leadership Archives

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Customer Loyalty

Customer Loyalty Running an organization that is customer-centric is a marathon. Human behavior can be mercurial. Trends from one industry segment suddenly disrupt another sector in the highly connected and interdependent system that comprises society. A global pandemic sends rational planning out the window and accelerates emerging trends and changes that were suppressed or sometimes completely ignored. And the biggest challenges today are understanding changing human behaviors and accepting the fact that the customer is the point of purchase, whenever,…

Kevin Novak

September 9, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Measuring What Matters

Measuring What Matters With the drama and disruption of the pandemic, you might think it’s time to re-evaluate your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Just look at the megatrends. Externally, customers have been affected by financial and supply chain disruption, along with revelations of new digital ways of managing day-to-day life. Many of the adaptations and changed behaviors are likely here to stay. Internally, organizations have pivoted but many remain dedicated to returning to a normal that no longer exists or…

Kevin Novak

September 2, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: The Art and Science of Active Listening

The Art and Science of Active Listening I think we can all agree we live in a digital world with a lot of surface noise. A world in which we are time-pressed — or at least feel as if we are — and we simply want to know what we think we need to know in the shortest amount of time. This relates to most of our interactions, discussions, and conversations. Our typical approach to the real and perceived high…

Kevin Novak

August 26, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Leading With Courage

Leading With Courage The current environment appears to be out of control to many of us. In the United States, our politics have grown increasingly divisive, the climate appears to be getting more extreme, inflation is impacting everyone’s pocketbook, and the global health crisis with changing daily information has increased feelings of ambiguity. All of this leads to heightened individual anxiety, so much so that on a day-to-day basis, each individual is living with a level of ambient stress. Everyone,…

Kevin Novak

August 19, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Leading in a Time of Ambiguity

Leading in a Time of Ambiguity Living through a pandemic is shadowed by nearly constant uncertainty. We take three steps forward, two sideways and unfortunately, then three steps backward. Innovators have been able to pivot and transform their business models to meet the needs of their stakeholders. Organizations that have calcified cultures with command-and-control management models have been or are being easily eclipsed by agile competitors. So, which category characterizes your own organization: Are you innovative or is your organization…

Kevin Novak

August 11, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: How Pattern Recognition Drives High Performance

How Pattern Recognition Drives High Performance Every week since the start of our thought leadership series we have revealed the building blocks required to achieve successful organizational change and transformation. Each article reflects the value of critical thinking, data, process, strategy and operational readiness required for organizational success and achievement. This week, we explore (and emphasize) the importance of pattern recognition and its role in any organizational change, pivot, and transformation. Pattern recognition is of value even if you do…

Kevin Novak

August 5, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Playbook for Thriving Post-Pandemic

Agility-Resilience: The Post-Pandemic Model There is a new organizational model in town: the agility-resilience construct. Agility is active, resilience is reactive. And when you combine them, you’ve got an organizational performance that is highly competitive. How do you do that? It requires quick decision-making and critical thinking. It also requires a culture that can adapt to change in a nurturing way, accept bad news, and reinforce cross-functional collaboration and feedback. Resilience + Agility Agile is a process used by the…

Kevin Novak

July 29, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Mastering Communications that Communicate

How Effectively Do You Communicate With Stakeholders? Tell me something I don’t already know. Or if you do, tell me in a new way that makes the message relevant to me and useful in my life – both professional and private. More to the point, tell me what it means and why it matters. Digital communications have proliferated and most of them are near misses, or even worse, totally inconsequential to their audiences. Spray and pray is an anachronism in…

Kevin Novak

July 8, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: How to Practice Critical Thinking

How Critical Thinking Is Essential to Transformation and Reducing Bias What is your personal sphere of influence? As a team member, you influence your co-workers, customers, members, and management with your contributions. As a department manager, you influence a team of staff, members, customers, and others to achieve specific goals. As a member of the C Suite, your influence, informed and directed by a board and stakeholders, sweeps across the entire organization. And, as a CEO you set the course…

Kevin Novak

June 24, 2021

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter: Agility is the New Nimble

Agility is the New Nimble Every generation a new business operating principle bubbles up into the professional organizational arena. Resilience has been updated with Agility (yes, we know it sounds like being Nimble, but it’s a lot more nuanced). Agility is a mainstay in the tech community – particularly with software development. Here’s a basic definition: “Business agility refers to rapid, continuous, and systematic evolutionary adaptation and entrepreneurial innovation directed at gaining and maintaining competitive advantage.” Simply stated, Agile management…

Kevin Novak

June 2, 2021

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