'Ben Thinking' for the week of 02.24

Can you believe it’s been 10 years since ‘The Dress’ debate?

Mike Lawrence/DALL-E

You remember the dress. Is it black/blue or gold/white…who knows! Who cares! Well, a lot of people cared. And all these years later, despite factual evidence that it is indeed black and blue, a healthy percent of people still see gold and white.

It’s weird, isn’t it…how people can look at the same thing and see something completely different.

Anyways, onto what I’ve ‘Ben thinking’ about:

RTO: Five years later. (Chief Executive)

Akhia is coming up on celebrating five years of work from anywhere. We committed to that pretty early in the pandemic (after starting as temporary) but it’s a little easier for us. The same can’t be said for so many other companies who are truly wrestling with the best way to approach RTO v. WFA.

Of course, there is no right answer (regardless of what Jamie Dimon says) – all that matters is you have an answer. And you stick to it. The article I shared is full of successful examples of every option – the one thing they have in common? That picked a lane and stayed in it.

5 must watch B2B manufacturing trends for 2025 (Akhia)

Seems like every week there are five new trends. What do we think the five most important are to stay focused on? Check out the latest Insights piece.

7 Habits to stay focused in a world full of distractions (HBR)

We have more distractions than ever. Instead of eliminating them, we plow through, thinking ‘we got this’. But we don’t. Turns out witching tasks at the speed of light has led to longer completion times, more stress and more errors.

According to the article:

Many of us believe we’re adept at juggling interruptions, but research tells a different story, according to Gloria Mark, Chancellor’s Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness, and Productivity. “Think of your mind as a whiteboard,” she says. “Each task or topic you focus on is like writing on that whiteboard. When you multitask, you’re constantly erasing and rewriting different information."

The article also asks you to stop multitasking, boldly stating "you really think no one notices you checking your email in another tab?"

I feel like we've been reading and talking about this for a while. So I guess it's like anything else where we won't stop doing it until we decide it's important enough to stop doing.

What's your threshold? 

The What Directors Think 2025 report is full of valuable distractions.

I know I just talked about too many distractions, but this is a good one. I swear.

The What Directors Think 2025 report is here. And growth is back on the agenda. For reference, you’ll see in the report that 76% of directors are prioritizing growth this year—despite navigating a landscape packed with new risks.

From AI adoption and supply chain fragility to cybersecurity threats and social pressures, the modern boardroom is balancing opportunity with caution. One surprising twist? Shareholder activism is sliding down the priority list but concerns over CEO succession and ethics scandals are on the rise. That and a lot more are in this great report.

(Note: AI was used in the development of this story.)

Hate small talk? Pull a ‘thread’. (CNBC’s make it)

This is such a good, powerful article. I’m ok with small talk but I’m definitely going to start using this method!

Mike Lawrence and DALL-E brainstormed what this could be

Do you have mad skills?

Or are you mad there are so many ‘skills’ terms out there?

I saw/skimmed about 10 different articles on ‘skills’ while putting this edition together. So, I thought ‘forget that…I’ll just write my own blurb on it’.

Reskilling, upskilling, skills-based hiring—it’s a whirlwind of terms that’s leaving some of companies stuck on which approach they should be focused on. Workforce agility is critical to any organization’s future of work strategy but when every conversation had a different ‘skill’set, it’s easy to lose sight of which one you need.

Let’s simplify things a bit.

=Reskilling is about training employees for an entirely new role—think factory employees learning supply chain analytics as automation shifts the landscape.

=Upskilling sharpens existing abilities, like giving your sales team training on AI-driven CRMs.

=Then there’s the rise of skills-based hiring, where job titles take a back seat, and it’s the actual competencies—project management, data analysis, critical thinking—that land you the gig.

Each has its place, but the challenge is knowing when to leverage which. The key is clarity—aligning talent development with business goals and communicating that clearly. Because at the end of the day, it’s not about throwing every “skill” at the wall and hoping something sticks. It’s about knowing which ones move your business forward.

(Note: AI was used in the development of this story.)

Just for fun: People love hating the word ‘moist’ in this new Dove commercial.

As someone who is firmly in the anti m-word camp, I love everything about the new Dove commercial. Great set-up, great payoff…pretty much nails everything in this 30-second spot from Ryan Reynold’s agency.

Whoa wait a minute…here’s someone who doesn’t think this is fun at all. Mike Lawrence, you have the floor:

“Not bad, but it seemed like low hanging fruit and a couple years too late. People for years have hated the word "Moist", so a purposely lame jingle and showing a focus group (shot like a regular commercial) recoiling at the SO MOIST campaign is good, but I'm not loving it. It's good for a laugh and that's it.

The REAL creative challenge? Make "moist" a winning word. One that Dove can own and be more in line with their confidence-inspired ads. "Why are we offended at 'moist'? How did we get here? Let's blow it up and take it back. Stop letting a word affect you how to feel."

Then you can have a real Moist jingle, sung by Kelly Clarkson. Promos could include The Moist Masked Singer, where the mascot (maskot?) switches out every so often to reveal a new B-list celeb (Justin Baldoni, anyone?). Sponsor wetlands to clean up and protect (The MOIST Project). And anything else to thread the needle between funny and functional.

Hating on Moist has been done. But loving on it, now that could be a breakthrough and a challenge.

Also, I'm kind of over Ryan Reynolds, not sure why. So that may be clouding my judgement.”

Mike drop. See what I did there?

Although…”over” Ryan Reynolds? I don’t know about that one Mike…

Feel free to share with anyone else you think would enjoy the articles and resources!

Thank you,

Ben