Boiling the Ocean

It can often feel as though there is no escape from being constantly “switched on” in our hyperconnected world. Our cellphones render us reachable at all times, and we feel the pressure to make every moment a productive one. But is constant activity good for our productivity? The short answer is a resounding no. Peak performers practice something that most of us don't: they regularly rest and recover in order to do their best work. So how can we establish a healthy rhythm to our working lives to create the conditions for our best work? Today’s episode is all about that topic, and our starting point is probably the least practiced but most useful "life hack" out there: getting a good night's sleep. We dig into its role in our productivity as cognitive athletes, and how to get enough of it. Using this as a starting point, we also discuss: - How much sleep do you really need? Separating fact from fiction - Different phases of sleep and the danger of waking up too early - The restorative power of nature - Giving yourself permission to invest in yourself and why working out or spending time with friends should be viewed as an investment, not an indulgence We finish by talking about the paradigm shift required to support our peak performance over the long term. Simply put, we need to rethink what we value. The most important "asset classes" going forward won't be property or 401ks but rather things like physical and cognitive health, friends and professional networks, as well as restorative places and practices that allow us to sustain and maintain a high operational tempo. Join us as we give serious thought to the process of restoring ourselves, both creatively and physically, to take on the rigors of keeping up with the accelerated pace of modern life.

What is one of the least understood roles of a consultant or advisor? Believe it or not, it's giving permission. Now before you jump to conclusions, let's be clear here that we're not talking about permission in the literal sense. But it's nonetheless true that companies and individuals often hire consultants to confirm, validate and sometimes even provide external justification for a decision that they have already made. Today’s episode of BTO is all about the process of making decisions and the role consultants play in that process. Using this as a starting point, we discuss: - External validation and the impact of confirmation bias: What kind of advice are people really looking for, and what are the contexts that can prompt them to seek a seal of approval? - This behavior on both an individual and institutional level: are companies – and some consulting firms – any different than individuals in this regard? - What to do if someone comes to you to validate a decision and what to do if you think it’s the wrong one - What constitutes a “wrong” decision, and is that really an objective assessment or a subjective one? - How to provide opinions and advice with tact and diplomacy We finish by talking about how to help people shift how they feel about their decisions. The process of making good choices is a complex one, and this episode is all about the persuasion piece that is often overlooked when we build fact-based cases for a certain option. If you want to take your decision-making to the next level, join us for this lively conversation on the power of permission.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could reduce life to a simple set of equations? Well, if that idea is appealing you just might be in luck. Today’s episode of BTO is all about work and life equations. The conversation was prompted by a provocative post that Mike made recently about his formula for knowing when to leave a job. It was expressed, rather elegantly, as: Current job (joy - pain) < potential job (excitement - fear) There was more to it than that, but that notion - of reducing complicated considerations into symbolic equations - caught people’s imagination, and it prompted us to do a whole program about our favorite such algorithms. Here are just some of the ones we discuss on the show: - Happiness = pleasure + purpose over time (h/t to Paul Dolan) - Life Design Principles = Authenticity + Agency - “Happiness is wanting what you have, not getting what you want” (singer - and philosopher! - Sheryl Crow) We also break down why these simplifications are so appealing to us today. We all want formulas and algorithms to make sense of our world, but also to help us navigate it. As thinking tools are influenced by pop culture and the zeitgeist, the ubiquity of the PC and now the mobile phone has made us all a bit more inclined to think like a computer, we argue. Finally, we’ll tackle their limits. Equations are seductive thinking tools, but they can be dangerously reductionist. While it’s tantalizing to believe that we can “rationalize” emotions and transform them into algorithms, the truth of the matter is that life is not that black and white. There’s a lot of grey in those equals (=) deductions/minuses (-) and multiplications (x), so we need to be careful in applying - and relying - on these mental shortcuts. Here's one final equation: Listening to this episode = learning cool new algorithms for work + life!

People have egos, but organizations appear to have them, too. How else can you explain Blockbuster's hubris in shrugging off the offer by a then-fledgling company called Netflix to join forces, the disastrous decision by Borders to outsource their e-commerce business to Amazon or the infamous 1962 decision by a Decca recording executive to pass on signing an unknown, 4-person Liverpudlian band “because guitar bands are on their way out”? As author Ryan Holiday put it well, “ego is the enemy” - of everything from sound business strategies to talent spotting and even, as we'll explore in this show, of being a good consultant. In today’s episode, we tackle the issue of overconfidence and how people and organizations fall prey to it at their peril. As the country song goes, it’s hard to humble … but it pays to keep your ego in check, to be “professionally paranoid”, and to not be afraid to be the dumbest person in the room.

What’s the most useful skill you can have in your utility belt these days? For many people - including McGill Desautels Faculty of Management Strategy Prof Corey Phelps - that superpower is problem-solving. As we have pivoted from a manufacturing-based economy to a services and knowledge-based one, our work “product” has shifted from the physical to the increasingly intangible - from making widgets to “building” presentations and spreadsheets. At the core of these new activities, however, is the attempt - and hopefully, ability - to solve a thorny problem that’s plaguing our company or client. In a special episode of “Boiling the Ocean”, we sit down with Professor Phelps to discuss his new book, “Cracked it!: How to solve big problems and sell solutions like top strategy consultants”. In a wide-ranging chat, we discuss: • The differences between problem-solving and making sound decisions (hint: it’s more subtle than it seems) • His 4 S Framework (of course there is a framework! We’re consultants after all …) • The one problem-solving step you probably aren’t consistently thinking about • The two reasons why this is a critical skill set for everyone - not just strategy consultants or those who aspire to be one • How you can apply this thinking to your everyday problems • … and who authored the better aphorism on the power of preparation - Albert Einstein or Abraham Lincoln? Dive into this episode to learn how to quickly build up one of the critical skills of the 21st century - and join the conversation about whether or not we all have to become professional problem solvers …

For years, we’ve been given the message that the working world no longer has a place for generalists and that we all have to become “experts”. Is that actually true? And perhaps more crucially, will that remain true in the coming decades, as companies and organizations are buffeted by the changes wrought by artificial intelligence and automation? In this week’s show, we tackle the “Specialists v Generalists” debate head-on. What we uncover is that while society undervalues generalists, it does so at its peril. Contrary to conventional wisdom, people who cultivate broad interests and pursue eclectic career paths are going to be rewarded in a world where AI and algorithms increasingly take over “expertise”. This episode covers everything from Isaiah Berlin’s famous “the fox versus the hedgehog” framework, how we should regard curiosity as a 21st-century superpower, and why generalists, rather than specialists, are better at making predictions. As always, we’ll explore what this all means “at the unit of one” - in other words, how this is news you can use for your own company or career.

Gordon Gekko famously said in the movie “Wall Street” that “greed is good.” While it’s probably politically incorrect - and definitely not woke! - to say that today, a version of that mantra still exists in a somewhat more sanitized form. Companies these days - especially tech startups - preach that “growth is good”, and that scaling quickly is the only metric that matters. Silicon Valley CEOs trumpet market share and revenue growth over profitability, as if to paraphrase that trope about sharks: if companies are not growing, they’re dying. But is that actually true? And is true for all companies? On today’s episode of “Boiling the Ocean”, we examine this view and stress-test it from a number of angles. We cover everything from the trendy concept of Blitzscaling to the increasing weaponization of cheap capital as well as the concept of a “right-sized” company or organization. Our conclusion? Well, you have to tune in to find out - but let’s just say that we have our usual contrarian take on such topics, and as always we try to give you a few ideas on how to apply this notion to your company or career.

In a very real sense, Mike and Ion give advice for a living. Perhaps you've sometimes wondered how well they practice what they preach, and whether - as the somewhat inelegant phrase goes - they eat their own dog food? In this episode, we discuss and in some cases debate the tips, tricks, and techniques from the world of management consulting that we regularly apply to our world. This is a more important conversation than it might seem at first blush. Contrarian philosopher Nicholas Nassim Taleb calls this “Skin in the Game”, and you should be looking for it in your consultants, but also financial advisors, car salesmen, and real estate agents among others. The adage to "do as I say, not as I do" is all too prevalent in society today, so it's useful, we thought, to list the parts of the toolkit we discuss on this podcast that we actually use on a consistent basis. From making sleep and exercise a top priority to enhance our cognitive fitness (Ion) to regularly using two-by-two matrices for his business strategy - and sometimes his kids (Mike), we really nerd out big time in this episode. If that sounds like good times to you, welcome to nerdapalooza!

​Have you read an article recently that preached work-life balance? Of course you have. It’s a hot topic today as we all struggle to manage all of the competing interests in our lives. But is “balance” the right frame to use, and having equal parts of work and life (that’s what “balance” means, after all) the right objective? We don’t think so. In the latest episode of “Boiling the Ocean”, Mike and I break down this problem to try to understand what we’re really trying to achieve. We argue that the notion of balance is almost impossible to accomplish and that a perfect equilibrium between work and life leads to less satisfying outcomes.​ ​We realized this when we observed that our happiest moments in work and life - times when we achieve “Flow” or being “in the zone” - are actually moments of intentional but temporary imbalance. Rather than balance, what we really want is the ability to be truly present in everything we do. We are seeking meaningful, uninterrupted, “all in” experiences at each end of the work/life spectrum, which will naturally cycle at different times.​ ​We make an impassioned argument that we should stop seeking balance and aim for work-life integration instead. When we have the time and space to go deep in either work or play, we are imbalanced - but that’s where we find focus, flow, and fulfillment.​ ​In the end, the goal is not “balance” in the traditional sense, its integration of those pieces. Work-life integration is more akin to a puzzle where all the different pieces fit together in aggregate. It’s an understanding that each week might bring a different combination of things to attend to at work or in your personal life, but it evens out over time into a portfolio of quality experiences. The important thing is to be as present as possible in the process. Tune in to this episode to consider rejecting the myth of balance and learn just how to integrate your work and life.

A headline in the Guardian recently blared: “the Top 1% of England owns 50% of the land”. Another article I read said that only 4% of its total digital audience pays the New York Times for its content, and yet this was a very good profitable year for newspaper. What unites these stories? A concept known by some as the 80/20 Rule and in Economics as the Pareto Principle. You may not know these names, but you need to know this principle - because it’s tremendously important power law that is as true in business as it is in real life. People wear around 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. The most frequently used 20% of the words account for 80% of word usage. 20% of your friends give you 80% of your overall enjoyment. In a nutshell, 80% of the outputs result from 20% of the inputs. Now the distribution is not always exactly 80 / 20 (it can sometimes be 95 / 5), but it remains shockingly true that a very small percentage of activities that you perform lead to the majority of what you accomplish. In management consulting, this power law is also a process. You’ll often find teams attacking a problem by saying: “let’s 80-20 this”. By that, they mean what is a quick and dirty - but effective - way to get at the gist of the issue. In this episode of BTO, we break down the 80/20 Principle, explain in roots in Italian Economics, and give examples of how you can use this thinking tool for everyday issues. Join us as we discuss one of the most useful ways to emphasize impact over activity, and how to harness the Pareto Principle to improve your business and your life.

Disruption may be the most over-used word of the 21st century, but there’s often a reason why something becomes a cliche: because it’s at least partly true. The world is changing so fast today that what might be a sound business - or business model - now may not stay that way for long. In this series of episodes, we discuss the dynamics of disruption and break it down to two basic mechanisms. In Part I, we tackled the twin notions of bundling and unbundling. Part II looks at the second way that people and companies can reinvent their businesses or business models: by turning their products into services or vice-versa. A car is a product, right? Not anymore. It’s increasingly a service (Uber, Lyft, Bird), and transportation as a service is taking off. Financial advice is a service, right? Not always. With Wealthsimple and other Fintech start-ups, it’s becoming a product. The same can be said of Meditation Coaching and the Headspace app... What does all this mean for you or your company? Ask yourself if you can turn your service into a product (which will allow you to scale), or your product into a service (which may allow you to charge a premium). This is a very useful mental model to view the world as well as your business or job. Not only will you able to foresee (and possibly fend off) disruptive challenges, we argue that it will also arm you with some tools to prepare for the biggest disruption coming towards all of us: automation. Tune in for Part II of a lively discussion on the promise and perils of Disruption, and then let us know what you think!

Disruption may be the most over-used word of the 21st century, but there’s often a reason why something becomes a cliche: because it’s at least partly true. The world is changing so fast today that what might be a sound business - or business model - now may not stay that way for long. Incumbent companies get “disrupted” when insurgent (often, but not always, start-ups) find a new way to sell an old product or service, all the while stealing market share or profit margin (or both). In this series of two-part episodes, we discuss the dynamics of disruption and break it down to two basic mechanisms. The first is inspired by legendary venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s observation that there are only two ways to make money: bundling and unbundling. This is a simple yet deceptively powerful idea - one that you may not know through these labels but have definitely seen out in real life: When Apple reinvented the music business, it unbundled the one song from the whole CD that you used to have to buy to get it. iTunes gave you that hit for 99 cents and the rest is history. When Spotify reinvented the music business again, it did so by bundling those songs - and all the songs you could ever want to stream or listen to - into one monthly subscription. As you can see, Marc A is right: the evolution of business is, in some real ways, simply a continuous process of bundling and unbundling your product or service. in Part I, we tackle that first topic and apply it you, the company owner or free agent. In doing so, we hope to give you the tools to disrupt yourself … before someone else does it to you.

In this second installment of a two-part episode, we revisit the idea of the power of a well-posed question. This time around, we explore how useful they are to influence people and implement solutions. As consultants, we are regularly asked by our clients to help them solve their most pressing problems. Part of that work is achieved in asking the right questions (which we tackled in Part I), but also in helping build support - what some in our biz call buy-in - for the solutions themselves. In other words, questions help us execute the answer as much as they enable us to arrive at them. How does that happen, exactly? Questions help you both understand the concerns of other people, but also signal that they are being understood. It’s in unpacking the underlying motivations of people - and especially what drives their resistance to the change that you’re proposing - that questions are most useful in influencing the results you are seeking to achieve. Agree? Or not convinced? Either way, tune in for a surprisingly lively discussion about how you have to ask to receive, achieve and even make people believe that the solutions you are suggesting are worth it. Along the way, we manage to name check Kim Kardashian (Mike’s contribution to the conversation) and Abraham Lincoln (Ion) in the same breath. You have to play it back to find out how that played out …

In this episode, we ask a lot of questions … about questions. When we thought about it, Mike and I realized that what we do in our jobs every day can be distilled down to trying to ask the right questions of organizations and the individuals who lead them. We probably aren’t alone in this realization. Maybe a good part of your work revolves around getting to the bottom of things for your boss or your company. In a world overflowing with information, the skill in asking the right questions is only going to become more valuable. But what does that entail exactly? In this first installment of a two-part set of episodes, Mike and I discuss: Why questions are more important than answers What are our favourite and most useful questions to ask of ourselves and our organizations How even seemingly “dumb” questions serve a smart purpose How to ask one simple question to help you decide whether or not to read that article your friend just posted The one question Warren Buffett taught Bill Gates to ask in order to define what success meant to him Tune in for a lively, provocative and occasionally light-hearted conversation on the amazing power of a good question.

As we write this in the third week of January, we bet that many of you reading this will have already broken a New Year’s resolution or two. Let’s face it: new year resolutions suck. But we still have to urge to do something - anything! - to feel prepared and goal-oriented for the coming twelve months. So what should we do instead? In this episode of Boiling the Ocean, Mike and Ion give our own takes on what other frames to use when thinking about the future and trying to set yourself up for success. We discuss a number of alternative models, from our friend Mitch Joel’s excellent idea of establishing values you want to live by to setting a “mission statement” in a few critical areas for the next year and ideally the next decade. The key takeaway is this: rather than set yourself for failure or disappointment, use the annual planning ritual as a rare opportunity to think about the Big Picture. Tune in for a lively discussion about the why and how of replacing your New Year’s resolutions for 2019 (it’s not too late, people!)

For our last episode of 2018, we decided to try something different (as we periodically do). For the first time ever, we took the show on the road and recorded a two-part interview with a guest (that’s a lot of “firsts”!). As faithful listeners know, BTO is the podcast where we apply the management consultant’s toolkit to everyday problems. But we realize that many other industries have mental models that can help us improve our work and life as well. From time to time, we will interview successful people in other professions and have them share what thinking tools they use to make business and personal decisions. We were thrilled to visit the offices of Shane Parrish in Ottawa for our inaugural foray into this format. Shane is the driving force behind one of the world’s most visited and influential blogs - Farnam Street (https://fs.blog/ and featured here in a recent New York Times cover story: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/business/intelligence-expert-wall-street.html) - as well as the host of the hugely successful podcast “The Knowledge Project” (https://fs.blog/the-knowledge-project/). In a wide-ranging interview split into two 45 minute episodes, Mike and I ask Shane about everything from his approach to learning, the power of second-order thinking and what lenses he uses to evaluate businesses to what he believes are the secrets to successful parenting and why he thinks Tom Brady became such an amazing QB. There is a lot to ponder here, but also some very concrete ideas to put into practice for your business or life. Tune in to learn about a bit more about Shane Parrish’s toolkit.

For our last episode of 2018, we decided to try something different (as we periodically do). For the first time ever, we took the show on the road and recorded a two-part interview with a guest (that’s a lot of “firsts”!). As faithful listeners know, BTO is the podcast where we apply the management consultant’s toolkit to everyday problems. But we realize that many other industries have mental models that can help us improve our work and life as well. From time to time, we will interview successful people in other professions and have them share what thinking tools they use to make business and personal decisions. We were thrilled to visit the offices of Shane Parrish in Ottawa for our inaugural foray into this format. Shane is the driving force behind one of the world’s most visited and influential blogs - Farnam Street (https://fs.blog/ and featured here in a recent New York Times cover story: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/business/intelligence-expert-wall-street.html) - as well as the host of the hugely successful podcast “The Knowledge Project” (https://fs.blog/the-knowledge-project/). In a wide-ranging interview split into two 45 minute episodes, Mike and I ask Shane about everything from his approach to learning, the power of second-order thinking and what lenses he uses to evaluate businesses to what he believes are the secrets to successful parenting and why he thinks Tom Brady became such an amazing QB. There is a lot to ponder here, but also some very concrete ideas to put into practice for your business or life. Tune in to learn about a bit more about Shane Parrish’s toolkit.

Do you ever find yourself stuck in a professional or personal rut? Have you or your business become more risk averse as you’ve gotten older and more established? The answer is almost certainly yes, and that’s the case for pretty much everyone (us included). But did you know that our tendency towards complacency is actually inherited from our days foraging on the savanna 40,000 years ago? Today’s episode looks at our relationship with risk and what economists call our status quo bias. Inertia is dangerous for both individuals and companies, and this impulse is actually counterproductive in our modern, fast-changing world. Tune in as we discuss how important it is to make intelligent bets from time to time - and how to think about change more productively.

Deciding what niche to occupy is one of the biggest decisions people make when charting a path for their organization or career. The fancy term for that is “positioning”, and we should all be better acquainted with the concept. We believe that positioning is the crucial intersection of strategy (intentionally choosing a position), execution (successfully occupying that spot) and marketing (getting others to believe and buy into it). Positioning is critical whether you have a product, as is the case with most companies, or if you are the product - such as when you’re a free agent.Tune in to this episode where we discuss the power of carving out a category of one and how to properly position yourself in any marketplace.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be capturing a lot of business magazine covers these days, but we might not be talking about this development enough. At least that's what one of the co-hosts of this podcast thinks. Ion believes that popular attention is too focused on unlikely doomsday scenarios like Skynet, HAL and "Her" while we overlook the seismic effect more ordinary AI will have on people, businesses and society - sooner than we realize. Mike is of a different opinion. He thinks AI is overhyped, and that until it helps him in tangible ways - like finding a parking spot in a crowded downtown - it will be more of a mirage than a momentous force for change. Tune in to this episode to hear some of the latest thinking on the real impact of AI, and treat yourself to a first for our podcast series: an actual debate rather than our usual genteel discussion. Ion and Mike go toe to toe on everything from how AI will affect ordinary people (or not) to what are the other technological forces that may be supercharging the next wave of AI-generated disruption ...

Without us realizing it, in some significant ways everyone is becoming a consultant these days. First, the obvious trend line is that the so-called gig economy is exploding, and some forecasts predict that within ten years, freelance workers may represent more than 50% of the U.S. working population. But it's not just that people are becoming their own bosses and building portfolio careers; the actual work style and skill sets that are increasingly prized in the current labor marketplace are mirroring the job description of a modern consultant. Soon, everyone will be asked to work in project-based sprints, spend a stint as part of an international team, collectively solve a set of complex problems ... and then start the whole process again. That is the life of a management consultant, and we believe that a lot more people will work and live like that in the future - whether or not they describe themselves that way. Tune in to this episode for a lively discussion on the future or work, the gig economy, portfolio careers and why it's going to be cool to be a consultant someday ...

What if I told you that one set of thinking tools could help you failure your organization and future-proof your career; could I interest you in something like that? The toolkit in question is called Red Teaming, and it’s a powerful set of questions and processes imported from its origins in the military to increasingly widespread use today in business and of course management consulting. You may know this idea from other terms that describe its philosophical approach, from “alternative analysis”, “playing devil’s advocate” or conducting a “pre-mortem.” No matter the name, the concepts that underpin Red Teaming are incredibly valuable - and worth getting to know. Tune in to this episode to learn how to plan for success by anticipating the worst.

You are a brand. Accept it. Whether we like it or not, we all leave distinct impressions on people the second we meet them as well as over the years we’ve known them. That means that you have a brand. We all do. And it follows you around. In a world where we change industries, careers, and geographies more frequently than ever before, jobs and titles are temporary; the only thing that is permanent is your reputation - your brand. The question is: have you tried to intentionally shape it, or has it been a haphazard by-product of your actions today and over the years? Think of the world’s great companies: do they leave their brand image up to chance? In this episode, we look at what we can learn from some of the great ones out there and see how we can apply those principles to "Brand You." In the process, we try to give you actionable tips, tricks, and techniques to be more intentional about the impressions you're leaving behind. Want to know what your brand is? Easy. Just as 5 friends what are the 5 words that people immediately think of when they hear your name? That’s your brand. In a hyper-competitive world which increasingly pits us against outsourcing abroad, algorithms and automation, authentic personal relationships will become even more valuable in the future. In a hyper-connected world where social networks are ubiquitous while “followers” and “likes” are overvalued, you need to throw out the conventional wisdom about connections and focus on connection. In short, you need to think completely differently about this challenge. Tune in to this show to learn how to start thinking smartly about your personal brand.

In this episode, we take a hard look at the cult of hyper-efficiency in contemporary capitalism and the impact it has on companies as well as individuals. As consultants, we are often called in to help organizations and people become more "efficient". Usually, that means eliminating lots of things. Many of the biggest management fads of the past few decades reflect this trend: just-in-time management, zero excess inventory, 6 Sigma defect correction, dynamic or surge pricing. But while efficiency may be gained through these exercises, something even more valuable is lost. Companies, like people, need periods of restoration, rest and renewal to operate effectively over the long term. This show discusses how important it is for organizations and individuals to regularly recharge their batteries, build in buffers and breaks, and plan to have intentional slack in the system. This is especially true for people who make up these companies; much as we hate to admit it, we simply aren't machines. But in today's hyperactive, hyper-connected world, it’s become hard work to take it easy. We spend a good part of this program arguing that it makes great economic sense to push your organization at less than 100% capacity. As individuals, we also need to learn that taking care of yourself is an investment, not an indulgence. So tune in to this episode and we bet that you'll have a whole new set of good reasons to keep that dinner date with your old college friend or make that 5:30 pm boot camp class. Over the long term, you and your company will be more efficient for it...

What do a $2,000 stationary bike, a triple patty burger, and Christmas gift cards have in common? They all represent brilliant business models. In this episode of BTO, we investigate and explore the profit-making formulas for companies as diverse as Peleton, Wendy's, Starbucks and GM, to name but four. In the process, we expose a hidden truth: your favorite company or service is making money on you in ways you probably haven't realized. By looking behind the business model curtain, we hope to arm you with vital information that will make you smarter consumers. After all, uncover the profit drivers in a business or service and you will reveal the incentives behind the people selling you stuff. But this is not just an exercise in exposing the largely unseen forces at play on your pocketbook. We also hope to start a conversation about how you or your company make money and capture more value. So tune in to this episode to tune up your own business model, too!

Entire bookshelves in stores like Barnes & Noble and Indigo groan under the weight of business books on strategy, and every single one of them, we're certain, discusses the merits of "strategy" vs. "execution". Today we lend our two voices to this ongoing debate, and in so doing one of us proposes a bridge between the two: the so-called "strategic cascade". In this episode, we do what we usually attempt with such topics: Ion makes fun of Mike for using consulting jargon, Mike proves Ion wrong by demonstrating the power of the cascade idea, and both of us try to demystify these notions so that you can actually apply them to everyday problems. Tune in to hear if we succeed ...

This is another in-betweenisode, where we play around with the format and topic a bit. Today’s show is all about books - why we love them, which ones we love, and what constitutes a great book in our minds. For fellow word nerds, you will be heaven. For those of you who don’t like to read… better skip this one then. But maybe our lively (yes, really!) discussion on the power of the written word might just tempt you back to the temple of books…

Don’t go changin’… unless you have to, that is. Today we tackle the particularly trendy concept of reinvention. Companies do it (Netflix has done it, twice) in part to survive. Management consultants (like Mike!) do it often to thrive. And cool people like you, our listeners, should be considering it, too; as we like to say, think of reinvention as robot insurance. On this show, we discuss the merits of reinventing your organization or yourself, and we share a 6 step framework (we're consultants; of course we have a framework!) for how to make it happen. A lot of people are intimidated by the prospect of reinventing their careers, and understandably so. Disrupting one's life is no easy task. Our position is since we’re all going to have to do it, so we might as well learn the how now ...

This is going to be another experiment for us, though not like our previous in-betweenisodes. Remember those TV shows that teased a dramatic turn with “A very special “Joanie loves Chachi?” This is that show. We’re going to delve into a topic that people rarely talk about… but they probably think about all the time (or should). We ask: what is success, and how should we define it? You may wonder what this has to do with consulting. Fair point. What we would say is that a lot of consulting is built on a premise of success: consultants promise to make your company or organization “successful”. Consultants themselves are pretty universally seen as being successful, as having “made it” by virtue of working at one of these highly respected firms and earning big bucks. But beneath that polished veneer, do consultants help companies succeed? Are consultants successes themselves? And for everyone else, what does all of this teach us about how we should define success for ourselves? Along the way, we debate the trappings of success and even discuss a deceptively simple definition of it that might just make you go hmmm... Join us for a special "pop philosophy" episode as we try to “solve” success in the 21st century - in under 30 minutes, no less! Listen in to hear if we succeed.

Most people fear negotiation almost as much as they fear public speaking - and apparently, they fear giving speeches more than they fear dying, so that’s saying something! Entire business models are built around avoiding negotiations, like Carmax in the US. But negotiation is not rocket science. It’s all about adopting the right frame of mind and incorporating some key tips and tricks. In this episode, we demystify some jargon (what is BATNA, and do I have to take antibiotics if I have it??), challenge some popular misconceptions about negotiation (no, you shouldn't aim for "Win-Win") and offer our top 3 tactics for instantly improving your haggling skills. Of course, listening to our 25-minute podcast won’t turn you into an FBI hostage negotiator overnight, but it should make you more confident for your next discussion with your kids about doing their homework, and even perhaps your push for a pay raise. So tune in to Negotiation Bootcamp...

​Normally, we apply the consultant’s toolkit to everyday life ​and problems. Today, we’ll be flipping the script: we talk about everyday life with a consultant - namely, our friendly neighborhood superhero Mike. Think of this as an X-Ray into the management consultant's mind - but it's far more interesting than that sounds! ​I​n this episode, these are just some of the things Mike gets grilled about​...​​ 1. ​His misadventures​: before finance, law and consulting​,​ with a gig that is far​ more​ interesting​ as a bounc​er​ in a New Mexico bar!​ 2. ​What he thinks his superpower is​. 3. His favorite question to ask a prospective hire​.​ 4. Does he use 2 x 2 matrices at home? Does he talk to his children about their competitive advantage? Does he assign chores with a Gantt chart or just with an excel spreadsheet?​ 5. ​The one thing that he believes in that most others think is insane​.​ ​6. ​The one book he's given most as a gift​. 7. ​If he could invite three people to dinner - across time and space - who would they be?

As you may have noticed, we like to challenge conventional wisdom here at BTO. Today, we explore the notion of expertise and discuss the limits of specialized knowledge. Now to be clear, we don’t mean to suggest that you don’t want an expert when someone is performing neurosurgery on you. It’s just that the idea of expertise has to evolve in the modern era. Expertise is perishable. As an asset, it depreciates more quickly now than ever before. How much of what you learned in high school and university is still relevant to your work today? Thought so. Us too. Expertise ain’t what it used to be. It’s more fragile but thankfully it’s also more easily achieved. In fact, it’s never been easier to become an expert in something. We have access to the world’s information in our pockets, some of the best professors and programs on the internet - often for free - and new fields and job titles are being invented all around us. So there are exciting opportunities but also risks - and we’ll try to explore them all, as well as what they mean for you and your career, in 25 minutes. Tune in to see if we succeed …

If you’ve ever read an article in The Economist or watched CNBC, chances are you heard the term “best practices”. Is this yet another example of useless consultant jargon, or is there something to be learned from how the best companies do certain things that are critical to their business? In this episode, Mike and Ion unpack this idea and translate the underlying concept into everyday life. Along the way, we’ll explore both the value but also the limits of best practices when applied to organizations and people. After all, just because you know why Amazon is successful and its CEO Jeff Bezos is rich doesn’t mean that you can copy their formula for success.

Consulting firms are infamous for asking crazy, brain-teasing questions as part of their rigorous interview and election process. Today we tackle the dreaded consulting case study and explore what they’re really testing. Then we broaden the conversation to discuss the power of a well-posed query, concluding with some of our favorite questions. We find ourselves agreeing with the great Albert Einstein, who noted sagely: "The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution."

Today we tackle a linchpin concept of business strategy: the USP, or unique selling proposition. We prefer to refer to it as your “unique super power”, and McDonald’s might call it their “special sauce”. Whatever the label, the basic idea is that companies become known in the marketplace for that one thing they (presumably) do better than anyone else. That’s their USP. In this episode, we explore that idea and apply it, as we like to do, to real life. It all starts by asking a simple question: what is Batman’s super power? You’ll have to tune in to find out…

There is an old joke that consultants ask to borrow your watch before telling you what time it is. That’s a bit unfair, but we don’t shy away from confronting (and in some cases, confirming) the perceptions that swirl around the management consulting industry. Today we tackle the topic of whether (short answer: yes!) and how (more nuanced) consultants add value to their clients. We’ll also discuss why our cognitive blind spots and the increasing complexity of work and life have led Ion to believe that everyone can benefit from having a strategic advisor. After all, if even Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen - the Mother of Dragons! - needs a Tyrion Lannister in her life, you probably need one, too.

Consultants are famous for their penchant to use fancy words when perfectly good ones would seem to do just fine. Today, we demystify many of management consulting's expressions, as well as identify some of our favorites. We’ll also talk about the idea of lingo in general, and share our preferred jargon from other industries - because some insider argot is actually worth using.

We named this podcast after an expression in management consulting circles for over-analyzing a problem. You’ll sometimes hear a consultant say, “team, let’s not boil the ocean on this one. There’s got to be a simpler way to get at the core issue here …” In this podcast, we apply the management consultant’s toolkit to everyday problems - those we face in our jobs but just as many from real life. We’ll talk about how to use consulting models on parenting to playing beer league hockey - and everything in between. That’s the headline. This is the backstory. Mike and Ion have known each other since 2010. About 2 years ago, we fell into the habit of having what we called Walk and Talks to grab lunch and think through some of the thorny issues we were facing personally and professionally. This wasn’t such a crazy idea after all - we discovered that there is an expression in Latin that described what we do: solvitur ambulando (in walking it will be solved)”. How cool is that? We were like Stoic philosophers, only walking around with hot dogs and falafels in our hand … One of the main reasons we’re doing this podcast is to help listeners learn some useful tools to take a new look at their problems, and maybe even point the way to a solution. We’ll also have some fun - lots of it, we hope - as we boil the ocean together ...

Decision-making may be the single most critical skill we need to have a successful career and life. From the little choices we make (should I go to the gym after work?) to those that can sometimes define our lives (should we move to London?), our trajectory is nothing more than the sum total of our decisions and their results. Isn’t it amazing, though, that we never get any instruction in school or even from our parents as to how to make decisions? Sure, Mom and Dad give us values, which should certainly influence us. But do they - or does anyone - teach us how to make good choices? We learn how to drive a car (a skill that may no longer be necessary soon) yet we’re never taught how to decide (a skill that will always be necessary). This episode is meant to start a conversation on this critical skill. We’ve been studying decision-making for years and in this edition, we’ll discuss how consulting firms address this issue, identify one critical habit to build and sketch out one surefire way to make more informed - and ultimately better - choices.

We almost called this episode condiments and complements, because condiments are an example of complements (try saying that three times quickly!). Today’s episode is all about what iPhone apps, hot dogs and buns have in common - and why you shouldn’t confuse this concept with what you should be telling your best friend after that fabulous dinner they cooked for you last night.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!).