Learn to Think in Color

What communication skills can be learned by an organization? How teams turn scattered messages into a shared language Framing the question Organizational communication skills are the difference between a company that feels like a coordinated orchestra and one that sounds like a crowded subway platform. When leaders ask what  organizational communication skills  can actually be  learned , they’re really asking: “What can we intentionally improve versus what we’re stuck with?” A quick lens In this post, we’ll explore how an organization can learn to listen as a system, create clear shared messages, give and receive feedback, navigate conflict, and communicate across silos. Think of your organization as a nervous system: the better the signals travel, the faster and smarter the whole body reacts. The skills below are trainable, repeatable, and measurable—no charisma required. The shift: from “good communicators” to a communicating system Most people think of communication as...

Why are we so concerned with who’s to blame? How our blame instinct soothes us, sabotages us, and what to try instead     Big-picture framing Why are we so concerned with who’s to blame—at work, in politics, in our relationships? Because blame promises something we crave: clarity and control. The moment something goes wrong, our brains reach for a simple story with a clear villain, even when the real explanation is messier and shared. That habit can feel satisfying in the moment but quietly undermines trust, learning, and problem-solving. In this article, we’ll unpack why the “who’s to blame” instinct is so strong, how it shapes culture, and how to shift toward responsibility and repair without sacrificing accountability. 1. Why your brain reaches for blame so fast Think about the last time something went sideways—a project tanked, a plan fell apart, a conversation blew up. How long did it take before a name popped into your mind? That speed is not an accident. Blame is your b...

What Breaks When a Measure Becomes the Main Target? How Goodhart’s Law quietly sabotages your metrics, teams, and strategy Big Picture Box When a measure becomes the main target, it stops being a reliable window into reality. That’s the heart of the question  “what breaks when a measure becomes the main target?” —you don’t just distort the metric; you distort behavior, systems, and learning. This is the practical face of Goodhart’s Law, coined by Charles Goodhart: once people are rewarded or punished directly on a single number, they start optimizing the number instead of the outcome. In this post, you’ll see what actually breaks, how to spot it early, and how to design targets that guide action instead of warping it. Why Measures Break When They Become Targets When a metric becomes  the  target, four fracture lines usually appear. 1. Behavior Starts to Warp People do what you pay them to do, not what you  meant  to pay them to do. Support teams optimize  t...