The Potentiality

John Horn's Website for Community Builders

Learning & Thinking

A Cite Your Sources Haiku

Cite sources always. Respect, intelligence, growth. Bad plagiarism. – A haiku about the pitfalls of being the VP of Strategy who didn’t credit Harrison Owen when they applied (not “invented”) Open Space Technology or the COO who takes credit for…

The Egg Drop is Perfect Performance Evaluation

A few weeks ago I attended the Egg Drop Challenge at my sons’ school. Kids, teachers, and parents cheered as creations were tossed from the roof and all of us analyzed the result of the experiment. The experience was transparent,…

Work Like Nikola Jokić Plays Basketball

Nikola Jokić is a two time National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP). He loves passing the ball almost as much as he loves horses. In fact, Jokić is probably the best passing big man of all time, one…

An Accountability Haiku

(To) Be accountable. Culture of failing, learning. Growth, not punishment. – A haiku about how communities – companies, schools, families – cannot have a culture of accountability without first fostering a culture of learning (because if every mistake is met…

How to be Consistent like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) is one of the most consistent high-performers on Earth. He has scored over 30 points for the NBA Western Conference’s top seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in 40 games this season and, to underscore how he’s a model…

What Needs to be in Your Next Corporate Retreat

According to the Internet, most corporate retreats suck. After all, many senior leaders aren’t even great at running effective meetings, so why would a group of us be awesome at designing and delivering what is essentially a multi-day million dollar…

Five Ways to Embrace Your Mortality

We are all going to die. But we also avoid thinking about our mortality. And we are likely to reflect on our deathbeds that we didn’t spend time doing on the most important things during our life. I’ve had some…

Six Critical Thinking Tips from Fiction’s Greatest Detectives

In the world of literature, television, and film, some of the most brilliant examples of critical thinking have come from fiction’s greatest detectives. Unraveling mysteries that baffle ordinary mortals, these on-screen and literary luminaries not only entertain us with their…

A Failure Haiku

Feeling like failure. Learning happens everywhere. Failing is learning. – This is a Failure – or a failing is learning – Haiku because it’s been a tough month and I’ve learned a lot (humans always do!)

Four Ways that Tough Feedback Makes Work Better

Our team has written quite a bit about feedback – both how to give it and how to ask for it and act on it. But in our day to day work, we are often confronted with input and criticism…