A board member is at a dinner, seated beside someone she has just met. Between courses, the stranger asks the polite question: "So what does your organization do?" She has heard the mission statement read aloud at every board meeting for three years. She begin
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At 9:40 on a Tuesday night, a homeowner stands in a utility room with a flashlight and an inch of water on the floor. She does not type the name of a plumbing company. She types what she sees: "water heater leaking from bottom," and then, a minute later, "wate
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The front desk phone at a small regional art museum rings on a Tuesday morning. The caller has three oil paintings that belonged to her late father and wants to know what the gallery would pay for them. The visitor services coordinator explains, kindly, that t
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It is Monday, a little after seven, and the owner of a ceramics studio with two locations is trying to work out how last week went. Her ads run in one account and her reviews in another. Her booking tool knows who signed up for the Thursday wheel class, her em
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The managing partner of a three-partner advisory firm is having lunch with a tax attorney she has known for years. Near the end of the meal, the attorney asks a simple question: "If I have a client who should talk to you, who exactly is that?"
She answers wel
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