Ideas on power, ownership, and what comes next
Articles and notes on expertise, communication, and the rooms shaping what comes next.
Burnout Is the End of the Conversation, Not the Beginning
A note from me: I founded the Octagon Experts Bureau to put the sharpest experts in front of the rooms, stages, and teams that need them. Karrion Lalor Carr is one of them, and the insights below are exactly why.Subscribe nowThe star performer whose sudden decline seemed to come out of nowhere didn’t actually come out of nowhere. That’s the uncomfortable truth most organizations miss when a top leader hits a wall.…
Read →We Were Told This Would Be Enough
They Removed the Degrees from Their Résumés. What four Black women in Arkansas are teaching us about credentials, capital, and what actually protects you. recently spent time with four Black women in Little Rock, Arkansas. Among them: nine higher education degrees. Combined years of government service, corporate management, health equity leadership, and project management. Not one steady paycheck.Their…
Read →Revenue Is Vanity. Profit Is Control. Cash Flow Is the Whole Game.
A note from me: I founded the Octagon Experts Bureau to put the sharpest experts in front of the rooms, stages, and teams that need them. Erika Jones is one of them, and the insights below are exactly why.Subscribe nowYou can gross three hundred thousand dollars this year and still not know where any of it went. That is the uncomfortable truth sitting inside most service businesses and small firms. The top-line…
Read →When Revenue Stalls, Stop Blaming the Team
A note from me: I founded the Octagon Experts Bureau to put the sharpest experts in front of the rooms, stages, and teams that need them. Natalie Hoop is one of them, and the insights below are exactly why.Subscribe nowWhen something starts breaking inside a growing company, revenue softens, a launch flops, deadlines slip, the leader’s instinct is almost always the same: it must be the people. The sales team has…
Read →CEOs to L&D: Prove ROI or Lose Budget
Recently a panel of CEOs and business leaders said out loud what corporate buyers around the world have been thinking for years: learning and development spending needs to prove it moves the needle, or it goes.Not “we’d love to see more connection to strategy.” Not “let’s explore ways to measure impact.” A direct, public statement that training disconnected from business outcomes is on…
Read →Why Your Culture Training Isn’t Sticking And What Actually Builds Trust at Work
Culture isn’t a slogan or a workshop. It’s the quality of the relationships between the people doing the work — and most leaders are getting the math wrong.A note from me: I founded the Octagon Experts Bureau to put the sharpest experts in front of the rooms, stages, and teams that need them. Michaun Elise Winborn is one of them, and the insights below are exactly why.Most organizations talk about culture as if it…
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