Every week, we distribute an internal email about what we’ve been reading. As you’d expect, the topics are quite diverse but almost all of them have some connection to our work here. Here, we share it with you as well (with references to some secret projects edited out). 

We’ve been thinking about teams lately (we think about teams all the time, but more than usual recently). One of the approaches we’re considering in developing some upcoming events is reducing the number of solo speakers and increasing the number of teams who can come to the stage and discuss the messy work of creating together. We was looking for material on the topic over the long weekend and bumped into The Myth of the Lone Genius With a Silver Bullet, built on a joint project from Virgin and IDEO, that is explicitly about crowdsourcing but has broader implications for organizations.

Lots of our clients are stars. A new study suggests that stars need extra affirmation after a setback. They’re used to succeeding, but no one can succeed all the time, and the study offers some ideas on how to manage stars after they’ve stumbled. And since we’re all stars, we might find this useful as well. Maybe what we need most of all is people who cheer us on when we lose.