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Rita McGrath

Author. Speaker. Consultant.

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June 1, 2023

Thought Sparks Wrap Up – May 2023

Uncertainty has a way of messing with people, and we sure saw much of that in May.  With layoffs, trimmed budgets, and lumbering threats like the US approaching the debt ceiling, our innovation colleagues are bracing themselves for cutbacks – or worse (which is terrible for innovation, but that’s another story).

Amidst all this, I’m delighted to see companies investing heavily in their people, in the form of in-person executive education. As a senior leader at Telefonica told the FT “If you ask employees what they want from HR, after payroll the next biggest thing is education.” My upcoming course “Leading Strategic Growth and Change” is sold out for next month as are many of our other courses.  People are hungry for learning, hungry for connection, and hungry for community.  We’re thrilled!

In Case You Missed It

Our Valize team is experimenting in partnership with my colleague and friend Hitendra Wadwha and his team at the Mentora Insitute and held a stimulating retreat for future-facing leaders at Columbia on May 10. Be on the lookout for invitations to our fall gatherings.

My colleague Sheena Iyengar had an exciting launch for her book Think Bigger. Which was kicked off by an in-person interview with 60 Minutes’ Leslie Stahl,(I mean, isn’t that who you’d invite to your book launch?). That was followed the next day by Columbia’s own Think Bigger Innovation Summit featuring talks and discussion and some great input from our friend and colleague Ryan McManus at Techtonic.

In an embarrassment of riches, Columbia’s Media and Technology Forum held its annual event at the school on the same day. An off-the-record set of conversations with people who are in the room where it happens – it’s always an eye-opener.

I was inspired to meet Freada Kapor Klein who has proved to the world that investing in closing gaps of opportunity, access and more can be a great business. Check out the Fireside Chat with Author Freada Kapor Klein on how Kapor Capital has learned to address inequality of opportunity.

You really can tell when a firm is serious about its commitments. Last week, I was excited to kick off our second cohort of senior leaders taking part in the Genentech gLEAD program, designed to accelerate the progress of Black and LatinX leaders at the company. I’m heading to San Francisco next month for our second module – we don’t discriminate coastally, either. To read about what the company is doing, check this out!  Super impressive.

Subscribe to Weekly Thought Sparks 

Perhaps consider some leadership coaching now– before you end up as a bad example on the Twitterverse.

How a Threatening situation can turn leaders into a**holes (and what to do about it).

Would you have let yourself get pulled into a crisis-of-the-moment acquisition?

How companies behaved in 2008 is how a lot of them are behaving now.

Are you boring your investors?  Here’s how to tell.

In the News  

In this research piece, published by Forbes, networking expert Keith Ferrazzi offers some new research that sheds light on how different, more fluid structures, can be better suited to today’s circumstances.

HBR’S 10 Must Reads on Business Model Innovation, which includes one of my articles, made it to Book Authority’s best business strategy books of all time. How exciting is that?! Check it out.

Discovery Driven Growth really works! And now it has joined other management classics on the bookshelf that the judges at Thinkers50 have said every manager should read. It is a great feeling to be amongst this crowd. Take a look!

Rebuilding Ukraine: Assess the Opportunity! The only way out of the uncertainty trap is through learning. Check it out!

When you have a platform of extensive experience, you can plan in a conventional way. But what if something is totally new to you? Check out this Forbes India article that mentions research on strategy and innovation.

Tool of the month:

Valize IdeaHUB

In a first for Valize, we’ve created a whole new set of resources on the part of our website called the Ideahub.  It has some of my original thought sparks, but also work by guest writers and reprints of blogs we think are interesting.  Check it out!

Check out the latest article! 

Upcoming Events

June 5th-9th: My sold-out Columbia Executive Program “Leading Strategic Growth and Change” runs in person on campus for a week! Still, time to sign up for my October program here.

June 23, 1:00 pm EST: Friday Fireside Chat with Zeynep Ton, author of the new book “The Case for Good Jobs” Register here!

July 7, 11:00 am EST: Friday Fireside Chat with Tiffani Bova, author of the new book “The Experience Mindset” Register here!

Events Calendar 

Get in touch, keep in touch!

I work with organizations to run workshops, provide training and offer ideas.  Everything from one on one leadership coaching to speaking in really big conference rooms.  Think that might be useful?  Get in touch!

Twitter @rgmcgrath

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ritamcgrath

Website: www.ritamcgrath.com

Valize website: www.valize.com

Warmly,

Rita

Filed Under: Articles, Business Start Ups / Entrepreneurship, Business Strategy, Innovation, Insights and ideas, Leadership, Thought Sparks

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