Category Archives: Leadership

Three Real Business Threats (and How to Solve Them)

“The Call is Coming from Inside the House”

Three Real Business Threats (and How to Solve Them)

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

“The call is coming from inside the house” is one of those classic quotes that crossed over from urban legend and horror movies to become a common pop-culture phrase. While originally a warning to teenage babysitters, recent research indicates that it’s also a warning to corporate execs that murderous business threats are closer than they think.

In the early weeks of 2025, Box of Crayons, a Toronto-based learning and development company, partnered with The Harris Poll to survey over 1500 business leaders and knowledge workers to diagnose and understand the greatest challenges facing organizations.

They found that “while there is a tendency to focus on external pressures like economic uncertainty, technological disruptions, and labor market issues, our research shows the most critical challenges are unfolding within the workplace itself.”

The threat is coming from inside your house.

Here’s what they found and what you can do about it

Nearly one (1) day each workweek “is lost to the fear of making mistakes.”

Fear is at the core of all the issues making headlines – burnout, disengagement, lost productivity. It “breeds doubt, prompting individuals to question themselves and others, instigating anxiety, hindering productivity, and promoting blame instead of teamwork.”

Fear is also a virus, spreading rapidly from one person to their team members and on and on until it infects the entire organization, embedding itself in the culture.

Executives and managers are key to breaking the cycle of fear that kills innovation, initiative, and growth. By reframing mistakes and learnings, rewarding smart risks even if they result in unexpected outcomes, and role-modeling behaviors that encourage trust and psychological safety, their daily and consistent actions can encourage bravery and remaking the culture.

70% of people don’t see value in listening to people they disagree with.

Unless you’re employed by Lumon Industries, it’s impossible to be a completely different person at work compared to who you are outside of work. So, it should come as no surprise that most people no longer listen to opinions, perspectives, or evidence with which they disagree.

The problem is that different perspectives and experiences are essential to elements of the problem-solving process. Without them, we cannot learn, develop new solutions, and innovate.

Again, executives and managers play a critical role in helping to surface diverse points of view and helping employees to engage in “productive conflict.” Rather than rushing to “consensus” or rapidly making a decision, by expressing curiosity and asking questions, people-leaders create space for new points of view and role model how to encourage and use it.

87% of leaders lack the skills needed to adapt. 64% say funding to build those skills has been cut.

Business leaders are fully aware of the changes happening within their teams, organizations, and the broader world. They recognize the need to constantly adapt, learn, and develop the skills required to respond to these changes. They can even articulate what they need help with, why, and how it will benefit the team or organization.

But leadership training is often one of the first items to be cut, leaving new and experienced people-leaders “ill-equipped to manage the increasing complexity of today’s workplace, stifling their ability to inspire, guide, and support their teams effectively.”

The solution is simple – invest in people. Given the acute need for support and training, forget big programs, multi-day offsites, and centralized learning agendas. Talk to the people asking for help to understand what they want and need and how they learn best. Share what you can do right now with the resources you have and engage them in creating a plan that helps them within the constraints of the current context.

Answer the phone

Just like that terrifying movie moment, the call threatening your business isn’t coming from mysterious outside forces—it’s echoing through your own hallways. The good news? Unlike those helpless babysitters in horror films, you can change the ending by confronting these internal threats head-on.

What internal “call” is your organization ignoring that deserves immediate attention?

Image credit: Unsplash

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Building Transformative Teams

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Building Transformative Teams

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

One of the most common questions I get asked by senior managers is “How can we find more innovative people?” I know the type they have in mind. Someone energetic and dynamic, full of ideas and able to present them powerfully. It seems like everybody these days is looking for an early version of Steve Jobs.

Yet the truth is that today’s high value work is not done by individuals, but teams. It wasn’t always this way. The journal Nature noted that until the 1920’s most scientific papers only had a single author, but by the 1950s that co-authorship became the norm and now the average paper has four times as many authors as it did back then.

To solve the kind of complex problems that it takes to drive genuine transformation, you don’t need the best people, you need the best teams. That’s why traditional job descriptions lead us astray. They tend to focus on task-driven skills rather than collaboration skills. We need to change how we evaluate, recruit, manage and train talent. Here’s what to look for:

Passion For A Problem

I once had a unit manager who wasn’t performing the way we wanted her to. She wasn’t totally awful. In fact, she was well liked by her staff, coworkers, and senior management. But she wasn’t showing anywhere near the creativity required to take the business to the next level and we decided to ease her out of her position.

Then a funny thing happened. After she left our company, she became a successful interior decorator. Her clients loved how she could transform a space with creativity and style. She also displayed many of the same qualities that made her so well liked as a manager. She was a good listener, highly collaborative, and focused on results.

So why is it that someone could be so dull and unimaginative in one context and so creative in another? The simplest answer is that she was a lot more interested in interior decorating than she was in our business. Researchers have long established that intrinsic motivation is a major component of what makes people creative.

The biggest misconception about innovation is that it’s about ideas. It’s not. It’s about solving problems. So the first step to building a transformative team is to hire people interested in the problems you are trying to solve. If someone has a true passion for your mission, work to develop the ideas you need to crack the problem.

Collaboration Skills

We often think of high performing teams being driven by a dominant, charismatic leader, but research shows just the opposite. In one wide ranging study, scientists at MIT and Carnegie Mellon found that high performing teams are made up of people who have high social sensitivity, take turns when speaking and include women in the group.

Harvard professor Amy Edmondson has researched the workplace for decades and has found that psychological safety, or the ability of each team member to be able to give voice to their ideas without fear of reprisal or rebuke, is crucial for high performing, innovative teams. Google found much the same thing when it studied what makes great teams tick.

Stanford professor Robert Sutton also summarized wide ranging research for his 2007 book, The No Asshole Rule, which showed that even one disruptive member can poison a work environment, decrease productivity and drive valuable employees to leave the company. So even if someone is a great individual performer, it’s better to get rid of nasty people than allow them to sabotage the effectiveness of an entire team.

The most transformative teams are the ones that collaborate well. Unfortunately, it’s much easier to evaluate individual performance than teamwork. So lazy managers tend to reward people who are good at taking credit rather than those who actively listen and provide crucial support to those around them.

High Quality Interaction

There is increasing evidence that how teams interact is crucial for how they perform. A study done for the CIA performed after 9/11 to determine what attributes made for the most effective analyst teams found that what made teams successful was not the attributes of their members, or even the coaching they got from their leaders, but the interactions within the team itself.

More specifically, they found that teams that work interdependently tend to perform much better than when tasks are doled out individually and carried out in parallel. Another study found that teams that interacted more on a face-to-face basis, rather than remotely, tended to build higher levels of trust and produced more creative work.

While the quality of remote working tools, including teleconferencing apps like Zoom and collaboration tools like Mural and Miro, have greatly improved in recent years, we still need to take the time to build authentic relationships with those we work with. That can include regular in-person team meetups for remote teams or even intermittent relationship building calls unrelated to current projects.

What’s crucial to understand and internalize is that the value of a team is not just the sum of each individual contribution, but what happens when ideas bounce against each other. That’s what allows concepts to evolve and grow into something completely new and different. Innovation, more than anything else, is combination.

Talent Isn’t Something You Hire, It’s Something You Build

The truth is that there is no effective answer for the question, “how do we find innovative people?” Talent isn’t something you hire or win in a war, it’s something you empower. It depends less on the innate skills of individuals than how people are supported and led. As workplace expert David Burkus puts it, “talent doesn’t make the team. The team makes the talent.”

All too often, leaders take a transactional view and try to manage by incentives. They believe that if they contrive the right combination of carrots and sticks, they can engineer creativity and performance. Yet the world doesn’t work that way. We can’t simply treat people as means to an end and expect them to achieve at a high level. We have to treat them as ends in themselves.

Effective leaders provide their teams with a sense of shared purpose and common mission. They provide an environment of psychological safety not because of some misplaced sense of altruism, but to enable honest and candid collaboration. They cultivate a culture of connection that leads to genuine relationships among colleagues.

What’s crucial for leaders to understand is that the problems we need to solve now are far too complex for us to rely on individual accomplishments. The high value work today is done by teams and that is what we need to focus on. It’s no longer enough for leaders to simply plan and direct action. We need to inspire and empower belief.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credits: Pexels

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Change Behavior to Change Culture

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Change Behavior to Change Culture

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

There’s always lots of talk about culture and how to change it. There is culture dial to turn or culture level to pull. Culture isn’t a thing in itself, it’s a sentiment that’s generated by behavioral themes. Culture is what we use to describe our worn paths of behavior. If you want to change culture, change behavior.

At the highest level, you can make the biggest cultural change when you change how you spend your resources. Want to change culture? Say yes to projects that are different than last year’s and say no to the ones that rehash old themes. And to provide guidance on how to choose those new projects create, formalize new ways you want to deliver new value to new customers. When you change the criteria people use to choose projects you change the projects. And when you change the projects people’s behaviors change. And when behavior changes, culture changes.

The other important class of resources is people. When you change who runs the project, they change what work is done. And when they prioritize a different task, they prioritize different behavior of the teams. They ask for new work and get new behavior. And when those project leaders get to choose new people to do the work, they choose in a way that changes how the work is done. New project leaders change the high-level behaviors of the project and the people doing the work change the day-to-day behavior within the projects.

Change how projects are chosen and culture changes. Change who runs the projects and culture changes. Change who does the project work and culture changes.

Image credits: 1 of 850+ FREE quote slides available for download at http://misterinnovation.com

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Re-Framing Your Strategy for the Chaos of 2025

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Re-Framing Your Strategy for the Chaos of 2025

GUEST POST from Geoffrey A. Moore

Spring is in the air, which brings to mind the season’s favorite sport — no, not baseball, strategic planning! Let’s face it, 2025 has been a tough year for most of us (and it’s still early days), with few annual plans surviving first contact with an economy that was not so much sluggish as simply hesitant. With the exception of generative AI’s growing impact, most technology sectors have been more or less trudging along, and that begs the question, what do we think we can do with the rest of 2025? Time to bring out the strategy frameworks, polish up those crystal balls that have been a bit murky of late, and chart our course forward.

This post will kick off a series of blogs about framing strategy, all organized around a meta-model we call the Hierarchy of Powers:

The inspiration for this model came from looking at how investors prioritize their portfolios. The first thing they do is allocate by sector, based primarily on category power, referring both to the growth rate of the category as well as its potential size. Rising tides float all boats, and one of the toughest challenges in business is how to manage a premier franchise when category growth is negative. In conjunction with assessing our current portfolio’s category power, this is also a time to look at adjacent categories, whether as threats or as opportunities, to see if there are any transformative acquisitions that deserve our immediate attention.

Returning to our current set of assets, within each category the next question to answer is, what is our company power within that category? This is largely a factor of market share. The more share a company has of a given category, the more likely the ecosystem of partners that supports the category will focus first on that company’s installed base, adding more value to its offers, as well as to recommend that company’s products first, again because of the added leverage from partner engagement. Marketplaces, in other words, self-organize around category leaders, accelerating the sales and offloading the support costs of the market share leaders.

But what do you do when you don’t have company power? That’s when you turn your attention to market power. Marketplaces destabilize around problematic use cases that the incumbent vendors do not handle well. This creates openings for new entrants, provided they can authentically address the customer’s problems. The key is to focus product management on the whole product (not just what your enterprise supplies, but rather, everything the customer needs to be successful) and to focus your go-to-market engine on the target market segment. This is the playbook that has kept Crossing the Chasm on entrepreneur’s book lists some thirty years in, but it is a different matter to execute it in a large enterprise where sales and marketing are organized for global coverage, not rifle-shot initiatives. Nonetheless, when properly executed, it is the most reliable play in all of high-tech market development.

If market power is key to taking market share, offer power is key to maintaining it, both in high-growth categories as well as mature ones. Offer power is a function of three disciplines—differentiation to create customer preference, neutralization to catch up to and reduce a competitor’s differentiation, and optimization to eliminate non-value-adding costs. Anything that does not contribute materially to one of these three outcomes is waste.

Finally, execution power is the ability to take advantage of one’s inertial momentum rather than having it take advantage of you. Here the discipline of zone management has proved particularly valuable to enterprises who are seeking to balance investment in their existing lines of business, typically in mature categories, with forays into new categories that promise higher growth.

In upcoming blog posts I am going to dive deeper into each of the five powers outlined above to share specific frameworks that clarify what decisions need to be made during the strategic planning process and what principles can best guide them. In the meantime, there are still three more quarters in 2025 to make, and we all must do our best to make the most of it.

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

Image Credit: Pexels, Geoffrey Moore

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Three Practical Keys to Managing Uncertainty

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Three Practical Keys to Managing Uncertainty

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

“A Few Good Men” is one of my favorite movies. As much as I love Jack Nicholson’s classic line, “You can’t handle the truth!” lately, I’ve been thinking more about a line delivered by Lt. Daniel Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise – “And the hits just keep on comin’.”

But, just like Lt. Kaffee had to make peace with Lt. Cdr JoAnne Galloway joining his Cuba trip, we must make peace with uncertainty and find the guts to move forward.

This is much easier said than done, but these three steps make it possible. Even profitable.

Where We Begin

Imagine you’re the CEO of Midwest Precision Components (MPW), a $75 million manufacturer of specialized valves and fittings. Forty percent of your components come from suppliers now subject to new tariffs, which, if they stay in effect, threaten an increase of 15% in material costs. This increase would devastate your margins and could require you to reduce staff.

Your competitors are scrambling to replace foreign suppliers with domestic ones. But you know that such rapid changes are also risky since higher domestic prices eat into your margins (though hopefully less than 15%), and insufficient time to quality test new parts could lead to product issues and lost customers. And all this activity assumes that the tariffs stay in place and aren’t suddenly paused or withdrawn.

Three Steps Forward

Entering the boardroom, you notice that the CFO looks more nervous than usual, and your head of Supply Chain is fighting a losing battle with a giant stack of catalogs. Taking a deep breath, you resolve to be creative, not reactive (same letters, different outcomes), and get to work.

Step 1: Start with the goal and work backward. The goal isn’t changing suppliers to reduce tariff impact. It’s maintaining profit margins without reducing headcount or product quality. With your CFO, you whiteboard a Reverse Income Statement, a tool that starts with required (not desired) profits to calculate necessary revenues and allowable costs. After running several scenarios, you land on believable assumptions that result in no more than a 4% increase in costs.

Step 2: Identify and prioritize assumptions. With the financial assumptions identified, you ask the leadership team to list everything that must be true to deliver the financial assumptions, their confidence that each of their assumptions is true, and the impact on the business and its bottom line if the assumption is wrong.

Knowing that your head of Sales is an unrelenting optimist and your Supply Chain head is mired in a world of doom and gloom, you set a standard scale: High confidence means betting your annual salary, medium is a team dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant, and low is a cup of coffee. High impact puts the company out of business, medium requires major shifts, and low means extra work but nothing crazy.

Step 3: Attack the deal killers. Going around the room, each person lists their “Deal Killers,” the Low Confidence – High Impact assumptions that pose the highest risk to the business. After some discussion to determine the primary assumptions at the beginning of causal chains, you select two for immediate action: (1) Alternative domestic suppliers can be found for the two highest-cost components, and (2) Current manufacturing processes can be quickly adapted to accommodate parts from new suppliers.

A Plan. A Timeline. A Sense of Calm.

With this new narrowed focus, your team sets a shared goal of resolving these two assumptions within 30 days. Together, they set clear weekly deliverables and reallocate time and people to help meet deadlines.

A sense of calm settles on the team. Not because they have everything figured out, but because they know exactly what the most important things to be done are, that those things are doable, and they are working together to do them.

How could you use these three steps to help you move forward through uncertainty?

Image credit: Pixabay

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Managing Team Conflict

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Managing Team Conflict

GUEST POST from David Burkus

Conflict within a team is an inevitable part of any work environment. The diverse perspectives, ideas, and solutions that team members bring to the table can often lead to disagreements and conflicts. However, it’s important to remember that team conflict isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be beneficial in many ways. It can help identify blind spots, explore different solutions, and find innovative ways to deliver on objectives. The key lies in managing these conflicts effectively.

Effective conflict management can lead to a more engaged team, improved performance, and overall growth. In this article, we will outline how to manage team conflict. We will delve into five key tactics: finding the root cause of the conflict, defining acceptable criteria, questioning assumptions, examining the impact of each solution, and switching perspectives to understand opposing viewpoints.

1. Find the Root Cause

Team Conflicts often arise from differing ideas about the best solution to a problem. Therefore, the first step in managing team conflict is to examine the problem and agree on its root cause. This involves finding common ground around how the team found itself in the current situation. It’s crucial to understand that before discussing solutions, the team must agree on what the problem is.

There are several techniques that can be used to analyze the root cause of a conflict. These include fishbone diagrams or the five whys method. These techniques can help the team to dig deeper into the problem and identify the underlying cause. Once the root cause is identified, it becomes easier to address the conflict and find a solution.

2. Define Acceptable Criteria

Once the root cause of team conflict has been identified, the next step is to set criteria for success before discussing solutions. This involves agreeing on the criteria that will define a successful solution. It’s important to discuss constraints such as time, cost, and responsibility. These factors often play a significant role in determining the feasibility of a solution.

It’s worth noting that disagreements about criteria can lead to conflict. Therefore, it’s important to define these upfront. By setting clear criteria, the team can ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the proposed solutions align with the agreed-upon success criteria.

3. Question Assumptions

Another important tactic in managing team conflict is to question assumptions. This involves gaining a deeper understanding and finding common ground by questioning assumptions about the world, individual capacities, and team capabilities. It’s crucial to avoid criticizing or dismissing ideas outright. Instead, ask for thoughts on specific aspects and encourage open discussion.

By questioning assumptions, people may rethink their solutions or discover flaws in their own thinking. This can lead to more innovative solutions and a better understanding of the problem at hand. It also fosters a culture of open communication and mutual respect within the team.

4. Examine the Impact

When considering potential solutions to a team conflict, it’s important to examine the impact of each solution. This involves exploring the potential consequences and trade-offs of implementing a particular solution. Consider the impact on other divisions, clients, society, and the media. Recognizing that every solution has trade-offs and unintended consequences is a crucial part of the decision-making process.

Examining the impact helps people realize the potential flaws or benefits of their ideas. It also encourages team members to think critically about their proposed solutions and consider the bigger picture. This can lead to more informed decision-making and better conflict resolution.

5. Switch Perspectives

The final tactic in managing team conflict is to switch perspectives. This involves considering opposing viewpoints and championing different ideas. Encourage team members to take on the perspective of others and understand their reasoning. This can help to gain empathy and find common ground.

By considering different viewpoints, a more suitable solution may be found, or a more productive conversation can take place. This not only helps in resolving the current conflict but also fosters a culture of empathy and understanding within the team, which can prevent future conflicts.

Managing conflict effectively is crucial for the growth and success of a team. It helps teams to grow, improve performance, and create a more engaging work experience. Managed well, conflict is what helps every member of the team do their best work ever.

Image credit: Pixabay

Originally published on DavidBurkus.com on January 6, 2024

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Transforming Leadership to Reshape the Future of Innovation

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Exclusive Interview with Brian Solis

Effective leadership serves as the crucial catalyst for both successful innovation and the profound transformation of any collective entity, be it an organization, a team, or even a country. Leaders are responsible for setting a compelling vision, articulating the ‘why’ behind the need for change, and fostering a culture where calculated risk-taking, experimentation, and learning from failure are not just tolerated, but actively encouraged. By championing new ideas, allocating resources strategically, empowering individuals, and navigating the inherent uncertainties of uncharted territory, leaders create the necessary environment for groundbreaking concepts to emerge and take root. Ultimately, it is the foresight, resilience, and guidance of strong leadership that enables groups to move beyond the status quo, adapt to evolving landscapes, and consciously shape a more innovative and prosperous future.

Today we will start with Gemini’s summarization of the global innovation community’s shared understanding surrounding the intersection of innovation, leadership, and the future above and dive deep into what it takes to make a leadership mindshift with our special guest.

Helping Leaders Make the Mindshift the Future Requires

I recently had the opportunity to interview Brian Solis, a world-renowned futurist, keynote speaker, and author of over 60 industry-leading research publications and 8 best-selling books exploring disruptive trends, corporate innovation, business transformation, and consumer behavior. Forbes has called him “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time” and The Conference Board described Brian as “the futurist we all need now.”

Brian serves as the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow where he leads vision, strategy, and program innovation for the company’s global Innovation Centers. Brian also studies disruptive technologies, emergent trends, and market shifts to advise business executives on innovation and transformation strategies.

Brian continues to publish business and technology thought leadership in industry publications such as CIO, Forbes, and Worth, and has consistently been recognized as one of the world’s leading thinkers in innovation, business transformation, and leadership for over two decades. .

Below is the text of my interview with Brian and a preview of the kinds of insights you’ll find in Mindshift: Transform Leadership, Drive Innovation, and Reshape the Future presented in a Q&A format:

1. Let’s set the stage. Why is someone’s mindset so important and what is a mindshift?

Your mindset is the operating system for how you experience and interact with the world. It influences how you perceive reality, react to change, and ultimately determine the role you play in shaping the future.

A mindshift isn’t just a minor adjustment — it’s a fundamental rewiring of how we see, think, and operate. It’s the moment when you realize you don’t have to accept the status quo and instead begin to create new possibilities.

We’re living in an era where exponential change is the new normal. AI, automation, digital transformation — these aren’t just trends; they’re fundamentally reshaping industries and societies. Those who cling to legacy thinking will struggle. Those who embrace a mindshift — who become adaptable, curious, and proactive — will thrive.

A mindshift is about moving from passive observer to active architect of the future. Unlearn old patterns, embrace new perspectives, and take intentional action to drive meaningful change. It’s a choice. It’s a responsibility. And, ultimately, it’s a competitive advantage.

2. Why is it so easy for leaders to downplay potential disruptions?

Leaders often don’t see disruption coming—not because they’re unaware, but because they’re focused on optimizing the present. This comes at the cost designing the future. I call this the “other ROI,” which signifies return on ignorance. Ask, “what happens if I’m not asking different questions?” or “what’s the cost of not investing in alternate futures?” Many companies and executives operate in a legacy mindset, where efficiency, risk avoidance, and short-term gains take priority.

This creates a dangerous blind spot. Disruption doesn’t announce itself with a press release. It starts small, at the edges — emerging consumer behaviors, shifts in expectations, technological advancements that seem niche or “not our problem.” By the time these trends become impossible to ignore, it’s often too late.

Kodak is a classic example. They invented the digital camera but failed to embrace it because they were too invested in their film business. Taxi companies dismissed Uber as a niche alternative until it completely redefined the transportation industry. Blockbuster dismissed streaming early on, etc.

The irony? The very disruption leaders fear is also their biggest opportunity. Those who develop a mindshift — who cultivate foresight, agility, and a culture of continuous learning—don’t just react to disruption. They create it.

3. Classic question: Are leaders born or made, and why or how?

Leaders are made. Leadership is not a title, and it’s not something you inherit. It’s a mindset. It’s a set of behaviors and choices that anyone — at any level — can develop.

Yes, some people are naturally more charismatic or decisive or confident or vocal, but leadership isn’t about personality traits. It’s about genuine vision, courage, empathy, and the ability to inspire action.

The best leaders are not limited to those who have climbed the corporate ladder. They’re the ones who create ladders for others. They lift others up. They see problems others ignore, challenge assumptions, and take action when no one else will.

If leadership were purely an inborn trait, we wouldn’t see individuals from unexpected backgrounds rise to the occasion. Look at someone like Satya Nadella, who transformed Microsoft not just by making smart business moves, but by shifting its culture from one of competition to one of collaboration and innovation. Or look at the CEO of ServiceNow, Bill McDermott, who bought a deli at 16 and then sold Xeros copiers door-to-door after college.

The good news? Leadership is a skill. And like any skill, it can be developed — through self-awareness, learning, resilience, and a commitment to constant growth.

4. What are some of the best ways for people to become more self-aware?

Self-awareness is the foundation of a mindshift. Without it, we’re running on autopilot, reinforcing the very patterns that hold us back, but thinking we’re growing.

The first step is intentional reflection. Most of us operate in a reactive state, responding to emails, putting out fires, and navigating daily demands without ever stopping to ask: Why do I think this way? Why do I act this way? What assumptions am I carrying?

Here are some practical ways to build self-awareness:

Journaling – Write down your thoughts, decisions, and reactions. Over time, patterns emerge.
Feedback loops – Actively seek input from mentors, colleagues, and even those who challenge you.
Mindfulness practices – Simply taking a few moments to observe your thoughts rather than react to them can be transformative.
Personality and strengths assessments – Tools like StrengthsFinder or the Enneagram can provide valuable insights into your natural tendencies.
Board of Directors – Change who your surround yourself with. Without realizing, we often keep the company of those who keep us right where we are.
The “Why?” method – When you make a decision or hold a strong opinion, ask “Why?” five times. You might be surprised at the subconscious beliefs driving your actions.

5. What makes it hard for people to be optimistic? Or for some, to avoid being too optimistic?

Optimism is a powerful force — but it has to be grounded in reality.

Many people struggle with optimism because they’re conditioned to focus on risks and worst-case scenarios. We live in a world where negativity is amplified — headlines focus on crises, social media fuels outrage, and many corporate cultures reward problem-spotting over possibility-seeking.

On the other hand, unchecked optimism can be dangerous. If we ignore reality, we risk falling into wishful thinking, assuming everything will work out without taking the necessary action to make it work out.

The key is pragmatic optimism — the ability to see opportunities while also acknowledging challenges. It’s the belief that the future can be better, but only if we take responsibility for shaping it.

6. Most of our audience is aware of the Fixed vs. Growth Mindset concept, but are there key aspects of this concept that tend to be overlooked or underestimated?

Yes — many people misunderstand how to actually develop a growth mindset.

It’s easy to say, “I believe I can grow,” but without action, nothing changes.

Talking about taking action is not taking action. Thinking and dreaming about it, reading about it, learning from others who do it, planning for it, none of this is taking action.

The real key is deliberate discomfort. Growth doesn’t happen in our comfort zones—it happens when we actively seek out challenges that stretch us. You have to start with disrupting yourself.

Another overlooked aspect is environment. You can’t sustain a growth mindset if you’re surrounded by people who reinforce fixed thinking. Leaders must cultivate environments where learning, experimentation, and even failure are embraced.

A growth mindset isn’t just about believing in potential — it’s about practicing resilience, adaptability, and curiosity every single day.

7. What is the role of transcendence in achieving mindshift or the relationship between them?

I tell the story about transcendence and Maslov in the book. If you’re reading this now, I hope you read the book!

Transcendence is about breaking free from the mental constraints of the past. It’s about seeing beyond immediate challenges and into what’s possible.

A mindshift happens when we transcend our habitual ways of thinking, seeing, and being. It requires stepping outside our ego, our fears, and our assumptions to view the world—and our role in it — through a fresh lens.

Great leaders transcend the present to create the future. They don’t just accept reality; they challenge and redefine it. They become it.

8. What is the relationship or overlap between futurology and mindset shifting?

Futurology isn’t about predicting the future—it’s about anticipating and preparing for it. A mindshift allows us to anticipate and shape what’s coming, rather than react to it.

A future-ready mindset means continuously questioning assumptions, scanning for emerging trends, and developing the agility to pivot before disruption forces our hand.

9. What role does storytelling play in a mindset shift for an organization instead of an individual?

Storytelling is communication and can drive cultural transformation.

Organizations shift their collective mindset when leaders craft compelling narratives that connect people to a shared vision of the future.

The most successful change initiatives are fueled by stories that inspire belief, belonging, and action.

10. From your experience, what are some of the best ways to test your story before you start to tell it?

A great story isn’t told — it’s experienced. Before launching a new narrative, whether for an organization, a product, or a movement, it’s essential to validate it in the real world. Here’s how:

Start Small, Iterate Fast – Share your story with a small, trusted audience first—mentors, team members, or even a focus group. Observe their reactions. Are they engaged? Do they lean in? Do they see themselves in the story?
The Emotional Test – A great story moves people. If it doesn’t spark curiosity, excitement, or even tension, it might need refinement. If people just nod politely, go deeper—make it more personal, more relatable, or more urgent.
Reverse Engineer It – What reaction do you want? Is your story designed to drive action? To challenge assumptions? To inspire change? If it doesn’t achieve its intended purpose, revisit the framing.
Test Across Channels – Does your story hold up in a conversation? A blog post? A social media post? A keynote? A strong narrative should be adaptable yet consistent across different mediums.
Listen for the Retell Factor – The best stories get repeated. If people remember and share your message in their own words, you’ve got something powerful. If they struggle to summarize it, it might need simplification or more emotional depth.

A story goes beyond what you say—it’s what people hear, feel, and share. Make sure it resonates before you take it to a bigger stage.

11. What’s the biggest barrier to a mindshift, and how can people overcome it?

The biggest barrier? Fear of letting go.

People often cling to outdated beliefs, behaviors, and ways of working—not because they’re effective, but because they’re comfortable. Even when the evidence is clear that change is needed, there’s a psychological safety in the familiar.

Overcoming this requires intentional unlearning. The best way to do this?

Expose yourself to new ideas and perspectives – Read outside your industry. Talk to people with different viewpoints. Travel, even if it’s just to a different part of your city. Disruption often starts with who you surround yourself with.
Challenge your own beliefs – Ask yourself: What do I assume to be true that might not be? What if the opposite were true? This exercise alone can unlock powerful insights.
Get uncomfortable, on purpose – Growth doesn’t happen in the comfort zone. Seek experiences that stretch you—whether that’s public speaking, launching a bold new initiative, or simply saying “yes” to something that scares you.
Redefine failure – Failure isn’t the opposite of success; it’s part of the process. A mindshift happens when you stop fearing failure and start learning from it.
Surround yourself with catalysts – The people around you either reinforce old thinking or help you level up. Seek out those who challenge you, inspire you, and push you to see things differently.

A mindshift doesn’t happen to you. It happens because of you. And the more intentional you are about rewiring your thinking, the more unstoppable you become.

12. What’s one thing every leader should do today to future-proof themselves?

Start with reading Mindshift! 😉

Leaders today need vision.But they also need foresight. The world is shifting too fast for traditional leadership approaches to keep up.

So here’s a challenge: Block out 30 minutes every week to explore the future.

Study emerging trends (AI, automation, shifting workforce dynamics).
Read about what’s happening outside your industry.
Watch how Gen Z and Gen Alpha are interacting with technology.
Ask, “What does this mean for me? My industry? My team?”

The leaders who thrive in the future are the ones who anticipate it today. The best way to be ready for what’s next is to start thinking like the future, right now.

Conclusion

Thank you for the great conversation Brian!

I hope everyone has enjoyed this peek into the mind of the man behind the insightful new title Mindshift: Transform Leadership, Drive Innovation, and Reshape the Future!

Image credits: Brian Solis

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From Dinosaur to Disruptor in Three Quotes

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From Dinosaur to Disruptor in Three Quotes

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

If you’re leading a legacy business through uncertainty, pay attention. When The Cut asked, “Can Simon & Schuster Become the A24 of Books?” I expected puff-piece PR. What I read was a quiet masterclass in business transformation—delivered in three deceptively casual quotes from Sean Manning, Simon & Schuster’s new CEO. He’s trying to transform a dinosaur into a disruptor and lays out a leadership playbook worth stealing.

Seventy-four percent of corporate transformations fail, according to BCG. So why should we believe this one might be different? Because every now and then, someone in a legacy industry goes beyond memorable soundbites and actually makes moves. Manning’s early actions—and the thinking behind them—hint that this is a transformation worth paying attention to.

“A lot of what the publishing industry does is just speaking to the converted.”

When Manning says this, he’s not just throwing shade—he’s naming a common and systemic failure. While publishing execs bemoan declining readership, they keep targeting the same demographic that’s been buying hardcovers for decades.

Sound familiar?

Every legacy industry does this. It’s easier—and more immediately profitable—to sell to those who already believe. The ROI is better. The risk is lower. And that’s precisely how disruption takes root.

As Clayton Christensen warned in The Innovator’s Dilemma, established players obsess over their best customers and ignore emerging ones—until it’s too late. They fear that reaching the unconverted dilutes focus or stretches resources. But that thinking is wrong. Even in a world of finite resources, you can’t afford to pick one or the other. Transformation, heck, even survival, requires both.

“We’re essentially an entertainment company with books at the center.”

Be still my heart. A CEO who defines his company by the Job(to be Done) it performs in people’s lives? Swoon.

This is another key to avoiding disruption – don’t define yourself by your product or industry. Define yourself by the value you create for customers.

Executives love repeating that “railroads went out of business because they thought their business was railroads.” But ask those same executives what business they’re in, and they’ll immediately box themselves into a list of products or industry classifications or some vague platitude about being in the “people business” that gets conveniently shelved when business gets bumpy.

When you define yourself by the Job you do for your customers, you quickly discover more growth opportunities you could pursue. New channels. New products. New partnerships. You’re out of the box —and ready to grow.

“The worry is that we can’t afford to fail. But if we don’t try to do something, we’re really screwed.”

It’s easy to calculate the cost of trying and failing. You have the literal receipts. It’s nearly impossible to calculate the cost of not trying. That’s why large organizations sit on the sidelines and let startups take the risks.

But there IS a cost to waiting. You see it in the market share lost to new entrants and the skyrocketing valuations of successful startups. The problem? That information comes too late to do anything about it.

Transformation isn’t just about ideas. It’s about choosing action over analysis. Or, as Manning put it, “Let’s try this and see what happens.”

Walking the Talk

Quotable leadership is cute. Transformation leadership is concrete. Manning’s doing more than talking—he’s breaking industry norms.

Less than six months into his tenure as CEO, he announced that Simon & Schuster would no longer require blurbs—those back-of-jacket endorsements that favor the well-connected. He greenlit a web series, Bookstore Blitz, and showed up at tapings. And he’s reframing what publishing can be, not just what it’s always been.

The journey from dinosaur to disruptor is long, messy, and uncertain. But less than a year into the job, Manning is walking in the right direction.

Are you?

Image credit: Pexels

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How to Leverage Haters to Your Advantage

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How to Leverage Haters to Your Advantage

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

What can be hardest about change, especially when we feel passionately about it, is that at some point, we need to accept that others will not embrace it. Not every change is for everybody. Some will have to pursue a different journey, one to which they can devote their own passions and seek out their own truths.

Yet there’s something about human nature that makes us want to convince those who vehemently oppose our idea. That’s almost always a mistake. Often, the reason for their opposition has less to do with any rational argument than their identity and sense of self. For whatever reason, it offends their dignity.

Still, we can learn to love our haters, because they can often help us find the way forward. All too often, we end up preaching to the choir instead of venturing out of the church and mixing with the heathens. That’s how change efforts fail. On the other hand, if we can learn to use their tactics and rhetoric to our own advantage, we have a powerful weapon for change.

“Separate But Equal” as a Force for Justice

In 1896, the Supreme Court case of Plessy vs. Ferguson codified the doctrine of separate but equal into constitutional law, which allowed states to discriminate against black Americans. Many saw it as fundamentally unjust and argued passionately against it. But a brilliant lawyer named Charles Hamilton Houston saw it as an opportunity to use his opponent’s evil idea for good.

The principle of “separate but equal” was designed to prevent blacks from benefiting from common resources, such as a water fountain or a grade school. However, when applied to rare resources, such as a graduate school, its logic began to unravel. When a man named Lloyd Gaines was refused admission to the University of Missouri law school because he was black, Houston brought suit.

But he didn’t argue against “separate but equal.” In fact, he argued for it. Clearly if the State of Missouri was going to refuse Gaines admission, there had to be a separate but equal facility. Yet there was only one law school in the state and it would be out of the question for the state to build an entire law school just to satisfy the doctrine. The Supreme Court ruled in Gaines’ favor and he was admitted to the program.

Houston would continue to argue similar cases along with his protege, Thurgood Marshall, and began taking down Jim Crow brick by brick. Unfortunately, he would die of a heart attack in 1950, before Brown vs. The Board of Education would strike down the doctrine of “separate but equal” in 1954, but his legacy lives on through Howard University Law School, which he helped build and shape.

Using Arrests To Bring Down A Regime

One of the primary tools a repressive regime has to intimidate its citizens is arrests. Getting arrested being treated like a common criminal is scary and degrading. You are made to feel alone and helpless. Yet the Serbian movement Otpor was able to figure out how to turn arrests to their advantage so that they furthered, rather than weakened their cause.

The first step was preparation. The protesters were trained so that they knew what to expect during arrests and how to respond. One key procedure was to always have “reserve” activists at every action to observe what took place. If the police arrived and began taking the comrades away, they would alert teammates who would set a plan in motion.

Phone calls would immediately go out to lawyers, friendly journalists and international NGOs as well as musicians, actors and other celebrities. While the lawyers met with the police, a protest would be organized outside the precinct, including music, games and “Mothers of Otpor” who would demand to know why the police were abusing their children.

After the fall of the Milošević regime, internal documents made it clear how frustrated the police became with all of this. The protests outside the police stations, along with the media spotlight they created, would tie their precinct up for hours. Any brutality on their part would be publicized, undermining their authority further. Often, Otpor would get more and better publicity from the arrests than from the initial protests.

This is what my friend Srdja Popović calls a dilemma action because it puts your opponent in a bind. The police had two choices, they could either stop arresting Otpor activists or continue to arrest them, but either way Otpor would grow stronger.

Betting On The Muscle Of Electric Cars

Environmentalists make the case that the long-term dangers of pollution and climate change far exceed the costs of the short-term sacrifices required. They advise us to turn down the thermostat and wear a sweater in winter, check the air in our tires and buy small cars. Clearly, these are not insurmountable challenges with the fate of the planet in the balance.

Yet the truth is that people don’t like to be inconvenienced, especially when it comes to their cars. Americans in particular have always had a love affair with big, fast muscle cars. Sure, a Prius will get you from point “A” to point “B”, but you can’t feel POWERFUL. It’s like going to a steakhouse and only eating the vegetables.

That’s why the first electric vehicle Tesla came out with in 2008, the Roadster, was anything but “responsible. It was a $100,000 status symbol for Silicon Valley millionaires. Because these customers could afford multiple cars, range wasn’t as much of a concern, but in any case the high price tag made a larger battery more feasible.

Compare that to Shai Agassi and the strategy for his electric car company, Better Place, which was a much more expansive vision. Instead of building a high-performance sports car, he built a family car for the masses and sought to overcome the challenges of range through a network of battery switching stations. It blew through $700 million before it went bust.

Musk understood a car is far more than a mode of transportation. It is a part of people’s identity. You can ask people to change just about anything, except to stop being who they think they are.

Your Targets Determine Your Tactics

When we feel passionately about change, we want to take action. We want to take to the streets, argue against injustice. We want to make decisions, launch a business, get things done. Activity gives us something to point to. It’s something rather than nothing. When we take action we can tell ourselves that we’re not just sitting idly by.

Yet actions without a sound strategy are doomed to fail. That’s why we need to learn to love our haters. If we listen to them they will show us how to win. Charles Hamilton Houston could have railed against the doctrine of “separate but equal,” but he leveraged it to take down Jim Crow instead. Otpor used the Milošević regime’s own repressive tactics to their advantage. Elon Musk didn’t ask Tesla’s customers to sacrifice, but satisfied their desire for high-performance cars.

In each case, redefining the target made all the difference. “Separate but equal” was designed for grade schools, but its significance changed completely when applied to graduate programs. A cop on the beat is almost all-powerful, but vulnerable at a precinct. The Tesla Roadster wasn’t designed for regular families to use every day, but for millionaires to zip around in on the weekends.

To change the world, we need to learn to see it differently. We can’t just fight the same losing battles. We need to redefine the terms of our struggle in ways that tilt the playing field to our advantage. In the final analysis, that’s what makes the difference between people who want to make a point and those who actually make a difference.

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

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An Organizational, Leadership and Team Dynamics Perspective on Innovation Trends

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An Organizational, Leadership and Team Dynamics Perspective on Innovation Trends

GUEST POST from Stefan Lindegaard

I recently worked with a European client to map their innovation challenges and opportunities, particularly focusing on how they align with global trends in leadership and team dynamics.

As businesses face increasingly complex challenges, innovation – especially in how teams are structured and how leaders respond to change – has become a critical differentiator for long-term success.

Below are some key trends that we are exploring further in this context. We plan to narrow these down to 4-6. Which ones do you think are the most important to keep in mind? And why?

1. Leadership Agility and Adaptive Decision-Making

Leaders today must navigate complex, fast-moving environments. One key innovation trend in leadership is the ability to shift between strategic, operational, and entrepreneurial mindsets. This agility allows leaders to respond to uncertainty while driving innovation forward, particularly in ambiguous or volatile conditions. Adaptive leadership enables organizations to experiment with new ideas while managing operational excellence.

2. Innovation as a Team-Driven Process

The top-down approach to innovation is giving way to more team-driven processes. Leaders are increasingly leveraging cross-functional teams that work in agile frameworks to co-create solutions. This decentralization not only improves innovation speed but also empowers teams by giving them ownership over the innovation process. Teams are no longer just executing on leadership directives; they are actively shaping organizational innovation strategies.

3. Purpose-Driven Leadership and Team Motivation

In the context of innovation, aligning leadership and team efforts with a larger organizational purpose is proving to be a powerful motivator. Purpose-driven leadership focuses on innovation that not only drives profitability but also addresses broader societal and environmental challenges. Teams motivated by a sense of purpose are more engaged and creative, which fosters a culture of continuous innovation.

4. Remote and Hybrid Collaboration for Innovation

With the rise of hybrid work models, teams are innovating how they collaborate remotely. Leadership needs to ensure that innovation thrives in distributed teams by adopting digital collaboration tools, fostering a culture of open communication, and using technology to bridge physical distances. Effective remote collaboration also involves maintaining team cohesion and ensuring that all voices are heard, regardless of location.

5. Building a Culture of Psychological Safety

For innovation to thrive, leaders must cultivate an environment where team members feel safe to take risks and share unconventional ideas. Psychological safety is essential for fostering creativity within teams, especially when it comes to innovation. Leaders who encourage experimentation and tolerate failure as part of the innovation process tend to build more resilient and dynamic teams.

6. Data-Driven Leadership and Innovation

Leaders and teams are increasingly leveraging data to drive innovation decisions. Data analytics and AI-powered insights are being used to forecast market trends, optimize team performance, and identify areas for innovation. By building data-driven cultures, organizations can make informed decisions faster and enhance both team dynamics and leadership effectiveness.

7. Diversity and Inclusion as Innovation Catalysts

Diverse teams bring a wider range of perspectives to the innovation process, which enhances creativity and problem-solving. Inclusive leadership that emphasizes the importance of diversity in innovation efforts not only reflects societal values but also produces better business outcomes. Diversity in teams accelerates the generation of new ideas and encourages out-of-the-box thinking.

8. Sustainability as a Leadership Priority

Sustainability has emerged as a top priority for leaders, impacting how teams innovate. Organizations are now focusing on sustainable innovations that address environmental concerns while also driving business growth. Leadership that prioritizes sustainability tends to inspire teams to develop long-term solutions that benefit both the organization and society at large.

9. Collaboration with External Partners

Open innovation models, where companies collaborate with external partners, startups, and even competitors, are becoming increasingly popular. Leaders are building ecosystems of innovation that go beyond internal teams, involving external stakeholders to co-develop new solutions. This trend broadens the scope of innovation and helps organizations tap into a wider pool of ideas and expertise.

10. Learning and Development for Innovation Skills

For teams to remain innovative, continuous learning and upskilling are essential. Leaders are now focusing on creating environments where team members can constantly update their skills in areas like AI, digital tools, and design thinking. By embedding a learning culture into the team’s DNA, organizations ensure they remain competitive in the ever-evolving innovation landscape.

A key observation for us is that innovation today requires a holistic approach, one that integrates leadership vision with team dynamics to foster environments where creativity and agility can thrive.

By narrowing down to the most impactful trends, we can better equip organizations to innovate effectively in a world that demands both speed and sustainability.

A Roadmap for Corporate Innovation

Image Credits: Stefan Lindegaard, Pexels

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