As another South by Southwest descends upon Austin, it’s an exciting to be a member of the creative community here. Today the University of Texas at Austin announces my appointment as their new Director of the Center for Integrated Design. …

Musings About TED 2016 in Vancouver: “Dream” TED has become the summer camp experience I never had. I first went to TED several years ago with trepidations. I didn’t know anyone. The ethos of TED is to get to know as many people as possible. That began to happen over…

Introducing my new company Vidlet — As 2.6 billion smartphones (and counting) blanket the world, what if brands could tap the power of mobile video to help build better products and companies? “Form follows emotion.” That was one of the first phrases I heard when I joined the iconic design firm, frog. Coined by frog founder…

Why the humanities should be a core part of every student’s education These days critical thinking in business is a precious commodity indeed. Conventional wisdom says that running a business is all about the numbers and the kind of brain that is good at calculating them. That’s why you should…

Empathy and compassion are not traditionally associated with strong leadership, but they are actually the very things that could turn an average leader into a true visionary. Let’s talk leadership. A lot of people are. Recently, Tony Schwartz in his New York Times column brought up three exemplary leaders —…

When it comes to building and maintaining a strong creative culture in the workplace, or in developing a company with the potential to change the world in some way, promoting “everyday awe” at the office could be an important tool for managers. So much of our everyday work life gets…

Perhaps nothing is more deeply embedded in our collective consciousness than the idea that women are more purely emotional beings than men. James Joyce, one of the great novelists of the 20th century, put it this way: “Men are governed by lines of intellect, women by curves of emotion.” It’s…