The Beautiful Mess

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TBM 303: Official, Real, and the Ideal
In every company, you have:
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John Cutler
2
TBM 302: Why Reflexive Thinkers Need to Take More Breaks
In this post, I will argue why people who are more reflexive, open to diverse perspectives, and cognitively flexible need to invest extra time in…
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John Cutler
7
TBM 301: How to Reconcile Prioritization and $/Time Allocation
Over the years I have been seduced by using allocation %s as a primary way to describe strategy deployment. I was wrong. My thinking has changed. A…
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John Cutler
6
TBM 300: How to Think About Operations and Enablement
I have been getting a lot of questions about the difference between operations and enablement (especially as it relates to product, design, etc.). I am…
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John Cutler
6
TBM 299: Underperformer
There is a huge difference between labeling people as "underperformers" and labeling their "performance" as not meeting expectations.
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John Cutler
10
TBM 298: Retrospective Rationalization
Like the newsletter?
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John Cutler
3
TBM 297: Staying In Touch
Hopefully, I'm back on the road to health and fitness, but I have let things slip since my son was born. In the before-times, I was obsessed with…
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John Cutler
4

June 2024

TBM 296: Trust Lets You Observe Reality
Somewhere in your organization, you have a completely well-meaning, qualified, empathetic executive—maybe the CEO, perhaps the CFO, someone—screaming…
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John Cutler
9
TBM 295: Going Deep 🤮
Sorry. It is time for a rant. I don’t do this often—but here goes. I hate the trend of leaders gaslighting managers by bombarding them with calls to…
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John Cutler
10
TBM 294: Close the Loop. Stop the Drift
Great/healthy teams:
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John Cutler
4
TBM 293: Where More Effective Product Teams Spend More (and Less) Time
When trying to understand where a team or company is at, one of the first things I do is talk to people about how they spend their time and energy…
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John Cutler
5
TBM 292: Friction, Documentation, and Product Tools
Once you understand this pattern, you'll start noticing opportunities everywhere. How often do you view status checks alongside historical status…
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John Cutler
5
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