Boiling The Ocean

Ah. The New Year. Some of you out there have no doubt dutifully written down your New Year’s Resolutions (cards on the table: we used to do these. all. the. time!). What we’ll be talking about today is, in some ways, the organizational equivalent of those resolutions - strategic plans. Don’t get us wrong: we’re both big fans of them - as we are, in general, about the process of making resolutions (more on that later). But in an increasingly volatile world, strategic plans may turn out to be as useful as resolutions. Does that mean we should stop planning, though? (Hint: no!).

Consultants are nerds. At least we are … but we own it. Here’s our Top 10 Work Hacks - a collection of cool tools, apps and at least 1 activity for you consider adopting in 2018.

Innovation Best Practices and other strategies to think unconventionally. Mike breaks down how consultants teach innovation and Ion describes his method for spurring creativity - a habit he calls perpendicular thinking.

Consultants travel. A lot. Here are our Top 10 Travel Hacks. Mike shares his 5 best McKinsey-honed tips for making the most of a flight and Ion provides his time-tested tricks for feeling first class - even when you're stuck in coach.

How to use design principles to address work and life questions. Mike goes over the basics of Design Thinking while Ion attempts to "design" happiness.

Frameworks are rules of thumb or mental models that simplify our complex world. They're essential parts of the consultant's toolkit - like a wrench to a plumber (we don't anything about plumbing, but you get the idea). In this episode, Mike and Ion discuss and dissect their personal BFFs - The 2 x 2 Matrix and The FedEx Question - then describe how to apply them to your job, business, and life.