leadership Archives

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Great Expectations

Great Expectations What is the role of a business leader today? The pressures placed on managers and leaders have grown exponentially with expectations from all stakeholders to lead in a certain way. And that way is what those stakeholders believe is the right way. The leadership arena is complex and risky. Whether you lead a small association or a multinational brand, the skillset required to exceed everyone’s expectations has expanded beyond organizational expertise. As we turn our attention, despite current…

Kevin Novak

December 23, 2021

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Context Is Everything

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Context Is Everything

Context Is Everything We have shared with you a set of practices that is key to high performance, optimal business modeling, productive workplace culture and enlightened leadership. Clear, unbiased communications and organizational constructs are essential tools in a digital marketplace. And activating these tools is made more powerful through critical thinking and analysis with context. We are among those that believe that context is everything. It is the foundational pillar of any change and transformation. Without contextual analysis, transformation is…

Kevin Novak

December 16, 2021

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Managing Ourselves and Our Responses

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Managing Ourselves and Our Responses

A Helpful Guide to Managing Ourselves and Our Responses We have published 31 Issues of 2040’s Ideas and Innovations Newsletter and appreciate all your feedback and support over this year. We wanted to take the opportunity to curate some of our favorite and most important topics for your holiday reading. As we all take a break from navigating the dynamics in our workplaces and shift to focus on family and friends, we offer you some tactics and approaches you might…

Kevin Novak

November 25, 2021

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Innovation Theater

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Innovation Theater

Innovation Theater Everyone talks about innovation, but how does it really happen? And what is the difference between authentic innovation and a pastiche of innovation that doesn’t power true transformation or change? As we all know, managing and operating an organization has many underlying parts that come together to create the whole system. A startup has the agility and flexibility to innovate and pivot as its size is small, focused and often committed to solving a particular problem. Once it…

Kevin Novak

November 4, 2021

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: The Fault in Ourselves

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: The Fault in Ourselves

The Fault in Ourselves One outcome of the pandemic is operating in a highly fractious marketplace with gender identity, economic and political distinctions often accelerated into polarization. These issues are not just external, they are also prevalent internally, revealing new challenges to leading and working together. At 2040 we find that these issues rise to the surface and become roadblocks to transformation when personal bias, conscious or subconscious, rules the culture, infuses decision making, and forms our personal and professional…

Kevin Novak

October 21, 2021

Decision Making in a Digital Age – Ideas + Innovations from 2040

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Decision Making in a Digital Age – Ideas + Innovations from 2040

Decision Making in a Digital Age The debate in management and leadership circles is how to best make decisions in a digital age. Should you be data-driven or intuitive? There are too many variables, including institutional knowledge and bias that limit the value of gut decision making, particularly in a fundamentally and dynamically ever-changing environment. We are the sum-total of our own biases and past experiences, which hinder the effectiveness of intuitive decision-making in the 21st century. A decision-making approach…

Kevin Novak

October 7, 2021

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Managing Individual and Team Transitions for Transformation Success

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Ideas + Innovations from 2040: Managing Individual and Team Transitions for Transformation Success

Managing Individual and Team Transitions for Transformation Success The human element of any change or transformation effort is often overlooked or not even considered. Leaders assume the hierarchy of management and staff will simply follow directions and bring the strategies and goals to life. With command-and-control leadership, assumptions are made that those responsible for operational and organizational change understand what to do or will figure out what to do to meet the set direction. In today’s everchanging environment, internalized urgency…

Kevin Novak

September 22, 2021

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

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 + Innovations from 2040: Measuring What Matters

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

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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

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