Matthew E. May
Just before the holiday break, I broached the subject of systems. Given the current management rage focusing on the power of distinctive corporate culture as the key enabler of constant innovation...
Matthew E. May
My friend and colleague Bruce Rosenstein is a prolific writer and editor. He’s managing editor of Leader to Leader, author of the wonderful Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s...
Matthew E. May
I get the question all the time, especially from organizations that have significant investment in some process improvement program—like a lean Six Sigma or lean kaizen initiative. (I...
Matthew E. May
Scene: corporate retreat for senior leaders of a Fortune 100 company. Theme: creativity. Agenda item: purpose. I have placed a solitary Zen stone in the center of each table.
The group members eye...
Matthew E. May
As Napoleon once said, a picture is worth a thousand words. This isn’t just a trite cliché. Visual thinking is an invaluable skill, if not a leadership art.
In his book Leading Minds: An Anatomy of...
Matthew E. May
Recently I wrote an article about picking projects. But picking right is just the start. Then comes the planning, prep, and project management. Over the course of nearly three decades, I’ve...
Matthew E. May
I was on my way to the market, shopping list in hand. “Honey, can you grab some lemons?” my wife called out as the door hit me on the bum. “Yep!” I shouted through the closed door. I hopped in my...
Matthew E. May
We’ve all heard the clichés: “If you’re going to do something, do it right,” and “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Change one word—“right” to “artfully”—and the view of work as...
Matthew E. May
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of Matthew May’s “Elegant Solutions.” Read Part 1 here.
I’ve written before about traditional “specs.” How they’re old school. How they rarely help define and describe...
Matthew E. May
If you’ve followed the evolution of my thinking through the series of books I’ve written, you know that elegance—defined as the ability to achieve the maximum effect with minimum means, and...
