iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Comment to defend or deny your abject terror to read "this". Also...what did you think "this" was? For quality purposes our staff is anonymous, protected under aggressive NDAs, and cannot speak in public for any reason.

Official HOMEGA graphic, Department of Unredacted Information and Clickbait, stamped CLICKBAIT in red so nobody can say they weren't told. Left: the cover of The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces, a woman in glasses staring out of a ship's porthole with an expression of "great, another problem." and a red WITHHELD stamp across the sky above her. Right: MOST PEOPLE ARE TOO AFRAID TO READ THIS. ARE YOU? in green, then three checkboxes nobody has ticked: too afraid to read it right now, in three months, forever. Below that, a paragraph accusing you of secretly reading it already. Bottom: a fake comment box asking "Too afraid, or reading it right now?" The book is by Jim Benson. It is on titanauts.com and Amazon. Audio book out in Q4 2026.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Jim Benson You can doom scroll, or you can just look at this. Doom is an acquired condition that is forced on you. If you feel otherwise, of course, you can comment all the live-long day! This is a message from the HOMEGA Dept of Unredacted Information and Clickbait.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I have released a book...my sixth! The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces, my novel about everything we to for and to each other at work, set with a murder, peril, intrigue, and coffee...is out now and available for purchase. If you've liked anything I've written, you will love this.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces is released, it's live. It's a real book with pages and everything! This was a long process to be sure. humanework.substack.com/p/out-today-...

humanework.substack.com

OUT TODAY: The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces

Jim Benson’s first novel is novelly novelled.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Tomorrow the Titanuts launch...off we go. I wrote this because business books didn't let me tell a story...to provide context. The book covers what my other books have, but with "real" people in surreal conditions. I can be clearer about the role of relationships, stress, and coffee in daily life.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Most battles are fought at the expense of the family farm. Right now, wars waged around the world impact people in the "middle of nowhere" that discovered that they were somehow pawn in someone else's poor problem solving.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Weak leaders surround themselves with praise and get very upset when challenged. When team building you want people who can work together. Work is solving problems. Solving problems is learning. Learning is having something you didn't think yesterday become a thing you are thinking today.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Oligarchs and CEOs are often sociopaths and narcissists. Not all of them, this isn't clickbait, but a lot of them. They also, through this, often bring a very necessary energy to a new endeavor. We all have potential positive impact.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

We often act in helpful ways that inflict help. We do nice that hurts, we make features that ruin the experience. We want to be nice, but don't want to do the work required to find out what nice is. Social Life launches in a mere week. link in the image there...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

While teaching in Montana last week, I was telling people they needed to be helpful to others but not undervalue their own emergencies. A group of state employees trying to build better ways of working then learned about my mom who is always there for others, but very unlikely to ever ask for help.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

When you wake up at 5 am for meetings, your day looks like this before noon. You find yourself saying, "It's only noon, why I am so wiped?!" It's because...you've done the work. It's okay...leave...the...desk.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Agency is people working together to get things done, each of them knowing what they can do to make things better. Strangely, that is all any of us want to be. It is the definition of success. 8 days until the titans launch. titantauts.com

graphic for The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces. Elena, a hopeful middle-aged woman with short curly light-brown hair and a dark green jacket, stands alone inside a spacious transparent geodesic dome. Beyond the dome, Titan’s hazy orange atmosphere glows over a subdued alien landscape. Centered over a dark translucent panel is the quote: “We have a chance, here, now, to be the people we always wanted to be.” The attribution reads “Elena · p. 389 · §Epilogue,” with “titanauts.com” at the top and the book title at the bottom.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Positional power bewilders. You become a "leader" and immediately start leading in mass distraction, every variation seems like incompetence. You start asking for metrics, for proof of competence. You start professionally judging people with scant information. 9 days to Titan launch. titanauts.com

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

It takes guts to solve problems, confront your feelings or those of others, or be a leader that knows when and how to help someone. Blaming, berating, and making the focus all about you is the sign of a manipulator, not a leader. 10 days to the launch of The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Right now, a layoff economy and market uncertainty as primary strategy of oligarchs and heavily trading administration officials means people face this every day. Afraid to quit bad jobs not knowing what tomorrow holds. This toxicity is part of Laura's world. 12 days to launch! titanauts.com

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

When people tell you to tell them what to do it means one thing and one thing only...They don't know what they _can_ do and can only ask for what to do. titanauts.com

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Nothing is perfect. Being negative is always guaranteed success but at the expense of everyone around you. No outcome is entirely flawed. Look for celebration, win, thing to build on. There is too much tearing down. Let's go up. The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces out in 14 days titanauts.com

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

14 days until the launch of The Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces. Think of this as a space opera with systems thinking, org design, urban planning, queerish stuff, and a lot of humor wrapped in an ongoing commentary on the current Oligarch-driven anti-culture in which we live. titanauts.com

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

"Someone has to believe the right space can coax out something decent from people." That's most of what I believe about work in one sentence. Design the environment well & people surprise you. Design it thoughtlessly & no amount of posters or certifications will save you. It's at titanauts.com.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

I have the first pages from my layout guy and am thrilled with what Social Life of Small Enclosed Spaces is shaping up to be. Yes, I've been quiet on Bluesky... see what I've been working on here.. titanauts.com

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

AI, layoffs, and increasing confusion about where and how people work is creating a new type of worker: a Newpreneur. No one is prepared for this. And you are likely one right now or will be so in the next 24 months. View the full article here: humanework.substack.com/p/whether-yo...

humanework.substack.com

Whether You Like It or Not, You're Becoming a Solopreneur

AI / Remote Work / Job Insecurity / The Gig Economy are All a Pattern

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

The activities we've come up with for the Kanban Evolved workshops are so fun, the conversations so deep. I love my job. You haven't done kanban for real before you've addressed this stuff. lu.ma/modus?k=c

lu.ma

Modus Institute / Humane Work · Events Calendar

View and subscribe to events from Modus Institute / Humane Work on Luma.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

If you are a leader or aspiring there are common mistakes we all make in the interest of decisiveness or getting things done quickly that have costly implications. In our Toxic Waste and Overload classes, we create strategies to create healthy work and constructively respond when things aren't good.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

You and I operate with our own internally flawed models, just like AI is a flawed model. The difference is we’ve had a lifetime of understanding or at least coping with our own flaws. Our use of AI? We take it’s correctness for granted and laugh off the errors…to our shared detriment.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 12/07/2025

When we create space for people to effortlessly achieve their goals, when we create features that help people get over common hurdles, and when we do these things is a way that lets people build even better worlds inside what we’ve done… then we are leaders. humanework.substack.com/p/on-the-ech...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Your most used spaces have connection. Your favorite people have connection. Your favorite food, movies, scents, books… As humans we connect and we get work done. We connect and we create. We connect and we relax. We connect.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 05/07/2025

When we are with people. Family, co-workers, people on airplanes, … people… we impact each other. In little ways, in large ways. We build, very quickly actually, shared languages. We measure temperament, current state, humor, shared observations. And then we impact and are impacted.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

We are all silos from time to time. This doesn't mean we are focused team members getting our individual work done, it means we are stuck, alone, frustrated, and underinformed. And we say, Oh Damn, I'm a Silo. See the results of an awesome conversation here: humanework.substack.com/p/oh-damn-im...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

We’ve been working with people and their workload, for a long time, and with a lot of people. A…lot. Talking about how we work, how we think, how we solve problems, how we undo the stress.

tickettailor.com

Buy tickets – Personal Kanban Evolved - 4 Workshops in August – Zoom

Personal Kanban Evolved: 20 Years of Hidden Patterns, Advanced Techniques, & Breakthrough Insights That Go Far Beyond Basic...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Seriously, visualizing your work, creating a team space where we can get real work done (and talk about talking about it less), and keeping everyone moving is easier than we think. #lean #leanthinking #personalkanban #kanban #obeya #visualmanagement #productivity

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Telling people to calm down or not be afraid is not effective. This is a short piece on how to create a system that reduces worry, fear, and doubt. At work, at home, at anywhere. humanework.substack.com/p/saying-no-...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Neurodiversity is not a problem to solve, it is an asset to promote. There is a tendency in all people to focus on our individual work, for the neurodiverse this can be even more pronounced. humanework.substack.com/p/perfection... #neurodiversity #kanban #personalkanban #obeya

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 22/06/2025

The crazy thing about writing is that you put something out there and get some feedback. Then it dies down over time, but the books still sell. Maybe a little, maybe nicely.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Your office hero is a wonderful, talented, necessary single point of failure on the fast track for burnout. They are the most valuable bottleneck you have. They love being that and they hate it. Here's how to fix it so everyone wins. humanework.substack.com/p/the-heros-...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Drag is anything that stops you from getting the right work done at the right time. Overload, toxicity, bottlenecks, policies, personalities ... can combine to interrupt your flow.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Fogcasting: deliberately building uncertainty into people's daily lives. Misinformation, misdirection, reassignment, defunding, changing deadlines, undermining success, taking credit for the work of others... the list is lengthy. humanework.substack.com/p/is-your-bo...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Other people are counting on you. Maybe too many, but as fate would have it, that is how many people are counting on you. And you are counting on them. humanework.substack.com/p/visualize-...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Stress kills everything. From the first pages of Personal Kanban to literally everything Tonianne & I have done since, we've been worried (literally awake at night worried, ironic, I know.) about people we know & people in general and how they deal with life. humanework.substack.com/p/how-to-bui...

humanework.substack.com

How to Build Direction during Stress

Why You Are Missing Your Personal True North

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

At work, we are dumped into cubicles, even if they look like our home. We are separated, given tasks, and then called a team. We do this to ourselves. We do this all the time. It's a human thing.

humanework.substack.com

Six Steps to Real Collaboration and Value: We work together or we fail together

Building a professional team, not just a group of individuals

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

This post is wrong, but it is useful. From here on out, every class I teach will quote George Box at the beginning and then once an hour every hour thereafter. Stop saying that models are wrong or don't work. Be useful and talk about how we can apply them without becoming beholden to them.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Creating Islands of Stability Right now is tough. Distressing. Toxic. We can work through this, but we need each other and we need to communicate. Deeply. Intentionally. Practically. This is for real. Please like, please respond. Because ... I need it too. open.substack.com/pub/humanewo...

open.substack.com

Creating Islands of Stability

Navigating Toxicity with Clarity and Resilience

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Martyr syndrome is a nasty beast. It comes up in personal overload, our self-image, burnout, and office toxicity. humanework.substack.com/p/martyr-syn...

humanework.substack.com

Martyr Syndrome and Your Work

You are your own worst nightmare.

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

On Monday I’ll release a long form video on overload with strategies based on understanding how we work as individuals and how, when, and why we collaborate with other people. Much of our overload comes from poor communication. Subscribe to Humane Work to see it. substack.com/@jimbenson50...

substack.com

Jim Benson on Substack

On Monday I’ll release a post with a long form video direct from our class on overload. The strategies for these are based on understanding how we work as individuals, but also how, when, and why we c...

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

When Karl Scotland and I teach strategy classes, we've noticed that the start of any strategy (what do you want to be) is the hardest to create. There's an infinite number of options for thatn. Answering it alone is hard enough. How do we answer it as a group? humanework.substack.com/p/why-we-can...

humanework.substack.com

Why We Can't See the Forest

What Keeps Us From True North

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

In Part Two of the Too Many Metrics series, we looks at the human toll of overmeasurement. humanework.substack.com/p/every-metr...

humanework.substack.com

Every Metric Weakens Your Strategy

Part 2: The Human Cost of Over Metricking

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

Huge impact on my work and my early adulthood. A pioneering voice of honesty and directness. Unapologetically human. I am grateful for Edmund White. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

theguardian.com

Edmund White, novelist and great chronicler of gay life, dies aged 85

The American essayist, playwright and author of books including A Boy’s Own Story and The Married Man has died

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

It seems pretty clear that the RFK report with made up citations was AI generated. I have tried to use LLMs for research many times and found that even the best of them simply make up research and attribute it to real researchers making it very hard to figure out if it is real or not. 1/2

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Jim Benson (OurFounder) @ourfounder.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

On July 17, Karl Scotland and I will do a one-time workshop on creating your True North to build your strategy and identity. True North is the first step for an X Matrix. After a half dozen workshops, we felt that True North needed some focus. Join us July 17th. modusinstitute.com/course/true-...

modusinstitute.com

True North Workshop

An in-depth look at your 30,000 foot view

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