Want Success? Assume failure.
Don’t ignore failure when you plan for success.
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Ask why, not who
Inflation is out of control! Who should we blame? When something goes wrong, we want to find someone to blame. It seems to be human nature and it’s turned into an art form for our Congress. It’s easier than figuring out why something went wrong. And sometimes the answer is so complicated that we find…
Lifecycles are Destiny
When you consider your business, your career, and even your life — lifecycles are destiny. Some questions to be addressed are simple, but not always easy to answer. But first, some stories to consider. Companies either follow the curve or drop from sight. Montgomery Ward and American Motors are gone. Amazon seems to be maturing,…
Why? The unanswered question.
Intercept the Future Many senior leaders spend serious time developing strategies and plans for their organizations. Sometimes they immerse themselves in a “strategic retreat.” Sometimes they bring in hotshot consulting firms to help them. Sometimes they “burn the midnight oil.” And sometimes, unfortunately, they see what’s working in an allied industry and simply copy (“benchmark”)…
Seeing the Future in the Past
Anticipate the future by understanding the past
Writing is Thinking (or is it?)
“An act of writing is an act of thinking.” William Zinsser, Writing to Learn I’m a writer (in addition to a bunch of other things) and I was taken aback by a recent article in Atlantic Magazine, “The End of High School English.” The article, written by an English teacher, provides commentary about OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a “program…
Part 2 – Manage Stories, Not Data
Last week my friend, Brad Kolar, identified some mistakes leaders make regarding data and the stories they tell. He explained the mistake of “choosing the wrong story to tell.” This week he has explanations of two other mistakes. Not fully understanding the story Sometimes leaders know the story they want to manage but do not…
Manage Stories, Not Data (Part 1)
The current issue of MindPrep was written by my friend, Brad Kolar, from Avail Advisors. Brad’s contact information is at the end of the article. Your job as a leader is to manage stories. You manage stories about your people, your department or business’s performance, your customers, and your products and services. You may use…
Creative Destruction 2022
I’m in the process of developing our new Strategic Mindset Series for 2023 and it suddenly hit me that we’re in the midst of a fascinating period of creative destruction. Remember, the global economy evolves in an amoral fashion – neither good nor bad, it just evolves. The punchline behind creative destruction is that you…
