New Bike Day: Garneau Steeple
This is without a doubt the most fun bike I’ve ever owned.
Clay Parker Jones
I lead Organizational Design at Airbnb. Previously: August, Undercurrent.
Tested: Specialized Diverge Comp
I gave Specialized's Diverge Comp a test at Rasputitsa in Vermont. It's great!
A Blood-Red Garneau A1
My Garneau A1. It was *so* fast.
What I Learned at Camp
We went to Cycle Smart's Cyclocross Camp, and we learned some things
Cooperation & Discord
I'm going back and reading through my old Diplomacy & World Affairs texts. They're useful: > Cooperation is contrasted with discord; but is also distinguished from harmony. Cooperation, as compared to harmony, requires active attempts to adjust policies to meet the demands of others. That is,
Creating The Conditions
A corporate retreat day organized around three stories, three games, and three new practices.
Small Experiments With Radical Intent
Several months back, Erica and I were doing an introductory session with a Global Operations team inside of one of August's larger clients. We started with a quick retrospective to understand the issues facing the team. Along with the usual teaming stuff, we noticed an issue that, for
Change Activism
“Change Activism” has been a handy if hard-to-use phrase to help me frame how I view change in an organizational context.[1] We invite teams to try simple practices that make it easier for them to change actively, on-purpose, and informed by user data. When these practices
Peeling Carrots
As I was peeling carrots for soup last night (snow day!), I realized that I always do it the same way: by doing the big end first. If you peel the carrot the other way, starting with the skinny end, the diameter and the newly wet surface don't
On Organizational Learning for YCN
Last year while in London helping Joe set up August's London office – and to help celebrate Joe's wedding, hence the gravelly tone and greasy appearance – I stopped by YCN to do a quick interview about how we help organizations learn. 0:00 /3:00 1× Transcript
Managing August’s Finances
Consulting is a simple business, with few logistical or financial challenges to master. Even so, we take operations pretttty seriously at August. Probably more seriously than most businesses of our size, but that’s what makes us great. Right? Over the last 18-ish months, we have developed five spreadsheets
Bonuses At August
Occasionally in the course of running our business, we will create excess profits. Excess? Profits? I thought we were a for-profit business! Turns out you can have too much profit. For example, if you’re not expecting to have a big profit at the end of the year (because