The How To

Practical, step-by-step guides for designing and running better practice.

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Writing for 20,000 People Who Don't All Speak English at Home
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Writing for 20,000 People Who Don't All Speak English at Home

We're writing voiceover for a global leadership experience. The hard part isn't clarity - it's keeping the narrative alive.

The Off-Site Pie
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The Off-Site Pie

Planning an offsite is not a piece of cake. In fact, it's a pie. Every session is some slice of five things: Strategy, Alignment, Education, Inspiration, Vibes.

Teaching and Designing
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Teaching and Designing

"Teaching is the best way to learn something". We believed this for a while, but now we're not so sure.

Just in Time Experience Design
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Just in Time Experience Design

We spent seven months building a program. Then we trashed 60% and rebuilt in two weeks. User research matters. Playtesting matters more.

The Inside Intro
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The Inside Intro

A quick tip for facilitators: get someone from the client's team to introduce you. It only takes 30 seconds, but changes everything.

From Ableton to Vibe Coding: When Creative Tools Break Open
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From Ableton to Vibe Coding: When Creative Tools Break Open

How Ableton Live turned bedroom producers into festival headliners - and why today's AI coding tools are following the same pattern of democratization, from Sasha's 2005 Essential Mix to Skrillex's basement-built drops.

Why 80% of AI Investments Fail (And How to Fix Yours)
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Why 80% of AI Investments Fail (And How to Fix Yours)

Most companies roll out AI tools, provide training, hope for the best - then wonder why adoption stalls. The missing piece isn't technical knowledge, it's confidence built through practice under pressure.

How to Spot Talent: Two Questions That Reveal Creative Spark
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How to Spot Talent: Two Questions That Reveal Creative Spark

Economist Tyler Cowen’s approach to finding talent is insightful—and flawed. Here’s how we can uncover hidden potential and level the playing field for the next generation of creators.

Teaching with GPT: Building a Digital Persona That Thinks, Guides, and Surprises
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Teaching with GPT: Building a Digital Persona That Thinks, Guides, and Surprises

Building a custom GPT for Columbia students means designing personality, setting boundaries, and creating 50+ rules for strategic learning.

The Power of a Great Question: Unlocking Worlds, One Inquiry at a Time
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The Power of a Great Question: Unlocking Worlds, One Inquiry at a Time

Great questions need design, timing, delivery, and follow-through - like a billiard break that opens up every ball perfectly.

Going deep: Our approach to taking on Deep Work
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Going deep: Our approach to taking on Deep Work

Pull not push. Block Deep Work periods. Plan in weeks not tasks. Cal Newport's productivity principles applied at Wavetable.

How we validate new product and venture concepts
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How we validate new product and venture concepts

Testing 18 ad variants revealed counter-intuitive truths - longer surveys convert better, removing cash incentives lowers costs, adding friction helps.

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From 100 Days to Lifelong Skills: How to Spark Engagement in Online Learning

200,000 enrolled in Replit's coding course but dropoff was massive - ten fixes including missions, scaffolds, and meaningful incentives.

The Blank Slide Shuffle
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The Blank Slide Shuffle

Scott Harrison went pitch black mid-keynote - using a blank slide to mark rock bottom, ramp tension, refocus attention.

Understanding the Presentation Spectrum
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Understanding the Presentation Spectrum

Presentations live on a spectrum - performative keynotes at one end, decision-driven budget reviews at the other. Most work sits middle.

11 tips to improve your writing skills
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11 tips to improve your writing skills

University of Chicago professor Larry McEnerney breaks down writing - purpose is changing reader worldview, sentences create microstresses, jargon varies.

Why the best experiences have invisible structure
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Why the best experiences have invisible structure

Billy Wilder built films so the craft disappeared. Why presentations, programmes and experiences work best when the structure stays hidden.

How to set up speaker notes in a live presentation (simple 3-step process)
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How to set up speaker notes in a live presentation (simple 3-step process)

Notes can end up distracting and confusing. So how do we best use them?

Introducing the Presentation Elevation Tool
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Introducing the Presentation Elevation Tool

A free tool packed with unconventional prompts to help you get unstuck

Presentation Skills: 3 Levels of Speaking (and two ways to level up)
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Presentation Skills: 3 Levels of Speaking (and two ways to level up)

Master the fundamentals of public speaking with three progressive levels and practical techniques to level up your presentation game.

Notes on... creating engaging learning experiences
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Notes on... creating engaging learning experiences

What keeps people coming back to an online course? Seven elements of engagement, riffed for a group of senior brand and strategy folk.

Air Time: How to elevate your next presentation deck
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Air Time: How to elevate your next presentation deck

30 million PowerPoints are made every day; most are overcrowded. The telescope method trims a deck without hours of microscopic surgery.

Create some Client Magic: join the free Micro Course
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The How To

Create some Client Magic: join the free Micro Course

Client presentations, pitches and reviews are high-stakes. A free micro course on designing client experiences people want to be in.

What's Your Presenter Type?
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What's Your Presenter Type?

Our free self-assessment tool will help you level up your presentation skills

3 ways to make your Training and Development more engaging
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3 ways to make your Training and Development more engaging

Skills expire faster than ever, but most training still feels flat. Three ways to design sessions people actually want to be in.

Workshops & Meetings: How to avoid the pre-read trap
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Workshops & Meetings: How to avoid the pre-read trap

Nobody does the pre-work. Nobody reads the pre-read. How to design workshops and meetings that work anyway: no dependencies, multiple ways in.

Inside Wavetable's brand refresh
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Inside Wavetable's brand refresh

A brighter, bolder Wavetable, and the thinking underneath it. Why what happens Inside now has an outsize impact on what happens Outside.

Notes On… Obstacle Courses for Learning Experiences
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Notes On… Obstacle Courses for Learning Experiences

Why your program, workshop, or course should take a tip from the military - and kids’ playtime

How to bring the power of Telenovelas into learning
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How to bring the power of Telenovelas into learning

Discover how a 1970s TV producer named Miguel created a powerful method for making complex messages resonate through storytelling.

Notes on... DIG's Winter marketing campaign
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Notes on... DIG's Winter marketing campaign

How we went about showrunning a video production campaign for cooking company DIG

Why 6 is the magic workshop number
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Why 6 is the magic workshop number

A quick guide on how the number 6 can serve as your secret weapon for designing and delivering effective workshops.

The reverse reference: Why hiring talent is a two-way street
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The reverse reference: Why hiring talent is a two-way street

What if employers offered references to the people they interview? A simple shift that could transform how we build trust in hiring.

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The Joy of 6

From cabaret tables to De La Soul to Marc Lewis's School - why six (and 36) is the magic number for workshop design.

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The How To

How to transform a webinar

Six practical ways to transform passive webinars into engaging experiences - from changing the format to the jiu jitsu of underpromising.

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The How To

How to run an interactive workshop in Zoom

Part one of a practical guide to interactive Zoom workshops: the advance setup that makes a one-off online session feel nothing like a webinar.

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How to tell stories that move your community to action

Seven story elements, daily storytelling habits, and a full workshop video from a leading conference for community builders.

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How to introduce yourself

First impressions are a lever. How to open a workshop, class or meeting with an introduction that builds trust instead of losing the room.

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The How To

How to run a workshop for the C-suite

THE FEAR is real, especially in front of senior executives. Notes on running a boardroom workshop from someone who survived the first one.

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The How To

How to get booked to speak at a conference: 20 tips for success

20 field-tested tips for landing a conference talk, from someone who has judged the proposals. Being good isn't enough; being clear helps.

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How to run an interactive workshop in Zoom (Part 2)

Part two of the interactive Zoom workshop guide: running the live session itself, from pre-flight checks to keeping energy up on screen.

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How to design a workshop slide deck

Death by PowerPoint is a choice. How to design workshop slides with narrative and restraint, and when to skip the deck entirely.

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The How To

How to calculate the time you need to create a workshop

How long does it really take to build a workshop? A practical way to estimate creation time before you promise a date you'll regret.

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The How To

How to create an interactive workshop with mmhmm and Zoom

What happens when you pair mmhmm with Zoom? Notes from an interactive Field Trip with Creative Mornings, and how to build one yourself.

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The How To

How to design a client workshop without freaking out (live demo)

A live demo building a client workshop with five pieces of paper and a pen. Proof that session design doesn't have to be terrifying.

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The How To

How to create an Off-Site that hits the spot - with special guest Katie Dreke

Off-sites are back, but the stakes have changed. A live session with Katie Dreke on designing in-person time remote workers actually value.

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The How To

How to create a slide deck that engages your audience

Level up your next slide deck so it’s engaging, story-driven, and able to clearly communicate even the most complex topics

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The How To

7 ways to adjust your live workshop or course for different audiences

Mixed skill levels in the room? A video Q&A on adjusting a live workshop when beginners and veterans are sitting side by side.

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3 types of workshop questions

Great workshops answer questions before anyone asks them. Borrowing from storytellers: the three types of questions every session has to handle.

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The How To

5 ways to run better remote workshops

Remote workshops fail in predictable ways. Five fixes from years of running distributed sessions, useful long after the novelty wears off.

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