Category Archives: Leadership

Age Discrimination in the Workplace is Real

Forty-Three Percent Say 40-Plus Is Old

Age Discrimination in the Workplace is Real

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI, is a popular yet sensitive topic in the workforce today. Leadership and HR that recognize this are finding ways to ensure employees from all races, ethnicities, abilities, sexual orientations, religions, etc., are represented. Sometimes included, but often left out, is age.

Age shows no color, race, religion, sex, etc. It just is. People get older, and as they do, workplace biases may become evident. It’s important to be aware of this issue. A 2022 study by LiveCareer, ‘Older People & the Workplace’, revealed some intriguing findings regarding age-related stereotypes and discrimination. More than 1,000 workers were surveyed to “investigate their opinions about older people in the workplace.”

Eight in ten respondents claimed age stereotypes were still alive in the workplace.

What is considered old? Forty-three percent of those surveyed said 40-plus is old. Twenty-six percent said 50-plus is old. And 21% said 60-plus is old. So, if you are 50, with probably 15 or more years until retirement, 69% of the people you work with think you are old.

Here are some more findings from LiveCareer’s study to get you thinking about how your organization treats aging employees:

74% of the respondents aged 50-plus said they had been fired because of their age.

86% aged 50-plus felt that most job postings were addressed to people younger than them.

72% of respondents claimed that older employees were a target for workplace bullying.

77% of the respondents said: I haven’t been hired for a job because of my age.

69% said: I’m afraid to lose my job because of my age.

If over 50 is old, then leadership is … old. According to Zippia, there are over 38,700 CEOs currently employed in the U.S., and their average age is 52 years old. If you look at the Fortune 500, the average age of a CEO is 57. Several companies on the Fortune list are run by CEOs ranging from 71 to 91!

Consider the age of the most powerful executives in the United States. President Biden was 78 when he became president. Donald Trump was 70. Barak Obama seems like a baby considering he entered the Oval Office when he was just 47. The overall average age of a United States president entering office is 56 (almost 57).

Some companies and brands are taking a proactive position against age discrimination. Dove and Wendy’s in Canada reacted to CTV news firing Canadian news anchor Lisa LaFlamme for letting her hair go gray. Dove Canada responded with a #KeepTheGrey campaign on its social media postings. They wrote, “Age is beautiful. Women should be able to do it on their own terms, without consequences.” Wendy’s tweeted, “Because a star is a star regardless of hair color.”

Companies are evaluating their retirement policies, recognizing the value of older employees. Target recently announced it is eliminating the mandatory retirement age of 65. Its current CEO, Brian Cornell, will be turning 64 on his next birthday, and Target doesn’t seem ready to start planning for his successor. While Target’s reason for changing the policy may seem self-serving, you can’t ignore that they have come to realize the value in keeping their best employees, regardless of age. Other major companies like 3M, Merck and Boeing are also changing their policies on mandatory retirement.

The OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), an international group of economists based in Paris, with more than 38 member countries, predicts that by 2050, more than four in ten individuals (that’s 40%) in the world’s most advanced economies are likely to be older than 50. The workforce is aging even more rapidly as younger people are starting work at an older age, and older people are staying employed.

We’re not getting any younger. We’re older today than yesterday, both in life and at work. We can’t fight that. It’s just a fact, and you can’t ignore it. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the workforce is also getting older. In 2000 the average age of a worker in the U.S. was 39.3. In 2010, that jumped to 41.7. In 2020, it increased to 42.8.

Despite these changes and observations, age bias still exists. It needs to be considered—and eradicated—the same as other DEI issues.

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Lobsters and the Wisdom of Ignoring Your Customers

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Lobsters and the Wisdom of Ignoring Your Customers

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

Being the smart innovator (and businessperson) you are, you know it’s important to talk to customers. You also know it’s important to listen to them.

It’s also important to ignore your customers.

(Sometimes)

Customers will tell you what the problem is. If you stay curious and ask follow-up questions (Why? and Tell me more), they’ll tell you why it’s a problem and the root cause. You should definitely listen to this information.

Customers will also tell you how to fix the problem. You should definitely ignore this information.

To understand why, let me tell you a story.

Eye Contact is a Problem

Years ago, two friends and I took a day trip to Maine. It was late in Fall, and many lobster shacks dotting the coast were closed for the season. We found one still open and settled in for lunch.

Now, I’m a reasonably adventurous eater. I’ll try almost anything once (but not try fried tarantulas). However, I have one rule – I do not want to make eye contact with my food.

Knowing that lobsters are traditionally served with their heads still attached, I braced for the inevitable. As the waitress turned to me, I placed the same order as my friends but with a tiny special request. “I’ll have the lobster, but please remove its head.”

You know that scene in movies when the record scratches, the room falls silent, and everyone stops everything they’re doing to stare at the person who made an offending comment? Yeah, that’s precisely what happened when I asked for the head to be removed.

The waitress was horrified, “Why? That’s where all the best stuff is!”

“I don’t like making eye contact with my food,” I replied.

She pursed her lips, jotted down my request, and walked away.

A short time later, our lunch was served. My friends received their lobsters as God (or the chef) intended, head still attached. Then, with great fanfare, my lobster arrived.

Its head was still attached.

But we did not make eye contact.

Placed over the lobster’s eyes were two olives, connected by a broken toothpick and attached to the lobster’s “ears” by two more toothpicks.

The chef was offended by my request to remove the lobster’s head. But, because he understood why I wanted the head removed, he created a solution that would work for both of us – lobster-sized olive sunglasses.

Are you removing the head or making sunglasses?

Customers, like me, are experts in problems. We know what the problems are, why they’re problems, and what solutions work and what don’t. So, if you ask us what we want, we’ll give you the solution we know – remove the head.

Innovators, like you and the chef, are experts in solutions. You know what’s possible, see the trade-offs, and anticipate the consequences of various choices. You also take great pride in your work and expertise, so you’re not going to give someone a sub-par solution simply because they asked for it. You’re going to provide them with olive sunglasses.

Next time you talk to customers, stay curious, ask open-ended questions, ask follow-up questions, and build a deep understanding of their problems. Then ignore their ideas and suggestions. They’ll only stand in the way of your olive sunglasses.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Four Ways to Overcome Resistance to Change

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Four Ways to Overcome Resistance to Change

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

Why are organizations so resistant to change? Many point to a corporate immune system or to organizational antibodies that instantly attack change. The idea is that leaders prefer stability to disruption and put systems in place to reduce variance. These systems will instantly seek out and destroy anyone who tries to do anything different.

This is a dangerously misleading notion. There is no such thing as a corporate immune system. In fact, most senior executives are not only in favor of change, they see themselves as leading it! However, while most people are enthusiastic about change as a general concept, they are suspicious of it in the particular.

The truth is that is if the change you seek has the potential to be truly impactful, there are always going to be people affected who aren’t going to like it. They will seek to undermine it, often in very dishonest ways. That’s just a fact of life that you need to accept. Yet history clearly shows that, with a smart strategy, even the most ardent opposition can be overcome.

1. Ignore The Opposition — At First

The first principle for overcoming resistance is to understand that there is no reason you need to immediately engage with your active opposition. In fact, it’s something you should do your best to avoid in the early stages when your idea is still untried, unproven and vulnerable.

All too often, change initiatives start with a big kickoff meeting and communication campaign. That’s almost always a mistake. In every organization, there are different levels of enthusiasm to change. Some will be ready to jump on board, but others will be vehemently opposed. For whatever reason, they see this particular idea as a threat.

By seeking to bring in everybody at once, you are very likely to end up spending a lot of time and energy trying to persuade people who don’t want to be persuaded. The truth is that in the beginning your idea is the weakest it’s ever going to be. So there’s no reason to waste your time with people who aren’t open to it.

If you find yourself struggling to convince people, you either have the wrong change or the wrong people. So at first, seek out people who are already enthusiastic about your vision for change and want it to succeed.

2. Identify Your Apostles

In retrospect, transformations often seem inevitable, even obvious. Yet they don’t start out that way. The truth is that it is small groups, loosely connected, but united by a common purpose that drives transformation. So, the first thing you want to do is identify your apostles—people who are already excited about the possibilities for change.

For example, in his efforts to reform the Pentagon, Colonel John Boyd began every initiative by briefing a group of collaborators called the “Acolytes,” who would help hone and sharpen the ideas. He then moved on to congressional staffers, elected officials and the media. By the time general officers were aware of what he was doing, he had too much support to ignore.

In a similar vein, a massive effort to implement lean manufacturing methods at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals began with one team at one factory, but grew to encompass 17,000 employees across 25 sites worldwide and cut manufacturing costs by 25%. The campaign that overthrew Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević started with just 5 kids in a coffee shop.

One advantage to starting small is that you can identify your apostles informally, even through casual conversations. In skills-based transformations, change leaders often start with workshops and see who seems enthusiastic or comes up after the session. Your apostles don’t need to have senior positions or special skills, they just have to be passionate.

3. Shift from Differentiating Values to Shared Values

People feel passionately about things that are different. That’s why the first product that Steve Jobs launched after he returned to Apple was the iMac. It wasn’t a very good computer, but its bright colors were designed to appeal to Apple’s passionate fan base, as was the “Think Different” ad campaign launched around the same time.

Yet if all Steve Jobs had to rely on was difference, Apple would have never grown beyond its most ardent fans and become the most valuable company in the world. It was the company’s growing reputation for high quality and smart features that brought in new customers. True change is always built on common ground.

One of the biggest challenges in driving transformation is that while differentiating values make people excited about an idea, it is shared values that help grow a movement. That doesn’t mean you’re abandoning or watering down your principles. It just means that you need to meet people where they are, not where you wish them to be.

For example, the Agile Manifesto has inspired fierce devotion among its adherents. Yet for those outside the Agile development community, its principles can seem weird and impractical. If you want to bring new people, it’s better to focus on shared values, such as the ability to produce better quality projects on time and on budget.

4. Create and Build on Meaningful Success

The reason people resist change is that they have a certain level of comfort with the status quo. Change forces us to grapple with the unfamiliar, which is always uncomfortable. There are also switching costs involved. So, if you want your change to take hold, at some point you are going to have to prove you can get results.

One great example is the PxG initiative at Procter & Gamble. It got started when three mid-level executives decided that they could dramatically improve a process. They didn’t try to convince anybody or ask for permission but were able to reduce the time it took from weeks down to hours. That started a movement within the company that has attracted thousands.

When Experian CIO Barry Libenson started a cloud transformation at his company, he didn’t force anybody to go along. Instead, he focused on helping product managers who wanted to build successful cloud projects. As they began to show concrete business results, the pressure for others to get with the program increased.

Perhaps most of all, you need to accept that resistance is part of change and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, skeptics can often point out important flaws in your idea and make it stronger. The difference between successful revolutionaries and mere dreamers is that those who succeed anticipate resistance and build a plan to overcome it.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credit: Pixabay

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Making Abstract Concepts Tangible

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The Power of Anecdote

Making Abstract Concepts Tangible

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In the innovation landscape, we are drowning in data and gasping for insight. We talk endlessly about “digital transformation,” “agile strategy,” and “cultural change”—phrases that are intellectually sound but emotionally sterile. These abstract concepts, presented in PowerPoint decks filled with charts and jargon, may inform the mind, but they rarely move the soul. As a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I can tell you this truth: Jargon and data don’t drive change; stories do. The single most powerful tool a leader has to ignite a movement, overcome resistance, and embed a new culture is the simple, compelling anecdote. An anecdote takes an abstract, often intimidating strategic goal and anchors it to a specific, tangible human moment, making the incomprehensible accessible and the unbelievable real.

We are wired for narrative. Neurologically, when we hear pure data or statistics, only the language processing centers of our brains are engaged. But when we hear a story, the brain areas that would be active if we were *experiencing* the events ourselves light up. This phenomenon, known as neural coupling, is why an anecdote is the kinetic energy of change. It releases oxytocin, building trust and empathy between the storyteller and the listener. It moves past intellectual understanding to emotional ownership. You can tell an employee that the company needs to be “customer-centric” ten times, and they’ll nod. But tell them the story of how one simple act of service saved a customer’s day, and you don’t just inform them—you transform their understanding of their own role. The anecdote is the ultimate human-centered design for strategy.

A Framework for Anecdotal Leadership

Effective leaders don’t just delegate strategy; they become the chief storytellers of the organization’s future. Leveraging the power of anecdote requires intent and structure, not just random storytelling. Here is a framework for embedding narrative into your leadership:

1. Anchor the Abstract to the Authentic: For every major strategic initiative—whether it’s “sustainability” or “process efficiency”—find the one authentic story that illustrates the point. Do not let a new value statement stand alone; anchor it with the specific human moment that brought that value to life.
2. Democratize Storytelling: The most potent anecdotes often do not come from the C-suite. They come from the front lines, from the customer service representative, the engineer, or the sales associate. Leaders must actively create channels to collect and amplify these stories, turning the front line into the source of organizational truth.
3. Vulnerability as the Currency of Trust: To drive real behavioral change, leaders must model vulnerability. Sharing a personal anecdote about a major failure, a moment of profound uncertainty, or a time when you realized you were wrong is the fastest way to build psychological safety. It signals that it is safe for others to take risks and admit mistakes, which is the oxygen of innovation.
4. The Anecdotal Test: Before presenting any major initiative—a new product, a cultural shift, a strategic pivot—test it with a simple question: “If I stripped away all the data and jargon, what single, compelling story would prove the value of this change?” If you can’t tell that story, your strategy is too abstract to succeed.

“Facts tell, but stories sell. In the business of change, you must sell the vision before you can achieve the strategy.” — Braden Kelley

Case Study 1: NASA’s Apollo Program – The Janitor’s Shared Purpose

The Challenge:

In the 1960s, the goal of “putting a man on the moon” was monumental, abstract, and technically incomprehensible to most people. How do you align thousands of scientists, engineers, and support staff across dozens of different facilities—from mathematicians calculating trajectories to janitors sweeping the halls—to a single, human-centered objective?

The Power of Anecdote:

The solution was encapsulated in a single, enduring anecdote involving President John F. Kennedy. As the story goes, during a 1962 tour of the NASA Space Center, Kennedy approached a janitor and asked him what his job was. The janitor, without hesitation, replied, “Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.” This story, whether perfectly accurate or slightly mythologized, became the organizational blueprint for shared purpose. It was instantly accessible and emotionally resonant. It showed everyone that their role, no matter how distant from the rocket itself, was essential to achieving the collective, human-centered goal.

The Result:

This anecdote transcended engineering schematics and budget reports. It didn’t just explain the mission; it defined the *meaning* of the mission for every employee. It created an organizational culture where purpose was tangible and felt at every level. It is a powerful example of how a leader can use a single, simple human story to align a massive, complex organization toward an abstract, audacious vision, turning a technical challenge into a human triumph.

Case Study 2: Southwest Airlines – Defining Culture Through Action Stories

The Challenge:

How does an airline maintain a culture of exceptional, “beyond-the-policy” customer service and high operational efficiency in an industry notorious for low margins, high stress, and bureaucratic rigidity? Furthermore, how do they teach this unique culture to thousands of new employees every year?

The Power of Anecdote:

Southwest Airlines achieved this not through rule books, but through an obsessive focus on collecting, sharing, and celebrating stories of service. Instead of a 10-point plan for “Customer Loyalty,” new employees are immersed in anecdotes about fellow staff: the flight attendant who bought a pizza for a stranded flight, the ground crew member who retrieved a teddy bear from a distant airport, or the employee who went above and beyond to comfort a nervous traveler. These stories—passed down in training, internal newsletters, and town halls—do not just describe the culture; they prescribe the behavior. They act as concrete examples of the abstract concept of “LUV,” making the company’s commitment to fun and service palpable and actionable.

The Result:

By making storytelling central to their internal communication, Southwest created an immediately recognizable, human-centered cultural fabric. The anecdotes serve as powerful, memorable standards of conduct that are far more effective than any memo. They guide autonomous decision-making in the moment, empowering employees to break rank for the sake of the customer experience. The enduring success of Southwest proves that a thriving, innovative culture is fundamentally a collection of great stories that its people choose to live out every day.

Conclusion: The Narrative Imperative

The era of leading with abstraction is over. If you want people to move—if you want to ignite genuine innovation, shift culture, and drive a strategic transformation—you must first move their hearts. The anecdote is your most potent tool, the linguistic delivery system for empathy and action. It allows you to take the vast, complex machinery of change and compress it down into a moment that every human can understand, remember, and internalize. As leaders, our role is not just to analyze the data; it is to master the narrative. We must become the chief story collectors and chief storytellers, for the enduring power of a single, well-told human story will always outweigh a thousand bullet points. The most effective strategies are not those that calculate best, but those that resonate best.

Extra Extra: Because innovation is all about change, Braden Kelley’s human-centered change methodology and tools are the best way to plan and execute the changes necessary to support your innovation and transformation efforts — all while literally getting everyone all on the same page for change. Find out more about the methodology and tools, including the book Charting Change by following the link. Be sure and download the TEN FREE TOOLS while you’re here.

Image credit: 1 of 950+ FREE quote slides available at http://misterinnovation.com

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Management Accountability in Two Dimensions

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Performance and Power

Management Accountability in Two Dimensions

GUEST POST from Geoffrey A. Moore

In Silicon Valley, we talk a lot about leadership but perhaps not enough about management. That’s because we are famous for working the fuzzy front end of things, where management is premature and leadership is paramount. But to have real impact on the world, you must eventually lean on strong management to operate at scale. So, what exactly does that entail?

First and foremost, management is about delivering the performance committed to in the plan. Everyone gets this, and while there are major differences in styles of management, all are measured ultimately by performance metrics, and no one is confused. We may not like the numbers we are supposed to make, but we know what they are, we have some idea of what it will take to make them, and we will get report-outs along the way to tell us how we are doing.

Such is not the case, however, with a second dimension of management accountability—the need to continually invest in ways that will power future performance. Performance consumes power as a means to create returns. If we focus 100% of our resources on performance, we will eventually exhaust all our existing sources of power and will be unable to compete effectively going forward.

Seems obvious enough, but here is the problem. We do not define power anywhere nearly as clearly as we define performance. We do not have reports that tell us how we are doing on the power side of the equation. We are often not really clear about what power we should be going after, what investments could be specifically targeted to deliver power, or what metrics would verify that we have succeeded. Worse still, our performance compensation systems can actually incent us to ignore all this ambiguity around “power management” and focus solely on meeting our performance commitments, particularly when resources are tight. Worst of all, as power dwindles, it becomes harder and harder to make the number, which puts more pressure on the resources we have, which further disincentivizes investing in future power. The result is a downward spiral from which it is painfully hard to escape.

So, what can we do to prevent it?

To begin with, we will need a map—specifically a power map, an understanding of the geography of our current power base. We can develop one through root cause analysis. That is, if we are in the Performance Zone, we can ask, where are our products successful, where are they not, and why? Where are our sales efforts successful, where are they not, and why? Similarly, if we are in the Productivity Zone, we can ask, where are our systems working as promised, where are they not, and why? Which of our programs have delivered the change in state promised, which have not, and why? (Note: if we are in the Incubation Zone, we are already an investment in power, so this exercise would not apply.)

Root cause analysis, by its very nature, shifts the focus from the domain of performance (effects) to that of power (causes). The deeper this analysis can penetrate, the more insightful our map of power becomes. This is a good opportunity to engage the entire team, not only to improve the quality of the analysis, but also to help everyone develop their own management perspective.

Once a power map is in view, then the question becomes, if we could intervene in only one place, where could we have the most impact, and what would it take to bring it about? We are looking for a specific initiative that could change the game within whatever time limits are appropriate to the situation. Here are some examples:

In response to a weakening industry status, Sybase leveraged the financial crisis in 2008 to boost its power on Wall Street, a long-dormant part of its power map, with a campaign that focused on portfolio risk analysis, capitalizing on the unique attributes of its columnar database for online analytics. The success of that campaign bought valuable time to develop a mobile app platform for hosting enterprise applications on the iPhone, something that led to SAP acquiring the company at a premium in 2010.

In response to the successful performance of the iPod and iTunes (almost half of Apple’s revenue in 2007), subsequently being exposed to the existential threat of smartphones eventually assimilating music players, Apple invested deeply in the iPhone, leveraging its existing wireless downloading infrastructure to liberate programs and content from carrier control. Today, the iPod is effectively embedded in the iPhone, and it is that device that supplies 50 percent of Apple’s revenue.

In response to drastically deteriorating industry power at IBM in the early 1990s, Lou Gerstner completely reframed the enterprise’s power map, rejecting the view that future power would come from disaggregation, asserting instead that it would come from global integration. Leveraging an emerging global trend in e-commerce, he and his team transformed the company into a services-led powerhouse that helped lead the IT industry for another decade.

These examples, of course, represent big power maps. Most of us play on a considerably smaller stage. But the principles are the same:

Leave conventional wisdom behind
Take a fresh view of the power dynamics influencing your organization
Launch a single focused initiative that tees things up for future success

All that remains is to create accountability for power outcomes. Accountability begins with identifying a single accountable person. People often shy away from this because they associate it with someone to blame. That is neither the point nor the role. Rather, this person is the quarterback of the initiative. To be really clear, they are not the team owner (that would be the executive sponsor) nor are they the coach (that would be the line manager in charge of delivering both performance and power), but rather they are the person on the field taking input from teammates to make the best calls in the moment. Without this single point of coordination, initiatives are unable to take decisive action under conditions of uncertainty—in other words, they underperform in game-time situations.

The next thing we need is a good way to keep score. This can be tricky because indicators for power are not as easy to see as those for performance. Nonetheless, we cannot manage what we cannot measure, so we need to get creative here. One place we can look for ideas is from our customer success operations. There the focus is on onboarding, adoption, usage, and upsell—all of which are signals of whether power is waxing or waning. Whatever the initiative we are managing, we need to create proxies to detect these kinds of signal and use them to track our progress.

Finally, we need to tie meeting power metrics with compensation, not only for the single accountable person but also for the organization making the resource sacrifices to enable the investment required. This will typically be in the form of bonuses for hitting key metrics within a given time limit. Not only do such bonuses motivate, they also make clear to the rest of the enterprise that this initiative is important, and that the people leading it are committed to its success.

That’s what I think. What do you think?

Image Credit: Unsplash

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A Superpower That Can Save The Day

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Same But Different

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

If there’s one superpower to develop, it’s to learn how to assess a project and get a good feel for when it will launch.

When you want to know how long a project will take, ask this simple question: ‘What must the project team learn before the project can launch?” By starting with this single question, you will start the discussion that will lead you to an understanding of what hasn’t been done before and where the uncertainty is hiding. And if there’s one thing that can accelerate a project, it’s defining where the uncertainty is hiding. And knowing this doubly powerful, like a pure two-for-one, because if you know where uncertainty is, by definition, you know where it isn’t. Where the uncertainty isn’t, you can do what you did last time, and because you’ve done it before, you know how long it will take. No new tools, no new methods, no new analyses, no new machines, no new skillsets, no new anything. And for the remaining elements of the project, well, that’s where the uncertainty is hiding and that’s where you will focus on the learning needed to secure the launch.

But it can be difficult to understand the specific learning that must be done for a project to launch. One trick I like to use is the Same-But-Different method. It goes like this. Identify a project that launched (Project A) that’s most similar to the one that will launch next (Project B) and perform a subtraction of sorts. Declare that Project B (the one you want to launch) is the same as Project A (the one you already launched) but different in specific ways and then define those differences as clearly and tightly as possible. And where it’s different, that’s where the learning energy must be concentrated.

Same-But-Different sounds simplistic and trivial, but it isn’t. More than anything, it’s powerful. For the elements that are the same, you do what you did last time, which is freeing. And for the small subset if things that are different, you dig in!

Same-But-Different drives deep clarity and extreme focus, which result in blistering progress and blinding effectiveness.

And for some reason unknown to me, asking a team to define the novel elements of a project is at least fifty times more difficult than asking them how Project B is different than Project A. So, it feels good to the team when they can use Same-But-Different to quickly easily define what’s different and then point directly to the uncertainty. And once the team knows where the uncertainty is hiding, it’s no longer hiding.

And if there’s one thing a project team likes, it’s knowing where the uncertainty is hiding.

Image credit: Unsplash

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Reset and Reconnect to Increase our Connectedness

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Reset and Reconnect to Increase our Connectedness

GUEST POST from Janet Sernack

In our second blog in the Reconnect and Reset series of three blogs, we stated that now is not the time to panic. Nor is it a time to languish from change fatigue, pain, and emotional lethargy. It is a significant moment in time to focus, rehabilitate, rebuild, repair, regrow and reset to increase our connectedness through linking human touchpoints that increase people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.

In the current environment, where chaos and order are constantly polarizing, it’s crucial to touch people with empathy, reignite their social skills, and enable them to become healthily self-compassionate and more self-caring to:

Patiently support, lead, manage, mentor, and coach them towards finding their own balance to flow with mitigating the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.
Take advantage of new technologies, networks, and ecosystems to re-engage and collaborate with others and with civil society in positive ways that contribute to the whole.
Do the good work that creates a more compelling, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable future, that serves the common good.

The Landscape Has Changed and So Have the Solutions

As the fourth industrial revolution continues to implode, we need to zoom out and consider the bigger picture. Where a recent Harvard Review article What Will Management Look Like in the Next 100 Years?” states that we are entering an era, which is fundamentally transforming the way we operate. Which is defined by the disruptive growth in blockchain technology, robotics, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and other core digital capabilities.

All of which, in some way, is dependent on linking the key human touchpoints that increase people’s power and our connectedness.

An era of empathy

In the same article, management scholar Rita Gunther McGrath argued that management practices based on command and control, and expertise would ultimately make way for empathy.

Where work is centred around value creation conducted through networks and collaboration, that rely on increasing the connectedness between machines and humans rather than through rigid structures and relationships to thrive through increasing people-power in the fourth industrial revolution.

Capable of better

The Qualtrics 2022 Employee Experience Trends Report also states that the landscape has changed. Where people are choosing to work flexibly, to work in the places that work best for them, and to take time for their own well-being, families, and friends.

Where people are demanding change because they care, about their leaders and their organizations, and want to be capable of developing better ideas; better innovations; and delivering better performances.

The report outlines the four things your people need you to know:

There will be an exodus of leaders – and women will be the first out the door.
People will demand better physical and digital workspaces.
The lack of progress in diversity, inclusion, and belonging won’t be accepted.

People don’t want to become irrelevant, nor do they want their managers, leaders, and organizations to become irrelevant. People know that they can’t, and won’t go back to the old ways of doing things. People also know that they are already living in the new normal and that they need to start working there, too and to do that, we need to increase our connectedness.

Which is especially important for building people’s power and mitigating the challenges emerging in the fourth industrial revolution.

A transformative moment for employees and employers

Businessolver’s Eighth Annual Report on the State of Workplace Empathy describes how the pandemic has impacted on employees’ personal lives, the labor market, and the economy, and states that “we are living through a renegotiation of the social contract between employees and employers”.

Their data shows that amid the return to the office, fewer employees view their organizations as empathetic, and that workplace empathy has clear implications for employee well-being, talent retention, business results, and increases people-power:

About 70% of employees and HR professionals believe that empathetic organizations drive higher employee motivation.
While 94% of employees value flexible work hours as empathetic, the option is only offered in 38% of organizations.
92% of CEOs say their response to returning to in-person work is satisfactory, compared to 78% of employees.
82% of employees say their managers are empathetic, compared to 69% who say the same about their organization’s chief executive.

Yet, there seems to be a true lack of understanding, especially in the corporate sector, of what it means to be empathetic, and a shortage of time and energy to develop the mindsets, behaviors, and skills to practice it and make it a habit.

It is also a fundamental way of being to increase our connectedness and building peoples-power.

Make a Fundamental Choice to Increase our Connectedness

Even though each person is a distinct physical being, we are all connected to each other and to nature, not only through our language but also by having a deeper sense of being.

Human connectedness is a powerful human need that occurs when an individual is aware and actively engaged with another person, activity, object or environment, group, team, organization, or natural environment.

It results in a sense of well-being.

The concept is applied in psychology as a sensation or perception where a person does not operate as a single entity – we are all formed together to make another, individual unit, which is often described as wholeness.

Which is especially important for our well-being and people power in the face of the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

Strategies for Developing Quality Connections

Be grounded, mindful and conscious

Being grounded and mindful enables people to become fully present to both themselves and to others. It is a generous gift to unconditionally bestow on others. Especially at this moment in time, where the pandemic-induced social isolation, has caused many people to become unconsciously and unintentionally self-absorbed.

There is an opening to become aware of, and to cultivate our attending and observing skillsets, to sense and see the signals people are sending, at the moment they are sending them. To help people identify the source of their issues to re-establish a sense of influence and control that reduces their autonomic nervous system reactions and help them restore their calmness.

This is the basis to increase our connectedness, by attuning and becoming empathetic as to what thoughts and feelings lay behind their behaviours and actions, with detachment, allowing and acceptance.

Be open-hearted and open-minded

Being curious about what others are feeling and thinking, without evaluating, judging, and opposing what they are saying. By knowing how to listen deeply for openings and doorways that allow possibilities and opportunities to emerge, to generate great questions that clarify and confirm what is being both said and unsaid.

To support people by creating a safe and collective holding space, that reduces their automatic unconscious defensive responses. To defuse situations by being empathic and humble and increase our connectedness by asking how you might help or support them, and gaining their permission and trust to do so.

Increase our connectedness through being vulnerable in offering options so they make the best choice for themselves, to reduce their dependence, help them identify and activate their circles of influence and control and sustain their autonomy.

Help people regenerate

Now is the moment in time to focus on building workforce capabilities and shifting mindsets for generating a successful culture or digital transformation initiative by harnessing, igniting, and mobilizing people’s motivation and collective intelligence and building people power.

It is crucial to acknowledge and leverage the impact of technology through increasing people-power by developing new mindsets, behaviors, skills, and new roles, which are already emerging as fast as other roles change.

Be willing to invest in the deep learning challenges that build people’s readiness and receptivity to change, so they can embrace rather than resist it, and be willing to unlearn, and relearn, differently, by collaborating with other people, leaders, teams, and organizations across the world.

Ultimately, it all depends on being daring and willing to increase our connectedness, through adapting, innovating, and collectively co-creating strategies, systems, structures that serve the common good, and contribute to the well-being of people, deliver profits and nurture a sustainable planet.

Find out more about our work at ImagineNation™

Find out about our collective, learning products and tools, including The Coach for Innovators, Leaders, and Teams Certified Program, a collaborative, intimate, and deeply personalized innovation coaching and learning program, supported by a global group of peers over 9-weeks, starting Tuesday, February 7, 2023.

It is a blended and transformational change and learning program that will give you a deep understanding of the language, principles, and applications of an ecosystem focus, human-centric approach, and emergent structure (Theory U) to innovation, and increase people-power, upskill people and teams and develop their future fitness, within your unique context. Find out more about our products and tools.

This is the final in a series of three blogs on the theme of reconnecting and resetting, to create, invent and innovate in an increasingly chaotic world.

You can also check out the recording of our 45-minute masterclass, to discover new ways of re-connecting through the complexity and chaos of dis-connection to create, invent and innovate in the future! Find out more.

Image credit: Pixabay

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Anticipating and Mitigating Innovation Risks

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The Unintended Consequences

Anticipating and Mitigating Innovation Risks

GUEST POST from Art Inteligencia

In the exhilarating rush of creation, we often celebrate innovation as an unmitigated good. We focus on the problem solved, the need met, and the market disrupted. But as a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I am here to challenge that narrow perspective. Every new product, every disruptive service, and every breakthrough technology casts a shadow — a trail of unforeseen consequences that can range from minor inconvenience to societal-level disruption. True innovation leadership is not just about solving today’s problems; it’s about anticipating the ripple effects of your solution and taking proactive steps to mitigate potential harm. The greatest innovators are not just brilliant creators; they are also responsible stewards of the future they are building.

The paradox of progress is that our focus on a single, positive outcome often blinds us to the broader systemic impact. We drop a stone in a pond, focused solely on the satisfying splash, and fail to see the ripples that wash up on distant shores. This lack of foresight is not a moral failing, but a cognitive one. Our brains are wired for a singular focus, which is excellent for solving complex problems but poor for considering the peripheral damage. To build a more resilient and ethical future, we must intentionally embed a new practice into our innovation process—one of anticipating and mitigating unintended consequences from the very beginning.

A Human-Centered Framework for Responsible Innovation

Moving beyond a naive optimism requires a new framework for innovation—one that is built on ethical foresight and systemic thinking. Here’s how you can proactively address the risks of your next big idea:

Conduct a “Worst-Case” Brainstorm: Gather your innovation team and intentionally brainstorm all the negative outcomes. What’s the worst-case scenario? Who could be harmed? How could this be misused? This exercise isn’t meant to stop the project, but to expose potential vulnerabilities and build resilience into the design.
Practice Systemic Empathy: Go beyond your direct user. Map out the entire ecosystem your innovation will enter. How will it affect competitors, adjacent industries, communities, and even the planet? The goal is to develop empathy for every stakeholder in the system, not just the one you’re designing for.
Design with a Moral Compass: Build ethical considerations into your design principles. Is your product a tool for connection or a platform for division? Is it creating value for everyone in the supply chain or just the end user? These questions should guide your decisions, not just be addressed in a post-mortem.
Build for Transparency and Control: Empower your users. Give them clear, easy-to-understand controls over their data and experience. When people feel a sense of agency, they are more likely to trust your platform and less likely to feel exploited by an unforeseen consequence.

“The best innovations are not just profitable; they are wise. They create the future without leaving a wake of unaddressed problems.”

Case Study 1: The Social Media Revolution – The Unforeseen Cost of Connection

The Intended Consequence:

In the early days, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were designed with a clear and noble purpose: to connect the world, give a voice to the voiceless, and foster a global community. The goal was to break down barriers and create a more open and connected society. This was the “splash” that captivated the world.

The Unintended Consequences:

As these platforms grew, a dark side emerged. The design choices, particularly the algorithms that prioritized engagement and virality, led to a cascade of unforeseen consequences: the proliferation of misinformation and fake news, increased social and political polarization, a rise in cyberbullying and online harassment, and a measurable negative impact on the mental health of users, particularly adolescents. These unintended consequences were not malicious; they were the direct result of a lack of ethical foresight and systemic thinking. The companies were so focused on optimizing for a single metric—user engagement—that they failed to consider the human and societal harm it would cause. The trust that was once a given for these platforms is now a major challenge.

The Lesson:

The social media story is a cautionary tale for all innovators. It teaches us that a single-minded focus on a positive outcome can create a new set of complex and damaging problems. It shows that the true measure of an innovation’s success is not just its adoption, but its long-term impact on the world. Ethical foresight is not a luxury; it is a fundamental requirement for building a responsible and sustainable technology.

Case Study 2: The E-Scooter Boom – Navigating Urban Chaos

The Intended Consequence:

When companies like Lime and Bird launched their e-scooter services, their purpose was clear and positive: to provide an efficient, fun, and eco-friendly “last-mile” transportation solution for urban commuters. The goal was to reduce traffic congestion and carbon emissions. The initial reception was enthusiastic, and the model spread rapidly across cities worldwide.

The Unintended Consequences:

The sudden influx of thousands of scooters led to a wave of unforeseen problems. They were left haphazardly on sidewalks, creating accessibility hazards for people with disabilities and a safety nightmare for pedestrians. Injuries from falls and collisions soared. Cities were unprepared to regulate the new technology, leading to public outrage and, in many cases, a swift ban of the services. The innovators were so focused on the user experience of the ride itself that they failed to consider the broader system of the urban environment they were disrupting.

The Lesson:

The e-scooter case is a powerful example of how a failure of systemic thinking can derail a promising innovation. While the companies had a good intention, they did not adequately consider the impact on the public right-of-way, city regulations, and the safety of non-users. In response, they have since had to pivot and collaborate with cities to create designated parking zones, improve safety features, and build better relationships with local governments. This case demonstrates that proactively engaging with all stakeholders—not just your target consumer—is essential to mitigate risk and ensure long-term viability.

Conclusion: The Ethical Imperative of Innovation

Innovation is humanity’s greatest engine of progress, but it is not without its risks. The most powerful innovations of the future will be those that are not only technologically brilliant but also ethically wise. As leaders and innovators, our most critical role is to move beyond the narrow focus of problem-solving and embrace a broader responsibility to the systems and people we impact.

The next time you are building something new, take a moment to look at its shadow. Ask the difficult questions. Challenge your assumptions. And remember that the most profound and lasting change is not just about what you create, but how you create it—with foresight, with empathy, and with an unwavering commitment to leaving the world better than you found it. The future depends on it.

Extra Extra: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

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The Gig Economy’s Innovation Potential

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Harnessing Independent Talent

The Gig Economy's Innovation Potential

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

For too long, the gig economy has been viewed through a narrow, transactional lens. We’ve seen it as a way to cut costs, fill temporary gaps, or manage seasonal demand. The debate has largely centered on labor laws and the future of work, overshadowing a far more critical conversation. As a human-centered change and innovation thought leader, I am here to argue that the gig economy is not just a labor model; it is a profound innovation engine. By embracing independent talent, organizations can unlock a level of creativity, specialized expertise, and strategic agility that is simply unattainable within the confines of a traditional, full-time workforce. The future of innovation is flexible, decentralized, and driven by a global network of independent thinkers.

The traditional corporate model, built on a foundation of long-term employment, is ill-equipped for the speed of modern innovation. It’s slow to hire, slow to adapt, and often suffers from institutional inertia. The gig economy shatters these limitations. It provides a direct, on-demand connection to a world of highly specialized professionals who are often at the forefront of their fields. These individuals are not just freelancers; they are experts in AI, behavioral psychology, robotics, and design, who bring an outside-in perspective free from internal politics and organizational biases. Tapping into this talent pool is no longer just a cost-saving measure; it is a strategic imperative for any company that wants to stay relevant and competitive.

The Three Pillars of Gig-Powered Innovation

Harnessing the innovation potential of the gig economy requires a strategic mindset and a shift in how we think about talent. Here are three core pillars:

Access to Niche and Adjacent Expertise: Innovation often happens at the intersection of different fields. The gig economy provides instant access to highly specialized skills that you don’t have—or don’t need full-time. This allows you to quickly prototype, experiment with emerging technologies, and solve problems that your internal teams might not have the expertise for.
Speed and Agility: The gig model allows organizations to create lean, project-based teams that can scale up or down in real-time. This enables a true “fail fast” culture, where you can test a new idea with minimal long-term risk. There’s no lengthy hiring process, no large capital investment, just the ability to assemble the right team for the right moment.
Diversity of Thought: Independent professionals often work across multiple industries and cultures. They bring a fresh perspective and a unique synthesis of ideas from different contexts. This diversity of thought is a powerful antidote to groupthink and can lead to breakthrough solutions that would never have been conceived within a single organization’s walls.

“The gig economy is not about hiring temporary labor; it’s about subscribing to a global network of specialized intelligence.”

Case Study 1: P&G’s “Connect + Develop” Model

The Challenge:

In the early 2000s, consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble faced a major innovation dilemma. Its internal R&D was efficient but insular. The company realized that many of the world’s best inventors and scientists didn’t work for them. They needed a way to tap into a broader network of external talent to accelerate their product development without massive, long-term capital investments.

The Gig-Powered Solution:

P&G launched “Connect + Develop,” a program that fundamentally embodies the principles of the gig economy at an enterprise scale. Instead of relying solely on internal scientists, the company created a system to crowdsource innovation from independent inventors, academics, and research organizations worldwide. They would post specific, well-defined problems (e.g., “Find a way to make laundry detergent work in cold water”) and offer incentives for the best solutions. This was a direct move from a closed innovation model to a flexible, gig-based one.

Access to Expertise: P&G gained access to a vast network of independent scientists and researchers, enabling them to solve problems that had stumped their internal teams for years.
Reduced Risk: The company could experiment with a wide range of ideas without the risk of hiring full-time experts in every niche field.
Speed and Agility: The model dramatically reduced the time it took to move an idea from concept to market, as they could leverage existing, proven intellectual property.

The Result:

The “Connect + Develop” program became a massive success. P&G estimates that over half of its product innovations now come from outside the company, generating billions of dollars in revenue. The model proved that an established giant could successfully leverage the principles of a gig economy to drive continuous, large-scale innovation. It fundamentally shifted their mindset from internal creation to global collaboration.

Case Study 2: Airbnb’s Early Growth through Independent Talent

The Challenge:

In its early days, Airbnb was a lean startup with a small, core team focused on a single, disruptive idea. To grow and iterate quickly, they needed a wide range of skills—from specialized coding and data analysis to design and marketing—but they lacked the capital and time to hire full-time employees for every single need. The challenge was to be agile without burning through their limited resources.

The Gig-Powered Solution:

Airbnb, like many early-stage startups, used the gig economy as a strategic resource for innovation and growth. They leveraged platforms like Upwork and specialized talent networks to access independent contractors who could work on specific, well-defined projects. For instance, they hired freelance designers to test new website layouts, independent writers to create compelling content, and data analysts to quickly crunch numbers and inform strategic decisions. This “pay-as-you-go” approach to talent was a critical enabler of their rapid iteration cycle.

Agility and Speed: The ability to quickly bring on an expert for a specific project allowed Airbnb to test ideas and pivot with incredible speed.
Cost-Effectiveness: They could access high-level talent without the long-term cost and commitment of a full-time employee, which was crucial for a cash-strapped startup.
Focus on the Core: By outsourcing non-core, specialized tasks to independent professionals, the small founding team could remain focused on the central business strategy and product vision.

The Result:

The gig economy was instrumental in Airbnb’s journey from a small startup to a global giant. By strategically using independent talent, they were able to build and scale their product rapidly, test new ideas, and prove their business model. This case study demonstrates how the gig economy is not just a solution for large corporations but is an essential tool for startups to innovate with speed and efficiency.

Conclusion: The Future is a Hybrid Workforce

The future of innovation is not a binary choice between a full-time workforce and a gig economy. It is a powerful hybrid model that combines the deep institutional knowledge and cultural foundation of a core team with the specialized skills, fresh perspectives, and agility of independent talent. This new workforce architecture allows for a level of dynamism and creative problem-solving that has been impossible in the past.

As leaders, our challenge is to move beyond old paradigms and embrace this new reality. We must learn to scope problems, manage external talent, and create a culture that values collaboration regardless of employment status. The gig economy is not just a trend; it is a fundamental shift in how we access human capital. The organizations that see it as a strategic engine for innovation will be the ones that win in the future, building a more resilient, agile, and creative enterprise for generations to come.

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Music Can Make You a More Effective Leader

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Music Can Make You a More Effective Leader

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

You don’t have to be a rock star with an album that makes millions to say, “Music changed my life.” You can be the leader of an organization, searching for a way to overcome an obstacle or challenge plaguing you—potentially for years.

The key to resolving an ongoing leadership challenge could lie in the music you’re listening to. Listening to the right music can actually shift the way you think, help you overcome obstacles and make you a better leader.

Suppose you’re feeling frustrated with your team, wondering why they’re not as motivated or engaged as you are, why they aren’t handling customers the way you would like, why you can’t fully delegate or something else. In that case, you’re probably asking, “How can I get them to change?”

But that may not be the right question. What if you asked instead, “What can I change in myself?” What if the thing you need to change is your internal environment, not your external one?

This is the tough question that The Leader’s Playlist, the book debut by Harvard lawyer turned CEO coach Susan Drumm, invites leaders to ask themselves.

I had the chance to interview Drumm for an episode of Amazing Business Radio. In the interview, she talked about game-changing ways leaders can become more effective. Specifically, she shared a powerful, practical tool for shifting unconscious perspectives and behaviors that may create a poor leadership outcome. That tool is music.

According to Drumm, music is a “brain hack for shifting ineffective leadership patterns.” From her decades of coaching top executives, including billionaire CEOs and high-profile political figures, Drumm knows that when someone is struggling as a leader, especially if they’re feeling strong emotions such as burnout, frustration, imposter syndrome, etc., it’s often because there’s an internal ‘playlist’ on repeat that is shaping how they view their circumstances—not outside pressures.

Drumm says, “This playlist of thoughts is keeping them stuck. It’s become that soft background music they may be unable to hear, but it’s there, hijacking their emotional state.”

The internal playlist is typically rooted in childhood “wounds.” Drumm highlights common “playlist titles” she encounters in the executives and leaders she coaches, including, but not limited to:

I am all alone
I am not good enough
I am trapped and confined

These subconscious messages are deeply embedded in the leader’s psyche, and it’s a challenge for most leaders to simply think or decide their way out of their playlist.

During my interview, I asked Drumm if playing music can dramatically change a mood. She quickly answered, “Yes,” so I shared a short story about a favorite song I listen to in the morning when I need a little boost to get me going. The song is Perfect Day by Hoku. It is the upbeat song that was played in the opening of ‘Legally Blonde’. The lyrics don’t match with my work ethic (Sun’s up/It’s a little after twelve/Make breakfast for myself/Leave the work for someone else), but the energy, lightheartedness and overall meaning make it a great song—at least for me.

Music can alter your mood, clear your head and change how you think over time. Drumm’s book outlines a strategy for using music to tap into your subconscious. Change the way you feel, and you shift your thought patterns. Her goal is to help leaders create a playlist that reflects the life they want to lead, understand how their current playlists came to be and learn how the power of music can unlock a leader’s true potential.

So, if you’re struggling to lead your team effectively, check for an internal playlist playing in the background, and then create a literal playlist to help rewire those beliefs. As Drumm says: your personal evolution sparks your leadership evolution!

This article originally appeared on Forbes

Image Credit: Shep Hyken

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