effects of a militarized police force is on the…
A hoodie, a mask and a cardboard sign. A tired look that goes with spending the day begging. “Will work for food” is the way it is in Seattle these days. My parents came of age in the ’30s. The Great Depression was their world. They came to Seattle in the late ’30s and rented…
Back to work the bosses proclaim. Our economy suffers under the impact of the virus. Far too many are forced to work in spite of the danger. All in the interest of making money for people who are already rich. It’s sad, it’s sickening to the soul and the body. What do you think?
New essays, every week.
With an illustration.
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Also available on Substack.
You never cease to amaze me with your willingness to make your life an open book — especially the more hurtful parts. And I'm amazed by the lessons you draw from all of it.
— Larry Coffman, PublisherYour writing has revealed some very intimate, powerful lessons. You are a source of inspiration both professionally and, increasingly, on a personal level.
— Rick GoreWe can discuss the ugly, uncomfortable truths while always circling back to what matters: the people, the underdogs, the work we get to do, and the magical existence we get to share as creatives.
— Sarah EskandarpourI loved your article about how clients' emotions affect briefs. It's a huge part of the creative industry and it's always good to see somebody so knowledgeable write about it.
— Vuk Bojovic, JKR Account Director, Singapore