If you’ve ever created a chart, graph or infographic, you’ll find his advice very helpful. Here were the top five things I took away on how to create a compelling design. And surprisingly, they were all things not to do. Keep these in mind the next time you make a graphic.

1. Don’t choose a design first: Let the content determine the design. Sure, it’s easy to slip those numbers into a pre-made PowerPoint pie chart, but before you do, next time ask yourself if there’s a more compelling, unique way of making the design enhance those numbers.

2. Don’t simplify the content, simplify the design. There’s no relationship between the amount of information and the ease of understanding the graphic. If you don’t believe me, check out this impressive infographic from the New York Times. Keep all of the content you need to explain it correctly.

3. Don’t put lines around boxes in tables. Why not? As Tufte said, you want to focus your audience on the numbers, not on the lines around the numbers. Just take a look for yourself. Which of these look less distracting to you?

IFRACTAL daily Cheetos consumption (Cheetos per person)

IFRACTAL daily Cheetos consumption (Cheetos per person)

4. Don’t design to the lowest common denominator of your audience. As communicators, it’s tempting to want to simplify your message so you can be sure it gets across to every member of the audience. Next time, take Tufte’s advice: assume everybody in the group you’re addressing is a lot like you.

5. Don’t accept criticism on the design itself, but only on the content. Your designers have a degree for a reason—they know what they’re doing. That’s why you should only seek out content-based criticism. If the content is wrong, fix it. If there’s criticism on the design itself, you may want to reconsider the source of that criticism, and their level of credibility.

I like to think that a new perspective is what I bring to KnowHR. I’m not in the “biz” but I am an employee, and I have been working full time since I was about 16 (yes, I did work off the books for awhile) and I’ve seen lots of mistakes made over and over by different people. This, however, is the biggest and the one that rubs me the wrong way most often. On Thursday, Yahoo! Finance published an article from the New York Times. I want to cite a little bit from it because I think it’s very relevant to what we discuss here on a day to day basis.

About 10 years ago I was having my annual holiday party, and my niece had come with her newly minted M.B.A. boyfriend. As he looked around the room, he noted that my employees seemed happy. I told him that I thought they were. Then, figuring I would take his new degree for a test drive, I asked him how he thought I did that. “I’m sure you treat them well,” he replied. “That’s half of it,” I said. “Do you know what the other half is?” He didn’t have the answer, and neither have the many other people that I have told this story. So what is the answer? I fired the unhappy people. People usually laugh at this point. I wish I were kidding. I’m not. I have learned the long, hard and frustrating way that as a manager you cannot make everyone happy. You can try, you can listen, you can solve some problems, you can try some more. Good management requires training, counseling and patience, but there comes a point when you are robbing the business of precious time and energy.

It’s important to recognize that not only are you responsible for your company, but its morale, its employees, and the general tone of the office. If you allow a toxic person to hang on and keep bribing them to not be toxic, you’re only reinforcing the negative toxic behavior. That’s not to say you terminate every employee who’s not happy. Some have legitimate gripes, and some, while wrong, might give you the knowledge you need to steer the company in a certain direction that you hadn’t thought of. That being said, though, there’s no shame in cutting your losses and there’s an extra special non-shame in cutting your losses with someone who was only dragging down your company to begin with.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Don’t even take Jay Goltz’s word for it. Talk to your employees. Get to know the squeaky wheels and see how the atmosphere changes when they aren’t there. If you see a big change, then get rid of that wheel. Yes, this requires a lot of hands-on management and you may not be used to that, but the benefits far outweigh the amount of elbow grease they’ll require to get done. If you’ve had a similar situation, let us know in the comments how you handled it. Did you grease the squeaky wheel? Or did you change the tire?

I was sitting with Shawn, Andy and a few others at a table at the Hilton in Austin at SXSW. Up walks L.

“It’s so great to see you guys here,” she said. I got up and she hugged me.

‘Wow, it’s so amazing to see you here,” I said. “I knew you were a creative.”

You see, L was our favorite server at Parc Cafe in Philadelphia. The IFRACTAL crew would have breakfast there every Friday. We always asked for L to be at our table. She knew what everyone wanted and was the best at her job. We really liked her.

Fast forward to Sunday. L graduated from college in September and got a job in marketing. She was down for the show. She’s doing really great and is knocking it out of the park at her company.

We were lucky to get to know her at our favorite cafe. Now we’ll get to know her as a professional in a new way.

You know those people who work in those service jobs? They’re smart. Savvy. You’re lucky when you have them.

*************
Here’s a preview of a great movie I saw last night at SXSW called The Parking Lot Movie. This will show you some really smart people in an industry that you probably don’t even think about.

If you’re not using social media in your company you’re already WAY behind. Stop talking about it. Go social.

Now those Millennials are getting performance reviews. Here’s 10 Things Millennials Might Say at Their Performance Reviews*:

1. You mean I don’t get a trophy just for participating?
2. My parents won’t let you give me anything but an “A.”
3. I’m better than everyone else. I once scored three goals in soccer when I was five.
4. I don’t see “GREAT JOB!” and “YOU CAN DO IT!” on here. This can’t be my review.
5. Why isn’t there a ranking beyond “Outstanding”?
6. You’ll need to explain yourself at the Parent-Teacher conference.
7. I’ll cry if you don’t give me positive feedback…and nothing else.
8. What does “It’s a zero sum game” mean?
9. I can’t be wrong. You must be wrong.
10. I quit.

*We have a lot of Millennials working at our shop. Not a one of them would say or think these things. But their unemployed and underemployed cohorts are in this camp.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. — Oscar Wilde

If you want to be cool, think up your own buzzwords. Don’t run it up the flagpole. The people who get ahead in this world aren’t afraid to think for themselves. Groupthink breeds mediocrity.

If you want to be successful at work, be yourself.

Using layoffs as a business strategy is no strategy at all. Layoffs don’t work. They don’t create value.

We want to work for managers who create things. That’s a responsibility of CEOs. I’m tired of the celebration of CEOs who parrot “People are our most important asset” then discard those assets like yesterday’s smelly garbage every time their stock declines 25 cents.

Want to know the secret of getting employee engagement? Build things. And remember they’re people, not assets.

Folks, it’s never about what’s on the slide. Entertain them; then they’ll remember.

There’s nothing wrong with fun and games. We sometimes forget that when we grow up. Really, every once in a while it’s okay to let the kids run through the sprinkler. Even at work.

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