Leading

Leaders can’t observe clearly if they can't see anything outside of their own organization or industry. In order to drive real change, leaders must escape their bubbles and make space for outside perspective. Here's how.

You need both diversity and safety.

“Everyone who works at Facebook has the same purpose. That’s why they work here.”

Why an absentee boss is worse than an abusive one.

Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne tells students that life is long and lived in chapters. Some of his include being a pioneering neuroscientist, head of research at Genentech, a co-founder of two startups, and president of two leading research universities. He shares what he's learned about how to lead organizations that turn discovery into real-world impact.

I love Dan Pink’s RSA talk on our mistaken assumptions about what makes good work possible. The subtitle of his talk could be ‘Don’t think you can manipulate people into making th…

In "The Culture Code," Daniel Coyle explains the science of high-performing teams and brands

When the conversation you are having dies, what do you do? Conversations die when you tune out of them, when you stop tracking your truthfulness about your experience, when you fall back on tired r…

In this series on systems thinking, I share the key insights and tools needed to develop and advance a systems mindset for dealing with…

My new book on visual thinking is out! http://amzn.to/2fvrETG

Behavioural science offers realistic insights into human behaviour

Even before the impact of #MeToo, trust in organisations was plummeting around the world. Restoring that trust, and creating an environment where all employees feel comfortable in raising problems begins with leaders, says Tanya Livesey, Leadership Coach and Global Head of Creative Talent at The Talent Business

“Failure” is a hot topic these days in the world of design thinking and innovation. Phrases that we often hear as organizations are dipping their toes into innovation programs: “We have to learn to embrace failure!” “We have to fail fast!” “We have to develop a culture of failure around here!” This jingoistic, ill-defined trumpeting …

Listen before you try to persuade.

Directors need to probe, nudge, and prod to make sure the organization achieves its full potential.

McKinsey's advice is to not look for the newest strategy fad or business guru, but instead take your strategy, and stress test it.

The Innovation Excellence community is home to articles, webinars, videos, training and education - powering growth in the innovation management profession.

Laughter, or no laughter at all can be powerful insight for brands.

The Innovation Excellence community is home to articles, webinars, videos, training and education - powering growth in the innovation management profession.

Asked about John Lewis’s greatest attribute against the digital giants in Vogue, Paula Nickolds, Managing Director, had two words: “It’s people”.

There’s no single formula for making work meaningful — but poor management is a universal obstacle.

A choice to make whenever you work with others: will you relate to them as supplier or partner? Suppliers are there to give you what you ask for. ‘We want 300 widgets by Friday’ –…

Growth creates complexity for brands and consumers, and complexity is the silent killer of growth.

When it comes to crushing your competition, marketing strategist Andy Cunningham says that, above all else, you need to be one thing: authentic. That advice is as true today as it was when she helped Steve Jobs launch the original Macintosh once upon a ti

Storytelling. It's been a part of the human experience ever since we first inhabited the Earth. There's something about telling great stories that will always touch our hearts and minds. Businesses today are realizing how telling those tales, with...

Tastes great, less filling

Two former military men apply practices from elite forces to the business process

Carolyn Ray reviews author Daniel Pink's latest book—and finds the timing perfect

New research contradicts the notion that telling someone they are doing a good job has no place in the dog-eat-dog world of business. Investigators from the Performance Science Institute at the University of Southern California (USC) discovered that for businesses, gratitude comes with significant ROI, or return on investment. "Gratitude is so closely correlated with happiness, optimism, and lifestyle that now we explore it as a tool to improve our work lives," said Dr. Glenn Fox, a neuroscientist by training who is at the forefront of research on gratitude and human performance. Fox said o...

[This post was originally published on Medium.] Every organization operates out of an idea of itself. (We call this idea several things: our “business model,” our “value proposition,” our “core mis…