What Works | Tara McMullin | Substack

Just a quick note to tell you about what's coming next.

Feb 5 • Tara McMullin

Decoding Empathy

Controlled Demolition

Facts aren't enough. We must change the way people think to make our case.

Nov 7, 2024 • Tara McMullin

How to Make Room for Others

How can we reimagine our practices, systems, and norms to invite everyone to participate and contribute?

Mar 21, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Learning Empathy from Copywriters & Doppelgangers

Copywriting gave me a toolkit for cognitive empathy. So I asked a copywriter to tell me how she does what she does.

Mar 14, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Decoding Accessibility and Sparking Wonder

Questions about accessibility are really questions that wonder about who gets to be together and how they gather.

Mar 7, 2024 • Tara McMullin

A Brand is a Constellation

The mythical norm, visibility bias, emerging from the margins, and expanding our circle of recognition

Feb 29, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Work

I'm So Over This (or, the Trouble With Platforms)

I've spent the last year (and then some) wrestling with my relationship to platforms.

Dec 19, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Seeing Software

Why we need to be choosers rather than users

Nov 21, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Banking on Crisis

Chaos creates opportunities—and even accidental celebrities. But I wouldn't bank on it.

Nov 14, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Work In Progress

Positive change—in work, business, or politics—requires regular tending and care. Here are 3 ideas to buoy that effort.

Nov 5, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Good Work and Good Pay

The more socially and culturally beneficial our work is, the less we're supposed to get for it.

Oct 22, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Boundary-breaking Resourcefulness

The way we frame a problem determines how we understand what resources are required and how we might procure them.

Oct 10, 2024 • Tara McMullin

This Is Not Advice

Why Nachos Aren't on the Menu

Or, how do you decide to expand your business to include a new product or service offering?

Apr 23, 2024 • Tara McMullin

14:43

How Structure Transforms Our Ideas

The way we structure our work can turn mere information into stories and wisdom.

Apr 9, 2024 • Tara McMullin

19:01

Process Entropy and Process Evolution

If you're waiting for the day your business, system, or process runs itself, you'll be waiting forever. Change happens—what we do with it is what…

Feb 20, 2024 • Tara McMullin

17:47

Making What Can't Be Sold

How do you turn a jumble of thoughts into a cohesive project?

Dec 26, 2023 • Tara McMullin

14:03

How A Syllabus Could Change The Way You Plan

Planners and project management apps reinforce linear, chronological thinking. What if we used a completely different medium to plan for growth?

Dec 12, 2023 • Tara McMullin and Sean McMullin

24:19

Productivity

Recent posts

I'm So Over This (or, the Trouble With Platforms)

I've spent the last year (and then some) wrestling with my relationship to platforms.

Dec 19, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Controlled Demolition

Facts aren't enough. We must change the way people think to make our case.

Nov 7, 2024 • Tara McMullin

'The Creator Economy Is Eating Creative Acts'

This moment on the internet is weird—and more than a little frustrating. I sat down with Charlie Gilkey and Kate Tyson to hash it out.

Apr 11, 2024 • Tara McMullin, Charlie Gilkey, and Kate Tyson

How "Know, Like, and Trust" Became Ensh*tified

Or, the economic vacuousness of "day trading attention"

Dec 17, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Buying Freedom and the Freedom to Buy

The freedom-based marketing campaign that sunk national health insurance in the 1940s in America—and how those same messages resonate in the market…

Dec 12, 2024 • Tara McMullin

20 Podcast Episodes That Explain (Almost) Everything in 2024

Some of the podcast episodes that helped me make sense of 2024 (free from election coverage or hot takes!)

Dec 10, 2024 • Tara McMullin

3 Ways to Avoid Acquiescence Bias

When we let others frame our questions or problems for us, we miss out on more creative (and strategic) solutions.

Dec 5, 2024 • Tara McMullin

10 Books I Loved in 2024

Let's not call it a 'favorites' list—but here are 5 non-fiction and 5 fiction books that have really stuck with me this year.

Dec 3, 2024 • Tara McMullin

What Works for the Holidays

A round-up of ideas to prepare for awkward conversations

Nov 26, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Seeing Software

Why we need to be choosers rather than users

Nov 21, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Who Do You Mean 'We?'

The language we use as marketers, managers, or leaders has major implications for how others understand themselves and the groups they belong to (or…

Nov 19, 2024 • Tara McMullin

Banking on Crisis

Chaos creates opportunities—and even accidental celebrities. But I wouldn't bank on it.

Nov 14, 2024 • Tara McMullin