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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 Fifty Percent Solution: One Religion's Global Impact on Entrepreneurial Women and How to Fix it
By Porchlight
"Although it has certainly become more common to see women launch their own companies, statistics clearly show that the creativity and entrepreneurial potential of women is a largely underexploited source of economic growth worldwide. This tendency for women to shrink from business and leadership opportunities is even more evident in Christian circles. In my opinion, this stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of scripture and what it teaches about women and how scripture says God sees them. It's well past time to set the record straight."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Necessity of Speed
By Joseph Folkman
"Life for a manager inside an organization has an unrelenting pace, with very few occasions when there is uninterrupted time. As a result, relationship building and development opportunities may fall by the wayside or become superficial due to the enormity of managerial time constraints. [...] The hectic pace alone increases the workload. Added to that, however, is the need to be a good collaborator and team player. The need for frequent interactions with others layers on additional tasks. And being a good boss means that people must have access to you. No, it is not all right to lock the office door to get all of your work done. Your influence is directly proportional to the quality and frequency of the connections you make through the day. So what can you do?"
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Blog / ChangeThis
The 2017 Trust Outlook: A Look at the Landscape and Impact of Trust from The Boardroom to the Living Room
By David Horsager
"Right now in the U.S., a lack of trust is costing organizations billions of dollars each year. Regardless of size or industry, trust is a factor whose presence can lead to huge rewards but whose absence can mean devastating losses. This is the case both internally with employees and externally with customers because trust doesn't stay within the confines of one area of life or business. When corporate and business leaders understand and act on the importance of trust, how it is measured, and how it is built, they will reap tremendous benefits throughout their organizations. From bottom-line profits to employee retention, the business case is clear for this study, understanding, and building of trust. [...] Increased trust leads to better organizations and more trusted industries."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Change How You Change: 7 Insights for Faster Positive Habit Formation
By Porchlight
"I'd been reading about a Tibetan Buddhist mind training technique called Lojong, or slogan practice, a set of fifty-nine one line aphorisms you recite as mental antidotes to undesired mental habits. Hmm, I thought, I wonder if his kind of practice could be useful for my clients. But I found the slogans so obscure that I didn't think they could be applied, so I abandoned the idea. Apparently the concept was still rolling around in my head when one day I was working with a bust executive who was trying to learn how to get great performance from his employees without micromanaging. I was yammering on and he looked at me and said. 'I'm busy. I need it boiled down to something simple I can remember.' Without thinking, I replied, 'I'm going to give you a slogan. Every time you talk to an employee, say to yourself: Give what and why, not how. And so he did"
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Blog / ChangeThis
Wake Up, Heretics! We Need You
By Porchlight
"Today's corporate culture is leadership-starved. Our leadership vacuum is somewhat ironic, given that sometimes it seems like all we talk about is leaders—what makes them strong or weak, successes or failures. Skim your favorite business publications, and you'll find think piece after advice column after scientific study outlining how to lead and why it matters. Many of the pointers are good: servant leadership is indeed worthwhile, and empowering your employees is a key to peak performance. But those strategies alone are not the path to the kind of groundbreaking leadership we not only want, but desperately need. The climb to taking charge of changing the world is only scalable via bareknuckle, boldfaced heresy. To put another way: we need more than just leaders in the workforce. We need heroes––and the greatest heroes have always begun their journeys as heretics."
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Blog / ChangeThis
In Defense of the Gray Area
By Phillip Barlag
"For countless cultural reasons, Americans have long associated the phrase with defeat. Yet, 'I don't know' is not an end, but a beginning. It is not a failure but an opportunity. 'I don't know' is a launch pad for deeper investigation. [...] Yes or no not only creates a false interpretation of historical or contemporary issues, it can also be dangerous. Isaac Asimov said violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. That refuge is frequently guarded by unyielding monolithic absolutes."
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Failure Drives Success
By Porchlight
"There is no success without failure. Success is what you do after you fail. The people in my life who have become great successes have also suffered through quite a few failures. Those who avoid failure or try to help others avoid failure are really just impeding their progress. [...] Failure itself is not a bad thing, but repeating the same mistake over and over is a tragedy. There is rarely a time in life when one cannot recover from failure. However, having consecutive failures can be unrecoverable. One of the reasons people have consecutive failures is that they are unable to see the value of or learn from the lesson of the first failed attempt."
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Five Keys to Being Fiercely You
By Jackie Huba
"When was the last time you did something that astounded those around you, that amazed yourself, that was outside of your comfort zone? Has it been a while? Was it in your childhood, or at college? If it was recent, did you need the help of a drink or two to muster up that courage? That's pretty common. But when was the last time you felt intimidated, insecure, afraid to do something because it might be wrong? Or when was the last time you watched someone else do something bold and you thought, 'That's amazing! But I could never do that?' Unfortunately, that's pretty common too. Why? Fear. We often hold ourselves back from our true potential because of all kinds of fears—fear of failing, fear of rejection, fear of being laughed at, and even the fear of being our most glorious self."
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Disrupt Yourself! Create the World You Want with Liminal Thinking.
By Dave Gray
"People talk a lot about disruption these days. Leaders in large organizations fear that rapidly-emerging competitors will disrupt them and make them irrelevant. Netflix has disrupted Blockbuster. Uber has disrupted the taxi industry. AirBnB has disrupted hospitality. Brexit disrupted an entire system of government—in one day, with one vote. Who's next? In an era where change has become the norm, we spend a lot of time worrying about how to avoid being disrupted by others. We'd be more successful if we learned how to disrupt ourselves. What if I told you the number one reason companies go out of business is that their senior leaders don't know how to listen? That they are not paying attention? That they are completely blind to disruptive new businesses that are staring them right in the face?"
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Blog / ChangeThis
How To Build A Strong Mind
By Terence Mauri
"What is it that enables leaders to persevere through seemingly insurmountable challenges that at first seem to exceed our limits? Make a list of leaders you admire and who have made a difference in the world. They could be living or dead. The chances are they all have one outstanding quality in common: they are bold. A strong mind excels at speed, creativity, and decisive action. They are risk takers. It's not the only factor that drives success, but perhaps it is one of the most important in the age of overload. We all face the twin problems of deciding what to do and what to tune out. Creativity enables leaders to imagine different solutions to a problem and can help you "cut through the noise and focus on the signal," as high profile entrepreneur Elon Musk describes it. If you want to make an impact, you need to act boldly, especially when the going gets tough."
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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.