Prev Next

Chapter 9. In Conclusion

I sincerely hope you’ve had as much fun on this journey as I’ve had in sharing it with you. In conclusion, I want to give you a quick summary.

The Three Vital Behaviors

Throughout this entire book, I’ve given examples of the most fundamental behaviors that are required for any change effort. I encourage you to either use these behaviors or identify and name behaviors that will be important for your own change initiatives. As a reminder, here are the three vital behaviors for change:

Awareness: The ability to identify our own assumptions and biases, not only about our customers, but each other, and understanding that we don’t always have the complete picture in every situation.
Curiosity: After you’ve become aware of your own assumptions, you must ask questions, dig deeper, and seek a continual understanding of the impact of your efforts.
Courage: The bottom line is that change takes courage from all of us. It requires us to be willing to try something different and admit when our ideas might not be working. Building psychological safety isn’t just management’s job. It requires a commitment from all of us to engage in respectful behavior and support the process of learning, even when experiments prove our hypotheses wrong.

Hack #1: Establish a Common Language

In every culture, language is the tool we use to express our values, desires, and what matters to us most.

If you change the language, you’ll change the thinking, which will change the actions of your employees, which will ultimately change the values and culture of your organization (see Figure 2-1).
A language of learning is a great foundation for a customer-driven culture. For DevDiv, “assumptions,” “hypotheses,” “experiments,” and “sense-making” are terms we weave into our product reviews, customer development notes, and day-to-day operating language.

Hack #2: Build Bridges, Not Walls

To build exceptional products and services for your customers, your organization will need to treat building products like a team sport.

Seek ways to improve cross-functional knowledge sharing. Review how knowledge is shared throughout your organization and identify ways to remove unnecessary barriers.
Building a customer-driven culture is so much more than just improving customer relations. As your employees connect to customers, it’s also an opportunity for them to connect to one another. Ensure that learning from customers is a shared experience for all product members, not just a select few experts.
A customer-driven culture is one that values attitudes and passions over roles and responsibilities. Organizational structure is necessary for business operation, but your employees should be encouraged to try on other “hats.” For example, a product manager should have the opportunity to talk to a customer with support from an account manager or user researcher.
Avoid gatekeeping of knowledge and expertise. Experts should give of their knowledge and skills freely. It’s not what you know that makes you valuable to your organization, it’s your ability to learn and share that knowledge with your team members.

Hack #3: Encourage Learning versus Knowing

Throughout this book, I’ve suggested a positive correlation between an organization’s willingness to learn and their ability to drive a customer-driven culture. Building great products for your customers requires an insatiable appetite to continuously learn about them.

Celebrate learning, not failure. Not everything in your culture should be measured on whether it produced a successful product outcome. Certainly, developing product successes is critical for keeping a business going, but so is demonstrating that your organization is learning from its mistakes. Organizational growth is more nuanced and cannot be reduced to a simple pass/fail outcome. Be sure that you’re spending time celebrating when your product teams encounter meaningful learnings, not just when they’ve met a product release deadline.
You must actively work to create a space that is conducive to learning. Root out “know-it-all” behaviors by giving a platform for diverse voices, opinions, and perspectives to be shared.
The quickest way to influence others is to genuinely invest in their success. If they believe that you’re in it to help them win, they’ll be much more likely to join you on your journey toward cultural transformation. Trust is everything when you’re in the change business.
Rather than shutting down alternative ideas, seek ways to build upon them. Modeling inclusive behavior, multiplying the passions and energy of those around you, and giving credit to others will not only gain you respect from your peers, it will also demonstrate what a culture that values learning looks like.

Hack #4: Build Leaders That Build Your Culture

Employees need to see what the new culture looks like. The best way to demonstrate that is by showcasing employees who are succeeding by applying the vital behaviors.

Script the vital behaviors by removing barriers and roadblocks. Make it easy for employees to do the right thing and difficult to do the wrong thing. Evaluate your systems and tools and ensure that it’s simple to begin engaging in the new culture.
As a leader, what you say, what you spend your time on, and who you promote are powerful cues that tell employees what it means to belong to your organization. Reflect on the behaviors of your “star employees.” Do they represent the values of the culture you’re trying to build?
Look for diverse voices, faces, behaviors, and roles when highlighting success in your organization. Spread recognition around and show that the pathway for success in your organization doesn’t just come from shipping a product.
Realize that there are key moments in the life cycle of an employee’s career with your organization. Seek opportunities like employee onboarding, the kickoff of a new project, or an employee’s retirement party to embed belonging cues and reinforce the values and commitments of your organization.

Hack #5: Meet Teams Where They Are

Being a change agent requires that you must be “passionately pragmatic.” Instead of fighting for a dogmatic adherence to your cultural initiatives, seek ways to make it easier for teams to change their behavior.
Beyond salary and benefits, employees have shown that they are motivated by autonomy and mastery. In short, employees want to demonstrate that they’re great at what they do. Create flexibility in your practices that allow teams to make the process of being customer driven their own.
Empathize with your detractors. Showing that you’re willing to listen to them and assume a positive intent will go a long way toward building trust.
Rather than implementing costly new and expansive tools, where possible, consider taking advantage of tools that are already in place. Pick and choose your battles carefully and avoid getting sucked into meaningless battles that have more to do with ego than encouraging growth and learning.
Focus and reorient existing energy. Rather than fight the team’s motivations, seek ways to embrace team members and align them with your efforts. For example, if the team is ready to ship a feature, rather than block it because it hasn’t tested it with customers, consider developing a plan that will allow the team to test it by collecting customer feedback after the feature has shipped.

Hack #6 Make Data Relatable

If you want to inspire others to action, you’ll need more than just numbers and spreadsheets. The human mind is geared to process data and emotion. By ignoring the story of our customers, we lose vital information that helps us connect and empathize with them.

Although telemetry and analytics can tell you what your customers are doing with your products and services, it will never tell you why they are doing it. Ensure that you’re capturing their vivid experiences by engaging and talking with them.
All great stories employ five essential patterns:

Simplicity

They’re easy to understand and share.

Unexpectedness

They’re memorable because they reveal something unexpected.

Concreteness

They’re clear and succinct. They don’t involve too many ideas; they stick to one clear message.

Credibility

They’re believable and authentic.

Emotions

They don’t shy away from the emotions, sincere reactions, and honest feedback that connect us to our customers.

Thank You

Finally, Monty and I want to thank you, dear reader, for taking an interest in our journey. At Microsoft, we are committed to empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. We hope that sharing these cultural hacks will empower you and your organization to connect with your customers in a way that allows you to empower them as well.

As Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most adaptable to change.”

On behalf of everyone in the Developer Division at Microsoft, I wish you the best on your journey of change as you connect and learn from your customers and one another.

References

[ABC13] ABC 13 Houston Texas. “King Buc-Ee’s! Gas Station Crowned Highest-Rated Place to Use Restroom in the Nation.” ABC13 Houston, May 17, 2018. https://abc13.com/3487681/.

[APA] “Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools?: An Evidentiary Review and Recommendations.” American Psychologist 63, no. 9 (2008): 852–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.9.852.

[Alvarez] Alvarez, Cindy. Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2014.

[Ax] Ax, Joseph. “Bloomberg’s Ban on Big Sodas Is Unconstitutional: Appeals Court.” Reuters, July 30, 2013. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sodaban-lawsuit-idUSBRE96T0UT20130730.

[Bigelow] Bigelow, Bruce. “#Hashtag This: How the Twitter Hashtag Caught Fire in San Diego.” Xconomy, December 22, 2014. https://xconomy.com/san-diego/2014/12/22/hashtag-this-how-the-twitter-hashtag-caught-fire-in-san-diego/.

[Bishop] Bishop, Todd. “Exclusive: Satya Nadella Reveals Microsoft’s New Mission Statement, Sees ‘Tough Choices’ Ahead.” GeekWire, June 25, 2015. https://www.geekwire.com/2015/exclusive-satya-nadella-reveals-microsofts-new-mission-statement-sees-more-tough-choices-ahead/.

[Buckingham] Buckingham, Marcus, and Ashley Goodall. “The Feedback Fallacy.” Harvard Business Review, March 1, 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-feedback-fallacy.

[Bulgarella] Bulgarella, Caterina. “Five Ps Pave The Way To Purpose At Microsoft.” Forbes, July 11, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/caterinabulgarella/2019/06/11/five-ps-pave-the-way-to-purpose-at-microsoft/.

[Bustillo] Bustillo, Miguel. “Roadside Stopper: Can Something Be Too Big in Texas?” Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2012, sec. US Page One. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444914904577623862863808508.

[Carbonara] Carbonara, Peter. “How Two Texans Made Buc-Ee’s Convenience Stores A Phenomenon.” Forbes. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercarbonara/2017/08/22/buc-ees-game-of-porcelain-thrones/.

[Carbonara-2] Carbonara, Peter. “Gaming the System: How A Traditional Manufacturer Opened Its Books and Turned Employees Into Millionaires.” Forbes. Accessed June 1, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercarbonara/2017/04/18/gaming-the-system-how-one-manufacturing-company-saved-itself-with-radical-transparency-and-created-a-slew-of-blue-collar-millionaires/.

[Chartrand] Chartrand, Tanya L., and John A. Bargh. “The Chameleon Effect: The Perception-Behavior Link and Social Interaction.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 76, no. 6 (1999): 893–910.

[Clifford] Clifford, Catherine. “Elon Musk Hung out in the Netscape Lobby in the ’90s Hoping to Get a Job, but Was Too Afraid to Talk to Anyone.” CNBC, June 18, 2018. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/18/how-elon-musk-tried-to-get-a-job-at-netscape-in-the-1990s.html.

[Collins] Collins, Jim, and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. 10th revised ed. New York: Harper Business, 2004.

[Cooper] Cooper, Matthew. “Poll: Most Americans Support Occupy Wall Street.” The Atlantic, October 19, 2011. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/poll-most-americans-support-occupy-wall-street/246963/.

[Cooperrider] Cooperrider, David, Frank Barrett, and Suresh Srivastava. “Social Construction and Appreciative Inquiry: A Journey in Organizational Theory.” In Management and Organization: Relational Alternatives to Individualism. Ashgate Publishing, 1995.

[Coyle] Coyle, Daniel. The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups. New York: Bantam, 2018.

[Doerr] Doerr, John. Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs. Portfolio, 2018.

[Dorsey] Dorsey, David. “Positive Deviant.” Fast Company, November 30, 2000. https://www.fastcompany.com/42075/positive-deviant.

[DeGrassi] DeGrassi, Sandra, Whitney Botsford Morgan, Sarah Singletary, Wang (Irene) Yingchun, and Isaac Sabat. “Ethical Decision-Making: Group Diversity Holds the Key.” Accessed April 30, 2019. https://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=1cdf7789-3eb8-4fb8-9d09-63fb5b456be4%40sessionmgr120.

[Dreyfuss] Dreyfuss, Emily. “The Wikipedia for Spies—And Where It Goes From Here.” Wired, March 10, 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/03/intellipedia-wikipedia-spies-much/.

[Drucker] Drucker, Peter F. The Practice of Management. New York: Harper Business, 2006.

[Dyer] Dyer, Chris. The Power of Company Culture: How Any Business Can Build a Culture That Improves Productivity, Performance and Profits. United Kingdom; New York: Kogan Page, 2018.

[Edmondson] Edmondson, Amy C. “Learning From Mistakes Is Easier Said Than Done.” The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 40, no. 1 (March 2004): 66–90. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886304263849.

[Epstein] Epstein, David. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. New York: Riverhead Books, 2019.

[Field] Field, Anne. “Millennials Want Companies Mixing Mission And Money.” Forbes, December 11, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/annefield/2017/12/11/millennials-want-companies-mixing-mission-and-money/.

[Foley] Foley, Mary Jo. “Microsoft’s New Mission Statement: No More Computer on Every Desk.” ZDNet. Accessed April 4, 2019. https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-new-mission-statement-no-more-computer-on-every-desk/.

[Fleming] Fleming, William. “Want Your Employees to Go Above and Beyond to Serve Your Customers? | LinkedIn.” LinkedIn (blog), February 21, 2019. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/want-your-employees-go-above-beyond-serve-customers-william-fleming/?published=t.

[Friedman] Friedman, Ron, PhD. The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace. New York: Perigee, 2015.

[Geary] Geary, James. I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World. New York: Harper Perennial, 2012.

[Gandhi] Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: (11 April, 1910 - 12 July, 1911), Volume 11. Andesite Press, 2015.

[Grant] Grant, Adam, and Sheryl Sandberg. Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. New York: Viking, 2016.

[Greenwood] Greenwood, Max. “Five Years to the Top: Microsoft’s Software Boss Julia Liuson.” Techvibes, April 9, 2019. https://techvibes.com/2019/04/09/five-years-to-the-top-microsofts-software-boss-julia-liuson.

[Grynbaum] Grynbaum, Michael M. “New York’s Ban on Big Sodas Is Rejected by Final Court.” The New York Times, June 26, 2014, sec. New York. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/nyregion/city-loses-final-appeal-on-limiting-sales-of-large-sodas.html.

[Grynbaum-2] Grynbaum, Michael M., and Marjorie Connelly. “Most New Yorkers Oppose Bloomberg’s Soda Ban.” The New York Times, August 22, 2012, sec. N.Y. / Region. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/nyregion/most-new-yorkers-oppose-bloombergs-soda-ban.html.

[Hansen] Hansen, Morten. Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

[Heath] Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. New York: Crown Business, 2010.

[Heath-2] Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.

[Helm] Helm, Burt. “The 5 Unexpected Benefits of Open-Book Management.” Inc, October 12, 2013. https://www.inc.com/burt-helm/five-benefits-of-opening-your-books.html.

[Influencer] Patterson, Kerry, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

[Intellipedia] “Intellipedia.” In Wikipedia, November 4, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Intellipedia&oldid=867303816.

[Kelley] Kelley, Tom, and Jonathan Littman. The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO’s Strategies for Beating the Devil’s Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization. New York: Currency/Doubleday, 2005.

[Kelly] Kelly, Lois, and Carmen Medina. Rebels at Work: A Handbook for Leading Change from Within. Edited by Debra Cameron. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2014.

[Kennedy] Kennedy, Bian, and Meg Hefferon. “What Americans Know About Science.” Pew Research Center Science & Society (blog), March 28, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/03/28/what-americans-know-about-science/.

[Konrad] Konrad, Alex. “Exclusive CEO Interview: Satya Nadella Reveals How Microsoft Got Its Groove Back.” Forbes, December 10, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2018/12/10/exclusive-ceo-interview-satya-nadella-reveals-how-microsoft-got-its-groove-back/.

[Krout] Krout, Kelly. Interview with Kelly Krout, August 27, 2019.

[Liuson] Liuson, Julia. Interview with Julia Liuson, July 29, 2019.

[Lowdermilk-Rich] Lowdermilk, Travis, and Jessica Rich. The Customer-Driven Playbook: Converting Customer Feedback into Successful Products. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2017.

[MacKenzie] MacKenzie, Kristin. “The Building Blocks of a Great Company, According to Buc-Ee’s Founder.” Mays Impacts. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://mays-tamu-edu.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/mays.tamu.edu/news/2012/09/25/the-building-blocks-of-a-great-company/amp/?usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D&amp_js_v=0.1.

[McLeod] McLeod, Poppy Lauretta, Sharon Alisa Lobel, and Taylor H. Cox. “Ethnic Diversity and Creativity in Small Groups.” Small Group Research 27, no. 2 (May 1, 1996): 248–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496496272003.

[McMillan] McMillan, Chase, and Kerry Patterson. “No Condom, No Sex: Why Thailand’s 100% Condom Campaign Has Been an Unparalleled Success.” Brigham Young University, September 12, 2013. http://jur.byu.edu/?p=5599.

[Monarth] Monarth, Harrison. “The Irresistible Power of Storytelling as a Strategic Business Tool.” Harvard Business Review, March 11, 2014. https://hbr.org/2014/03/the-irresistible-power-of-storytelling-as-a-strategic-business-tool.

[Montgomery] Montgomery, John. Interview with John Montgomery, September 18, 2019.

[Montgomery-2] Montgomery, John. “Rethinking How We Interview in Microsoft’s Developer Division.” Medium, January 28, 2019. https://blog.usejournal.com/rethinking-how-we-interview-in-microsofts-developer-division-8f404cfd075a.

[Mosendz] Mosendz, Polly. “Microsoft’s CEO Sent a 3,187-Word Memo and We Read It So You Don’t Have To.” The Atlantic, July 10, 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/microsofts-ceo-sent-a-3187-word-memo-and-we-read-it-so-you-dont-have-to/374230/.

[Nadella] Nadella, Satya, Greg Shaw, and Jill Tracie Nichols. Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone. Harper Business, 2019.

[Nap] Medicine National Academies of Sciences. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2018.

[Nusca] Nusca, Andrew. “Inside Microsoft’s Plan to Reconquer the World.” Fortune. Accessed January 27, 2019. http://fortune.com/microsoft-fortune-500-cloud-computing/.

[Oatley] Oatley, Keith. “Why Fiction May Be Twice as True as Fact: Fiction as Cognitive and Emotional Simulation.” Review of General Psychology 3, no. 2 (1999): 101–17. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.3.2.101.

[Ralph] Ralph, Ben. “How to Stop UX Research Being a Blocker.” Medium, May 12, 2018. https://medium.com/beakerandflint/how-to-stop-ux-research-being-a-blocker-225d91105de8.

[Ranger] Ranger, Steve. “Windows 8: Why Microsoft’s Giant Gamble Didn’t Pay Off.” ZDNet. Accessed April 20, 2019. https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-8-why-microsofts-giant-gamble-didnt-pay-off/.

[Richard] Richard, Orlando C. “Racial Diversity, Business Strategy, and Firm Performance: A Resource-Based View.” Academy of Management Journal 43, no. 2 (April 1, 2000): 164–77. https://doi.org/10.5465/1556374.

[Roam] Roam, Dan. Blah Blah Blah: What to Do When Words Don’t Work. New York: Portfolio, 2011.

[SafetyRules] SafetyNurse1968. “The Wrong Dose - A True Story of Medication Error.” allnurses.com. Accessed June 4, 2019. https://allnurses.com/the-wrong-dose-a-t677840/.

[Salva] Salva, Ryan. Interview with Ryan Salva, June 5, 2019.

[Schein] Schein, Edgar H., and Peter Schein. Organizational Culture and Leadership. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2016.

[Sharot] Sharot, Tali. The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 2017.

[Silver-1] Silver, Amanda. Interview with Amanda Silver, October 22, 2019.

[Silver-2] Silver, Amanda. Interview with Amanda Silver, August 13, 2019.

[Stephens] Stephens, Greg J., Lauren J. Silbert, and Uri Hasson. “Speaker–Listener Neural Coupling Underlies Successful Communication.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 32 (August 10, 2010): 14425–30. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1008662107.

[Suhartono] Suhartono, Muktita, and Richard C. Paddock. “Soccer Team Is Found Alive in Thailand Cave Rescue.” The New York Times, July 2, 2018, sec. World. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/world/asia/thailand-boys-rescued.html.

[Sun] “Microsoft CEO Takes Launch Break with the Sun-Times.” Chicago Sun Times, December 11, 2001. http://web.archive.org/web/20011211130654.

[Sunstein] Sunstein, Cass R. “Amazon Is Right That Disagreement Results in Better Decisions.” Harvard Business Review, August 18, 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/08/amazon-is-right-that-disagreement-results-in-better-decisions.

[Tate-Wang] Tate, Emily. “You Don’t Own the Voice of the Customer by Tricia Wang.” Mind the Product (blog), August 30, 2019. https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2019/08/you-dont-own-the-voice-of-the-customer-by-tricia-wang/.

[Tate-Portigal] Tate, Emily. “Great User Research (for Non-Researchers) by Steve Portigal.” Mind the Product (blog), September 13, 2019. https://www.mindtheproduct.com/great-user-research-for-non-researchers-by-steve-portigal/.

[Tiku] Tiku, Nitasha. “Microsoft Employees Protest Treatment of Women to CEO Nadella.” Wired, April 4, 2019. https://www.wired.com/story/microsoft-employees-protest-treatment-women-ceo-nadella/.

[Values] Center for Values-Driven Leadership. Creating Psychological Safety at Work in a Knowledge Economy | Amy Edmondson, Harvard. Accessed June 4, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=120&v=KUo1QwVcCv0.

[Vlaskovits] Vlaskovits, Patrick. “Henry Ford, Innovation, and That ‘Faster Horse’ Quote.” Harvard Business Review, August 29, 2011. https://hbr.org/2011/08/henry-ford-never-said-the-fast.

[Warren] Warren, Tom. “Microsoft Writes off $7.6 Billion from Nokia Deal, Announces 7,800 Job Cuts.” The Verge, July 8, 2015. https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/8/8910999/microsoft-job-cuts-2015-nokia-write-off.

[Waters] Waters, John K. “New Release ‘Cadence’ Begins with Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 -.” Visual Studio Magazine, May 10, 2013. https://visualstudiomagazine.com/articles/2013/05/10/new-visual-studio-release-cadence-begins.aspx.

[Wheatley] Wheatley, Margaret, and Myron Kellner-Rogers. “What Do We Measure and Why? Questions About The Uses of Measurement.” Journal for Strategic Performance Measurement, June 1999. https://www.margaretwheatley.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/What-Do-We-Measure-and-Why.pdf.

[WHO] World Health Organization. “Thailand’s New Condom Crusade.” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 88, no. 6 (June 1, 2010): 404–5. https://doi.org/10.2471/BLT.10.010610.

[Whorf] Whorf, Benjamin Lee, John B. Carroll, and Stuart Chase. Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2011.

[Zak] Zak, Elana. “How Twitter’s Hashtag Came to Be.” WSJ (blog), October 3, 2013. https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/10/03/how-twitters-hashtag-came-to-be/.

[Zak-Paul] Zak, Paul J. “Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling.” Harvard Business Review, October 28, 2014. https://hbr.org/2014/10/why-your-brain-loves-good-storytelling.

Photo Credit

Huggins, Stacey. “Buc-Ee’s.” Flickr, September 29, 2010. https://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyhuggins/5051014221/.