The utilization of management tools, ideas and frameworks has a strange cyclicality to it. The boss reads another book and suddenly we’re all required to calculate Net Promoter Scores! It’s worth taking a critical eye to the… Read more »
innovation
Management Tools: Cycling through the concepts
Everybody wants to be the author of a popular management tool. But at the end of the day, it’s useful to realize that many have a lot in common – what makes the difference, as… Read more »
Thinking Wrong: How to Trick our Brains into Being More Innovative
Once we’ve learned how to do something, we become “unconsciously competent” at it. In order to break with the predictable path and move forward, what my good friend and colleague, Greg Galle, suggests is that… Read more »
Frustrated with a culture that isn’t innovative? You’re probably missing a key management practice.
Leading strategic growth and change doesn’t need to be a mystery! If only we taught people the skills necessary for three key leadership roles, it could be a lot more systematic and corporate transformation efforts… Read more »
What We Should Learn From the Tragic Failure of the Titan
My last “Thought Spark” was published before the dreadful implosion of the Titan submersible. Then, I was talking about intelligent failures. This time around, let’s focus on what my colleague Amy Edmondson would call a… Read more »
Are you squandering your intelligent failures?
Just back from an amazing week spent with thinkers, do-ers and executives considering culture at Novartis. Amy Edmondson, my dear friend, was there and both of us remain stunned that people are still confused about… Read more »
NPV doesn’t work for risky, high-potential projects. Here’s a better approach.
This article was co-authored with Claus Hirzmann of Strategic Finance “Never test the depth of the river with both feet.” Ironically, this is the very behavior that plagues many of the innovations that ended up in… Read more »
Why uncertainty is your friend if you’re looking for big returns
It’s tempting to invest in areas that promise certain returns for a given investment. Unfortunately, by the time an opportunity has become so well understood that anyone could pursue it, it is well on the… Read more »
Rewriting the employment contract, courtesy of COVID
As we begin to slowly emerge from the pandemic, some of the contours of what post-pandemic life will be like are starting to come into focus. As employees leave their old roles in droves and… Read more »
We had the Jetsons in 1962 – and autonomous driving is still out of reach
Gradually, then suddenly. That’s the line that I borrowed from Ernest Hemingway to describe the progress of strategic inflection points. They brew along for a long time – sometimes decades – before finally breaking through…. Read more »
What does Ford’s decision to drop Argo AI Mean for autonomous driving?
Big flashy billion-dollar investments. Leaders optimistically pronouncing totally unrealistic launch dates. Geeky engineers becoming the darlings of the moment. Yes, the story of Ford’s foray into autonomous cars has it all! The autonomous driving bubble… Read more »
Simultaneous discovery – or the sincerest form of flattery? Board Committee research
Two topics here – how to get Boards focused on science and technology for the long term, and how good ideas can get … um … discovered? Image Source The difference a special Board committee… Read more »