Dr. Thomas Norman

When output is free, volume metrics measure the free part. I grade my students' annotations on the AI transcript, since the machine gives every transcript the same polish. Ask what your people caught. More Capable No. 10: www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-...

Tom Kelly's Twins practiced the fundamentals every day in spring, and won it all in 1987 and 1991. On a small team, the founder is the training department. Teaching brings the run home. The First Inning No. 4: thedartdiamond.com

On day one a new hire gets a laptop, a badge, and the company values. Within weeks they have learned the other rulebook, the one nobody prints. Nobody hands it to them. They copy it from what you reward. Management Memes No. 19: www.linkedin.com/pulse/ruleb...

On a team of ten, there are no secrets. Every early offer mixes cash, ownership, title, and learning. Put everyone's pay on one sheet; if you can't explain a difference face to face, fix it. The First Inning No. 3: thedartdiamond.com

Everyone nodded. Nobody owned the next step. The GM ignition switch, Lawrence and Lorsch, and why the more you divide the work, the harder you must integrate it. Management Memes No. 17: www.linkedin.com/pulse/every...

Jane Austen's first title for Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions. Most hiring still runs on it. Reliability is not validity: an interviewer who agrees with himself every time is reliable, and that does not make him right. Management Memes No. 18: www.linkedin.com/pulse/first...

AI takes the entry-level work where experts used to begin. The tasks were never the point; the reps were. When technology removes the old practice field, build a new one. More Capable No. 9: www.linkedin.com/pulse/reps-...

Every pitch gets scouted in October. Most founders make their first hire with far less information. Write the job first, fish where early-stage people swim, and score every answer. The First Inning No. 2: thedartdiamond.com

The Lucas Museum pays the state $30 a year for its land. An adult ticket costs $25. The lease promises "the greatest benefit possible" and never says how anyone would know. OLE Lab Notebook No. 9: www.linkedin.com/pulse/25-pe...

A decision can be smart but still wrong. WeWork lost most of a $47 billion valuation to ordinary errors, and no idea survives a decision process with no brakes. Two thirty-second tests: the front page and the dinner table. Management Memes No. 16: www.linkedin.com/pulse/smart...

LEGO nearly died of having too many ideas. The 2003 turnaround was a list of things the company would stop doing. Strategy as subtraction, and why most of directing is refusal. Management Memes No. 15: www.linkedin.com/pulse/saved...

My second customer interview killed my business plan in ninety minutes. Every leadership team is placing a far larger bet on the pace of AI. Sort your doors first: people decisions are more one-way than they look. More Capable No. 8: www.linkedin.com/pulse/sort-...

$916 built a working operating system. The number was true. The story built around it was not. Every demo is a pitch, and if your evaluation can't embarrass the vendor, it isn't an evaluation. More Capable No. 4, The Machine Is Not Neutral: www.linkedin.com/pulse/machi...

Zappos deleted its managers in 2013 with no machine to catch the work. One in seven of the best people left within the year. Every AI flattening plan is rerunning that experiment. More Capable No. 7, The Flattening: www.linkedin.com/pulse/flatt...

Plans that are never revisited quietly become fiction. LA posted its $14.9B White Book this week and starts planning next year within days. Who rereads the plan? A Management Memes special edition on the sixth step of planning, the one that gets skipped: www.linkedin.com/pulse/plan-...

Every management theory was somebody's emergency fix. Borrow the fix without the emergency and you treat a disease your team does not have. The Vincent Thomas Bridge makes the case. Management Memes No. 14: www.linkedin.com/pulse/every...

One of the most useful management books I read last year came out of a Lenten challenge, and no course assigned it. The Brothers Karamazov as a leadership case. OLE Lab Notebook No. 8, first of a series on the great books: www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-...

I went to the Lucas Museum twice this week. What stayed with me was a line from George Lucas about how he built it: casting is the collection, scripting is the curation, editing is the installation. That is a management framework. New Management Memes, No. 13: www.linkedin.com/pulse/cast-...

One person plus AI can match a two-person team's output. It still can't dissent with itself. What teams are for, now that AI isn't one — More Capable No. 5: www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-...

In California, "why am I paid this?" now comes with legal standing. If your answer starts with "historically," that is not a defense. It is exposure with a payroll attached. Management Memes No. 12, the compensation capstone: www.linkedin.com/pulse/desig...

In some Neighborhood Council elections here on the LA harbor, a board seat is decided by a couple dozen votes. We democratized the civic floor and never built the ceiling to hold it up. www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-...

Pay gets people in the door. Recognition decides whether they stay. Herzberg's old distinction still holds up: money mostly prevents dissatisfaction, and that is not the same as creating commitment. www.linkedin.com/pulse/peopl...

Companies that hire senior leaders through headhunters see roughly half of those hires fail. P&G promoted from within instead, all the way up to the CEO's office. Pay can sustain a long career. It cannot manufacture one: www.linkedin.com/pulse/develo...

An org chart is not a picture of your company. It's a theory. AI just made information cheap to move, but a structure carries six loads and AI reprices only two. Test the wall before you remove it: www.linkedin.com/pulse/org-ch...

The AI drafted the memo in nine seconds. The nine minutes that decide whether it should be sent are still yours. From More Capable, a weekly note for managers navigating the AI transition: www.linkedin.com/pulse/when-a...

California employers call the state's pay laws the most demanding in the country. They are right, and that is the opportunity. The case for treating pay law as a design constraint, not a burden: www.linkedin.com/pulse/most-d...

Health coverage, retirement matching, and paid leave commonly add about 30% on top of cash pay. Most employees have no idea. The catch: golden handcuffs buy presence, not engagement. Management Memes No. 8: www.linkedin.com/pulse/payche...

As AI absorbs routine cognitive work, a manager's job becomes growing the capability the machine cannot replace. The failure mode looks like success: output climbs while capability quietly flatlines. More Capable, weekly: www.linkedin.com/pulse/more-c...

Public education is America’s superpower. UC gave me mine—this isn’t lost on me. My aim/mission will be simple: accessibility. 🇺🇸📚💪

Other countries have safety nets. The US has women. Their labor creates the illusion of a DIY society, making it seem like we don't need a net. Writing HOLDING IT TOGETHER was a labor of love and fury and I'm so grateful to share it with you all #PubDay www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/697130...

Tomorrow is Budget Day in LA. Volunteers audit the city budget, department by department, and almost no one knows it happens. My new essay on the civic infrastructure we forget to build: www.linkedin.com/pulse/audit-...

Minnesota's 1971 Miracle equalized school funding. LA built 99 Neighborhood Councils in 1999 — boards get elected with 26 votes. What could the Harbor borrow from Minnesota? New essay: www.linkedin.com/pulse/minnes...

Most comp textbooks treat pay as paperwork. I think that gets it backward. Pay is how organizations direct, attract, reward, and keep talent. I'll be writing here about building reward systems that hold up — especially in California, the toughest pay-law state in the country. Follow along.

It’s Holy Week, but Jerusalem’s Old City is quiet and eerily empty

edsource.org/2026/califor...

@csudh.bsky.social Glad to see we are using a much more refreshing user centered microblog.