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The Philadelphia 76ers were on a terrible run of form. It was the 1972-73 NBA basketball season, they'd lost six games in a row and were busy losing again. The coach Roy Rubin knew he had to make a change.  One of his players that night was the notoriously hard playing defensive forward John Q Trapp.  Trapp had joined the team at the start of the season and came in with a bad reputation. During his recruitment the 76ers assistant coach warned that he was “absolutely uncoachab

Darwin was not born a genius.  In his book, Letters to a Young Scientist , the Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson argued that Darwin probably had an IQ in the 130 range. He was not a genius student.  He dropped out of medical school, before completing a Bachelor of Arts degree. In his letters he looked back at his natural abilities saying, “I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men … my power to follow a long and purely abstract tra

If you want to try to learn art where do you start? Where I live there are two options for starter classes: watercolour painting or life...

I’m a father of two young girls. Which means I’m constantly fielding questions. The average four-year-old British girl asks their mum 390...

We hired a talented young account manager. They had valuable sector experience and needed to learn the account manager role.  They were...

The history books tell us that Karl Benz was inventor of the car. He was the first person to build a practical car and the first to get a...

Lloyd Fredendall was a young officer when the US entered WW1.  He spent the war behind the lines building an excellent reputation as a trainer and administrator. Over the next two decades he continued to serve in training roles, then in a succession of Washington-based posts, surrounded by the key US Army leaders. He built a great reputation as a likeable, capable and ambitious leader.  General Marshall described him as "one of the best" and said, "I like that man; you can se

Between 2009 and 2011, a group of researchers surveyed 6,000 sales reps. They were trying to understand what skills, behaviours and...

“If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” - Tom Peters In January 1955 Fortune magazine published their first 500 list,...

I took my family to a restaurant a few weeks ago. As we were seated, the waiter handed us some free taster glass of craft lemonade. It...

About a year into my fledgling career I was fired. I worked for an advertising network, a business that buys space on websites to bundle...

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has 55 direct reports! With that many people to manage, and the world's third most valuable company to run, it...

Tom Brady is the most successful American Football quarterback in history. He's won 7 Super Bowl championships. Bill Belichick is one of...

If you’ve ever had a run-in with a badly designed swing door, where you’re not sure if you should be pushing or pulling - you’ve encountered a Norman Door.

My first job was as a cook in McDonald’s, and wow did my greasy teenage skin not react well to that environment. McDonald’s operate over...

How incremental improvements have made the best restaurant for kids in the world

Communications Tendencies: The Secret to Becoming a Skilled Communicator

What people ask for and what they need can be two very different things.

Ever read an email and thought someone was acting terribly, only to talk to them later and find out you had read it all wrong? The 7-35-55 rule explains why...