Hoping For the Worst
Strategy
Most effective decision-making approaches seek to identify risks and to create some mitigation strategies. But what if you could design a solution so you actually do better under worsening conditions. This is part of the premise behind the concept of “Antifragility” introduced by Nassem Taleb who also gave us “The Black Swan” concept. (A difficult to predict event that has catastrophic consequences).
When we develop complicated systems with lots of interdependent parts we create greater probabilities that failure will occur. So, we create additional systems and processes to raise the level of resilience and robustness. Taleb draws a distinction between resilience and…
Read more.Growing Towards Who You Want to Be
Organizational Transformation
“Grow or die” seems to be the mantra for most organizations. The vast majority of companies use some form of comparative metrics in order to see if they are making progress compared to their past efforts. Top line growth (revenue) has often been enough to provide the next round of financing, a larger bonus, or consideration for a better position. Growth implies positive movement and momentum towards achieving potential. The good news is that companies can choose a number of paths to achieve growth.
In Growth IQ, Tiffani Bova, identifies ten different approaches available to organizations looking to grow. Bova cites…
Read more.Help, I Need Somebody
Leadership
What if I am wrong? What if the one thing that I am promoting, advocating, and even “betting the ranch” on might actually turn out to be completely wrong. Like a recurring nightmare where the foundational understanding and assumption doesn’t hold up and the whole plan or endeavor is doomed to failure. There is no shortage of historic blunders where leaders were blinded to this possibility and led their followers wholeheartedly into disaster.
And yet, leaders who start off meetings or even worse pre-launch motivational speeches with, “last night it occurred to me that our whole approach is quite possibly built…
Read more.Givers Finish Last … And First
Leadership
Are you a giver or a taker? Or perhaps a matcher who operates on the principle of reciprocity? Most of us might respond, “it depends.” In relational settings like family and community we would like to be the thought of as a giver. Though upon careful reflection and some honest feedback we might discover even among loved ones we are, at best, a matcher. But perhaps in the more competitive areas of our life, like work, we would be more comfortable being labeled a matcher or even a taker. In those competitive environments we probably feel that being a giver…
Read more.The Necessity of Co-Creation
Organizational Transformation
Every few years “the solution” arrives. The true believers enthusiastically evangelize their networks while the skeptics announce, “there is nothing new here.” The truth often lies somewhere in the middle. Given that leadership and management practices have been illustrated and discussed from the beginning of human interaction, it would be surprising to discover an overlooked significant truth. The more likely explanation is that the current context and challenges have created the right environment for a particular idea to be fruitful at this time. Victor Hugo captured it well: “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Two approaches…
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