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Surviving Toxic Coworkers: A Professional’s Guide to Workplace Sanity

Surviving Toxic Coworkers: A Professional’s Guide to Workplace Sanity Issue 203, March 13, 2025 We know we will never like everyone we work with. We don’t assume when we take a new job or move along on our career paths that everyone we come across is likable or shares our motivations or values. We are taught to celebrate our diverse society where people have different views, values and even different ways of working. Just like a family, there is always…

Decision-Making: The Revolving Door of Organizational Centralization and Decentralization

Decision-Making: The Revolving Door of Organizational Centralization and Decentralization Issue 202, March 6, 2025 We have been keen observers of an organizational cyclical pattern to solve problems that we call the revolving door of centralization and decentralization. Organizations across many industries experience this recurring pattern, shifting between these two organizational constructs. Counterintuitively, organizations seem to repeat the cycle every few years, often framed as a novel strategic solution to operational challenges. A decentralized approach fails. Centralize. A centralized function becomes…

Interconnectedness: A Practical Guide for Today’s Leaders and Managers

Interconnectedness: A Practical Guide for Today’s Leaders and Managers Issue 200, February 20, 2025 Welcome to the 200th issue of 2040’s Ideas and Innovations Newsletter. We thank you for your readership for nearly four years and your feedback that the themes and content resonate and help you. You inspire us to always move forward. All our newsletters are available on SubStack. If you know others who would benefit, please share our publication with them. 20Forty’s Substack> Connected and Networked As…

The Power of Virtuous Change: Why Most Organizations Fail at Transformation

The Power of Virtuous Change: Why Most Organizations Fail at Transformation Issue 198, February 6, 2025 Not all change is good. Not all change is for the right reasons. Change for change’s sake is not a viable proposition. Change must come with a clear framework of what will replace what was and the benefits of what will be. Without understanding the mechanics required to transition to the change, only chaos will result. The recent government order to freeze federal funds…

The Power of Principled Resilience: Navigating Change with Purpose and Adaptability

The Power of Principled Resilience: Navigating Change with Purpose and Adaptability Issue 195, January 9, 2025 With the inauguration of a new administration just a few weeks away, let’s begin the new year by focusing on one of our core principles: principled resilience. Embracing principled resilience offers us a valuable lens for navigating the challenges and opportunities that come with major transitions and political, social and economic change. Often the most successful transformational leaders are those who focus not on…

Is Critical Thinking at Risk of Extinction?

Is Critical Thinking at Risk of Extinction? Issue 191, December 19, 2024 We are tackling a topic that is a recurring theme in everything we write, including our book, The Truth About Transformation. Critical thinking is becoming an endangered skill along with practical know-how, common sense problem-solving and basic thinking skills. These tools are more important than ever for all of us caught in the crossfire of global geopolitical, geo-economic and cultural asynchronies. We have largely defaulted to thinking on…

Why the Road to Transformation Can Be Surprising

Why the Road to Transformation Can Be Surprising Issue 189, December 5, 2024 Transformation is not a straight line. If you’re a sailor, you tack to the future unless you have a full tailwind. If you’re the turtle, you can out-navigate the hare. If you are the architect of your career, you use the career portfolio strategy to build a professional life on your terms. If you are a well-being advisor (think Deepak Chopra), you could redefine the perception of…

Who Are Your Teachers?

Who Are Your Teachers? Issue 182, October 17, 2024 Several years ago, we attended a thought leadership conference that explored emerging trends. At the end of a session on sustainability (not just climate change, but resilience and prosperity) Chief Oren Lyons, the Haudenosaunee Faithkeeper of the Onondaga and Seneca Nations of the Six Nations of the Grand River, looked straight at the audience and asked us, “Who are your teachers?” It was one of those moments in time when a…

Risk Management: Are You a Responder or Solver?

Risk Management: Are You a Responder or Solver? Issue 177, September 12, 2024 We were recently invited to sit in on a cybersecurity simulation at a cybertech conference. The simulation was staged as an interactive exercise between the experts and the audience. The expert panel was comprised of local, state and federal disaster relief experts, a US Congress representative, the military and a few private sector officials. The simulation started with a cyberattack, not unlike those we see in movies,…

Does Substance Always Matter?

Does Substance Always Matter? Issue 175, August 29, 2024 Style over substance. This is a matter of debate that keeps social commentators relevant – at least in their own eyes. And it’s the eyes, the optics, that seem to be winning the popularity contest over substance. Think about our political arena. Fashion pundits are weighing in on the candidates’ attire with their deep psychological explanations about the colors of ties, designers of dresses and why navy blue is the new…