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ChangeThis
ChangeThis is our weekly series of essays from today's thought leaders that are meant to evoke conversation by bringing forth new and unique ideas.
ChangeThis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Making of an Icon
By Soon Yu
"Are you ready to strangle the next person who tells you to 'innovate or die', 'jump on the next S curve,' or 'find the game changer?' Do you wish there was an easier more profitable way to drive organic growth? Fortunately, this manifesto will help you stop chasing the new and instead, innovate the old. [...] Iconic Advantage is a different approach that allows companies to leverage what they already have to create lasting differentiation and deeper relationships with their customers. It generates disproportionate levels of profit and protects you against market fluctuations. Many of the world's most successful brands have been using it for years. Now, you can benefit from reaching iconic status, whether you're a Fortune 500, local pizza parlor, or an aspiring Unicorn startup."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Planting the Seeds for Social Startup Success: 10 Things to Remember When Starting a Social Enterprise
By Kathleen Kelly Janus
"Taking on the social challenges of our time, be it treating diseases, hunger, climate change, or improving education is no small feat, and starting a social enterprise dedicated to solving these problems can be daunting. As Bill Drayton, founder of Ashoka, once said, 'Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.' Does this sound like you? If you're considering embarking on the journey of social entrepreneurship, read through these 10 helpful tips and hints so you can successfully launch, scale up, and make a difference."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Beauty of Conflict
By Porchlight
"Conflict. Most of us avoid it like crazy. But what if harnessing conflict was your best chance to build trust, transform relationships and create championship teams that produce greatness? What if it's a healthy thing for a team to erupt so that they can transform from the ashes?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Re-Imagine "Networking"
By Diana Faison
"Networking is a phrase that elicits a number of opposing responses. Extroverts think of a party or a social event where cocktails are served and stories are shared. Work agenda items may be attended to... or not. Overall, a pleasant time is had by all. Introverts often see networking as a 'must I really attend?' activity. It may be necessary for career advancement or to connect with colleagues, but often these events are situations which test their social limits. They are deemed an exercise in futility. All of us, whether we are extroverts or introverts, have an opportunity to reframe networking and re-imagine it in a way that unleashes the 'power of the Informal' as a strategy to exponentially increase our personal and professional influence."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How Brilliant Careers are Made (and Unmade)
By Carter Cast
"Getting things done through others—the essence of leadership—requires a combination of technical skills (being proficient in areas important to the success of the business), intrapersonal skills (especially strong self-management skills, which are driven by self-understanding and self-control), and interpersonal skills (the ability to develop and foster strong relationships and gain the enlistment of others). People may derail due to a lack of technical, job-related skills, but more common reasons have to do with intrapersonal or interpersonal issues that impede them from enlisting people to accomplish goals. A revealing part of my research included conducting a survey of one hundred derailed managers and then executing follow-up interviews with a subset of the derailed population. My research found that 'a lack of self-awareness' and 'difficulty working with others' were the top two reasons that these one hundred people experienced a career derailment event."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
People Have Power. Don't Take It Away.
By Patty McCord
"The first step in culture transformation is embracing a management mind-set that overturns conventional wisdom. The fundamental lesson we learned at Netflix about success in business today is this: the elaborate, cumbersome system for managing people that was developed over the course of the twentieth century is just not up to the challenges companies face in the twenty-first. Reed Hastings and I and the rest of the management team decided that, over time, we would explore a radical new way to manage people—a way that would allow them to exercise their full powers."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Truth About Entrepreneurship
By Derek Lidow
"It's time we told the truth about entrepreneurship. A lot depends on it. Over $530 billion, yes billion, is spent on launching startups every year. Most of that money comes directly out of the entrepreneurs' pockets, or from the equity in their houses, or from debt. Much of it also comes from gifts, loans, or investments from friends and family. Only 10 to 20% of this money, depending upon the year and the state of frenzy in venture investing, comes from complete strangers and professional investors. Most of this money is wasted by ill-prepared entrepreneurs who have virtually no chance of success. And it will continue to be wasted, along with the time and effort that many hard working people put into these doomed enterprises, unless we can introduce them early on to the truth about what it takes to create and sustain a new business."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Accelerating into Fearless Growth: Seven Questions That Can Change Your Future
By Amanda Setili
"Though the accelerating pace of market change has made achieving growth goals more risky and perilous, it has never been more critical than it is now. There are several reasons why. Growth attracts new talent, because they see good prospects for advancement. It helps us to retain our best employees by creating opportunities for them to learn and contribute. Growth gives lenders and creditors the confidence to extend favorable terms. It provides proof to fickle investors that their money is well placed. And, when we are growing, suppliers contribute their best ideas and resources to help us improve our products and services."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
We Should All Be Serial Achievers (and That Definitely Includes Your Employees)
By Jeff Haden
"To most people 'specialization' indicates accomplishment and success, when in fact the opposite is true. You, me, all of us... we're too good to specialize. And so are your employees. In fact, the pursuit of perfection is the enemy, especially on a professional level. The current professional landscape actually values generalists over specialists. Change occurs quickly. Skills that are valued today are obsolete tomorrow. Managers can't just be good at managing a certain function; they need to be good leaders. Employees can't just be good at performing a certain function; they need to embrace an entrepreneurial mind-set and constantly reinvent themselves."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Becoming the New Boss
By Porchlight
"A story is told about a reporter who was interviewing a successful bank president. He wanted to know the secret of the man's success. 'Two words,' the president replies; 'right decisions.'"
Categories: changethis
The original idea behind ChangeThis came from Seth Godin, and was built in the summer of 2004 by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu, and Michelle Sriwongtong. In the summer of 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ. In addition to selling and writing about books, they kept ChangeThis up and running as a standalone website for 14 years. In 2019, 800-CEO-READ became Porchlight, and we pulled ChangeThis together with the rest of our editorial content under the website you see now. We remain committed to the high-design quality and independent spirit of the original team that brought ChangeThis into the world.