Brad Rourke

Category: business

  • A Fourth Systems Thinking Building Block?

    Some of my friends and readers know I am nearly finished pursuing a master’s degree in public administration at American University. (No, I am not intending to pursue a career in the federal government; the MPA is like the MBA of the social sector and I thought it a useful higher degree to have.) In my current course,…

  • Need Help Getting Online? I Can Help.

    I am adding some capabilities to my professional offerings that some of my readers may be interested in: Let Me Help Create Your Online Presence Today, there is a consensus that there’s a bare minimum amount of online presence that any organization — whether a small business, local nonprofit, or giant enterprise — needs in…

  • Making Document Reviews Work

    If you are having a meeting (or a conference call) to review a document, here are three things that can make it helpful: Insist that whatever is being reviewed get shared ahead of time, with ample time to read Insist that participants edit the document using Track Changes ahead of time, send the changes directly…

  • How The Road Warrior World Has Changed

    Yesterday I was in an airport and ran into a bank of AT&T 2000 phone booths. The phones had been pulled out; there were four little private booths to sit and . . . well, I don’t know. Just sit. I did a great deal of air travel in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.…

  • Join Me for a Session with Seth Godin in DC – Free!

    I was very excited when I learned that a singular thinker in marketing, Seth Godin, was planning a road trip where he would be leading all-day sessions that would be open to the public. I immediately signed up for the July 22 session in DC at the historic Warner Theater. Turns out that the theater…

  • Useful Resources For Solo Startups

    As most of my readers know, my wife Andrea Jarrell and I are both “solopreneurs” — she has been at it a lot longer than me, but we are both quite accustomed to this way of working. Andrea is preparing for a panel where she will be talking about the trials, tribulations, and rewards of…

  • Are You Playing Restaurant?

    When I was about eleven, I learned how to make my favorite cheese sandwich: white bread, mayonnaise, American cheese. Yes, I grew up in the midwest. Shortly after I learned this special skill, I developed a fun game to pass the time: I would play “restaurant.” More precisely, I would play short order cook. I…

  • This Is What Leadership Looks Like

    Last week, a story was circulating through social media platforms that illuminated a real bonehead move by Amazon. It was deleting copies of George Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm from people’s Kindles without their knowledge. Turns out the books being deleted from the popular e-readers were unauthorized editions, and in the Kindle terms of service…

  • The Overall Effect Is Less Than The Sum Of Its Parts

    Somehow I have gotten on an “Internet marketing guru’s” email distribution list. I typically just archive the notes without reading them, but for some reason (I think because it came in on my Blackberry) I read the latest one. It was touting a free “telesummit” which is a fancy word for a conference call. It…