What can the frequency of “I” in a quarterly shareholder letter tell us about an organization’s future? LJ Rittenhouse is known for her ability to predict the future performance of a company by studying the leader’s quarterly letters to shareholders. By looking, even scientifically, at the candor of the leader, Rittenhouse hypothesizes about the culture…
Pride
Three Signals We Are Filled with Pride
According to C. S. Lewis, our pride is our greatest sin because we hate it in others while simultaneously being unconscious of it in ourselves. Others smell the odor of our pride and are repulsed by it, but often we are oblivious to our own stench. The story of King Uzziah (2 Chronicles 26) is…
Not Smelling Our Own Stench
In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg tells a fascinating story about the launch of Febreze. The researchers and product development team at Procter & Gamble really believed they had developed a product that consumers longed for—a product that would eliminate, not merely mask, bad smells. During the product development phase, people expressed a deep…