Series
Named patterns in how organizations hire, pay and manage.
32 pieces
Microsoft cut 4,800 people and got called disciplined. JPMorgan added people, posted the biggest profit in US banking history, and got questioned about its costs. The market is sorting companies on a new factor, and it's getting it half wrong.
For 250 years America grew by adding. The 2026 playbook is to grow profits by subtracting, cutting labor now to harvest margin later, and the market may be paying for a one-time cut as if it compounds.
Low unemployment is doing two jobs at once: keeping the Fed hawkish, and giving companies cover to cut white-collar workers for margin. Both lean on the one number that breaks last.
Why the people around your team members are shaping their output as much as the people themselves — and most managers have never once managed it.
Why your best people keep failing after promotion, and what it's actually costing you.
Why the most important person on your team isn't on your succession plan.
The information your managers filter out before it ever reaches you.
The team that looks the most stable on paper is usually the one quietly losing the most output.
Why the same candidate would get hired by some of your managers and rejected by others... and what that costs you
Why your offer letter predicts performance for years.
Why cutting meetings rarely produces the productivity gains you're expecting and what's actually happening to the time you freed
Why the work that drives results and the work that gets rewarded have been quietly diverging in your organization for years.
