problem-solving Archives

Resisting the Escalation Trap

Resisting the Escalation Trap Separating Smart Persistence from Stubborn Commitment Issue 223, July 31, 2025 How do you balance what you think your customers need versus what they want? Let’s say you are ahead of the trend curve in your industry, and are launching an event that is so forward-thinking that it challenges current status quo thinking. Here’s a real-life example. In the past, a marketing director produced an event for CFOs on sustainability initiatives and cost-savings and how they…

Kevin Novak

July 30, 2025

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Why Strategic Re-Think Is Today’s Prerequisite Strategy

Why Strategic Re-Think Is Today’s Prerequisite Strategy Issue 158, May 2, 2024 Although it seems counterintuitive in today’s dynamically changing marketplace, many organizations still live, breathe, and sometimes die by their static three- or five-year strategic plans. It takes so much work and time to develop these long-term plans, often structured more as a laundry list of aspirations, that they are hard to let go of. This multi-year term model is often disconnected from the actual capability or capacity of…

Kevin Novak

May 2, 2024

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Are You Sure You Matter?

Are You Sure You Matter? Issue 133, November 2, 2023 Holding onto next-gen workers and customers (born between 1997 and 2012) requires more than a trick up your sleeve. They are actively changing up the rules of engagement in, and for, organizations of all sizes — whether they are employees or customers. Call them naïve or a brutal force of nature with critical mass, they are redefining the workplace culture and the brand/customer value proposition. Here’s the key thought: You…

Kevin Novak

November 2, 2023

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

What Would You Do?

What Would You Do? Issue 128, September 28, 2023 We’ve all been in business situations that are uncomfortable, confrontational, and dysfunctional. Even after spending decades building a career, we can get a curveball that puts us in an untenable position. In our newsletters we seek to surface new ideas and realities of the workplace, always recognizing that the human factor is always of paramount importance and influence. It is our intention to help you and your organization manage change, successfully…

Kevin Novak

September 28, 2023

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Value of Observation Through the Lens of Complexity Theory

The Value of Observation Through the Lens of Complexity Theory Issue 125, September 7, 2023 One of anyone’s life goals is to be a good observer. It’s fruitful to watch how things unfold around us as we try to make sense of the patterns and connections. Almost everything around us is connected, has interdependence, and influences all the parts that comprise the whole of a system. And that includes the systems of society and, of course, our organizations. In that…

Kevin Novak

September 7, 2023

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Systems Thinking Powers Actionable Solutions in Three Easy Steps – Ideas + Innovations from 2040

Systems Thinking Powers Actionable Solutions in Three Easy Steps The Past Is No Playbook for the Future Issue 76: Oct 6, 2022 If by chance you have been asleep for the past three decades, you may have missed the success of a systems thinking strategic model. Everyone who understands climate change realizes that we (all of us, sentient and non) live in a closed-loop, interconnected system. That understanding is based on the ability to look at life holistically, connecting the…

Kevin Novak

October 5, 2022

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

An Elephant? What Elephant? Where Is the Elephant? – Ideas + Innovations from 2040

An Elephant? What Elephant? Where Is the Elephant? Decision-Making: Actions, Influences, Impacts and Unintended Consequences Issue 75: Sept 29, 2022 In June of this year, we published an article about unintended consequences and how many organizations, governments and individuals are blindsided by not anticipating the future. Technically, unintended consequences are outcomes of actions in the immediate past or in current times that have unforeseen impacts or influences on the near or far future. Consider a line of dominoes or a…

Kevin Novak

September 29, 2022

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

2040’s Ideas and Innovations: Why Does Context Matter to Every Individual and Organization?

Why Does Context Matter to Every Individual and Organization? Issue 54: May 5, 2022 In times of uncertainty and ambiguity, context is essential to providing clarity in communications and interpersonal relations – both personal and professional. It has become a challenge to understand others when there is an abundance of misinformation and personal spin on the facts. Even more confusing, history is recorded according to the historian’s context, which can be a highly personal interpretation. Worst case, the lack of…

Kevin Novak

May 5, 2022

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

2040’s Ideas and Innovations: Why Do We Struggle with White Space?

Why Do We Struggle with White Space? Issue 51: April 14, 2022 Here’s an existential question: How do you fill an empty/white space? Spoiler alert: First, ask yourself is it worth filling? Second, is what you’re filling it with valuable, relevant and meaningful? Lastly, don’t hold back if you’re worried whether the full space is going to be accepted by others or will we be ridiculed and sequestered to the back of the room. Too often our default behaviors kick…

Kevin Novak

April 13, 2022

Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

2040’s Ideas and Innovations: How to Use Systems Thinking + Strategic Thinking

How to Use Systems Thinking + Strategic Thinking Issue 40: January 27, 2022 One of the common complaints about the ongoing explosion of startups is that they tout a solution … as it turns out in many instances, to a problem that usually doesn’t exist. We envy their innovation, admire their flexibility and applied agility, but entrepreneurs often don’t look deeply enough to understand if there is an actual problem that their solution seeks to address. It’s not just the…

Kevin Novak

January 26, 2022

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