Planning Ahead Issue 123, August 24, 2023 With all the data at our disposal, why aren’t we connecting the dots to ensure better outcomes? To be more specific, let’s look at our healthcare system – and you can use it as a metaphor for your own strategic planning. Next Gen Career Shifts Take two trends: the US population is aging and so many next gens are more interested in entrepreneurship and tech startups than medicine as a career. What are…
Why We Overcommit Issue 122, August 17, 2023 Nike may disagree, but just say no! Let’s take a pause to consider how we make decisions and why we often over-commit. We wrote an entire book, The Truth About Transformation, about the misconceptions surrounding change and transformation. Many think the greatest obstacle to a significant change is the lack of resources or technological finesse. Those are contributing factors for sure, but the single barrier to change is: Us. Individuals. Our leadership,…
Anti-Perfectionism Is on the Rise Issue 121, August 10, 2023 Recently it has come to our attention, and no doubt yours as well, that some organizations are having a rough go at it stabilizing new workplace models. Hell, society itself seems to be generally on edge finding some new stabilizing normal way to make sense of our ongoing disruptive quality of life. On the one hand in organizations, hybrid models have settled into a norm. On the other hand, many…
The Case for AI Guardrails Issue 119, July 27, 2023 Whatever you think about the U.S. government or our elected officials, it does have guardrails in place to protect its citizens. For pharma and food products, it’s the FDA. For workplace safety there’s OSHA. For mobility safety, it’s the Department of Transportation. For safe investments, there’s the SEC. For consumer protection, there’s the Federal Trade Commission. For AI and emerging tech, there’s nothing. Setting Boundaries By human nature, we set…
Hubris Issue 115, June 29, 2023 Every day we assess the potential rewards along with the real and perceived risks of the situations, desires, tasks, and ideas we confront. We may not be consciously aware of these assessments, but they are happening all the time. Our ever-expanding technical prowess has resulted in new tools, more efficient production, opportunities to transform ideas into reality, and new platforms to engage and connect. We also have access to expanding our knowledge and deferring…
Social Proof Issue 114, June 22, 2023 How often when you are choosing a new restaurant do you refer to Yelp or your local food critic’s review? Or when deciding on a weekend movie, you check out the film reviews, leaning toward the ones with star rankings. How do you find a hotel in another city? And when you are buying apparel online, do you go for the recommendations for how to accessorize it, or in Amazon’s case, “We think…
As the World Turns Issue 113, June 15, 2023 We’re taking a pause to share several trends that we believe are bellwethers for a sustainable future. And we’re not including climate change, although it clearly ranks high on anyone’s list as a cause for concern. We’re talking about two trends that don’t get much attention: population shifts and life expectancy. Here’s the big picture from the UN: The world’s population is expected to increase by two billion people, from 7.7…
Are You Ready? Issue 112, June 8, 2023 Wrong question. Are your customers ready? Is the market ready? Actually, the real question is a fusion of both. Is the customer base in your market ready to adopt what you have considered building and offering as you seek to stabilize, grow, and expand your organization? Put another way, is what you are contemplating developing something nice to have or necessary? Then add a layer of complexity to that: if the customer…
The Case for Slow Work Issue 111, May 31, 2023 How do we anticipate what’s next before the breakthroughs are even made that will ultimately shape the future? History is written in the eye of the beholder. False assumptions are the roots of history, only to be reversed/updated/revised when new information is revealed to correct the false narrative. One way to look at it is how Piet Hut, astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, describes scientific…
Spring Awakening Issue 110, May 25, 2023 It’s Spring and we are coming up on a major holiday weekend where we hope for good weather and time outdoors with family and friends. At 2040 we’re feeling optimistic and seeking opportunities for renewal (even escape) as we see the landscape around us come to life once again. In fact, we recently came to the realization that organizations seeking to change, and transform could easily be compared to a natural landscape and…