![ChangeThis ChangeThis](/globalassets/headers-page/changethisheader.jpg?preset=full-width)
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
-
Blog / ChangeThis
The Accelerating Organization: In a Faster Moving World, We Need Speed and Agility to Keep Up
By John P. Kotter
"Organizations everywhere are struggling to keep up with the accelerating pace of change—let alone get ahead of it. Most people don't feel the full rush going on around them, which is a part of the problem. But on almost every important business index, the world is racing ahead. The stakes—the financial, social, environmental, and political consequences—are rising in a similar exponential way. In this new world, the big question facing business leaders everywhere is how to stay competitive and grow profitably amid this increasing turbulence and disruption."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Seven Steps to World Domination
By Lori Ann LaRocco
"It doesn't matter if you are a small business owner, manager, CEO, employee, or aspiring entrepreneur; you want to be the best you can be. You don't have to be a billionaire in order to be at the top of your game. In fact, you have more in common with the world's most successful business leaders than you may think—you are probably already using some of the strategies they use without being aware of it. To help you raise and sharpen your self-awareness there are seven key strategies that all leaders use, regardless of their industry. These steps lead to what I describe as 'world domination.' All of the seven strategies build and support each other, forming strong pyramid. As you read about these strategies, imagine how you would use each one when building your business or career."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Against the Odds: Startups that Make It
By Derek Lidow
"It is one of our saddest economic statistics: More than half small businesses fail within a few years of startup. Unlike the cheery pictures presented in advertising or the success stories showcased on Shark Tank, a significant percentage of fledgling enterprises sputter and eventually die. Only 1 in 43 has any employees after 10 years. These startups don't create much economic value. The vast majority don't even earn as much for their founders as those people could have earned working for someone else. Dreams die, jobs are lost, and communities lose their vitality. It does not have to be this way. In fact, if we want a robust economy with job growth, we must do something about it. I think that the solution is deceptively simple: entrepreneurs should stop thinking so much about the idea behind the business and focus instead on how to lead it."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Repairing the Hole in the Boat: How the Poor Can Save Capitalism
By John Hope Bryant
"I think we are sitting at a rare moment in history where we have an opportunity to change our nation and our world. Everything seems to be broken economically, socially, and politically. All the numbers are headed in the wrong direction. But the Bible says, where there is no vision, the people perish. We've got to have a vision that's larger than ourselves. We've got to be about we, and not about me; what we have to give, not just what we have to get. We need to turn traditional thinking on its head, and present a new vision for America."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
The Nature of Investing
By Porchlight
"We are all investors. We invest our time, our energy, our money. We invest every single day, as citizens, as consumers, as businesspeople. At its core, done well, investing is aligned with the same principles that govern natural systems. It involves connection, exchange, and mutual benefit: we humans invented this activity, to serve our own needs, our communities, and our planet. For any business endeavor, wise investing—of human capital, social capital, physical capital, and financial capital—is at the heart of success. [...] We need to reengage with investing in its essential, connected form—to reintegrate our professions with the real world, instead of the world on the screen. But how?"
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
How to Unlock Employee Ideas to Power Your Organization
By Alan G. Robinson, Dean M. Schroeder
"After years of being asked to do more with less, managers are increasingly aware that they cannot produce the results that are expected of them with the organizations they currently have and the methods they currently use. Cutting wages and benefits, and requiring people to work harder with fewer resources can only go so far. Interestingly, the best solution to this problem involves the same people who have been bearing the brunt of the cost so far: front-line employees. Every day, these people see many problems and opportunities that their managers do not. They have plenty of ideas to improve productivity, responsiveness and customer service, for new and better products and services, or to enhance their organizations in other ways. Yet organizations generally pay little attention to soliciting these ideas, believing there is not much value in them. [. . . ] It is time to change the way we run our organizations. Today, a growing number of organizations are becoming very good at promoting front-line ideas, and as a result are reaching extraordinary levels of performance.
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
The 3 Stoic Disciplines: How to Turn Your Trials Into Triumphs
By Ryan Holiday
"On a dark night at the front in the year 170 Marcus Aurelius, the most powerful man in the world, wrote the following prescription to himself: 'The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.' Great individuals, like great companies, find a way to transform weakness into strength. It's a rather amazing and even touching feat. They took what should have held them back—what in fact might be holding you back right this very second—and used it to move forward. Like these great individuals we can also flip our obstacles and turn adversity into advantage."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Make Your Company Smarter
By Porchlight
"The unspoken beliefs that wield the most influence over business behavior are the metaphors that people use to envision the following major aspects of the work experience: What is business all about? What is a corporation all about? What is management all about? What role do employees play? What really motivates people? What is the nature of change? What's the role of technology? What is the essential nature of work? The answers to these questions define a company's corporate culture. So, then, what type of culture allows companies to pursue strategies that work today? What makes a corporate culture smart, given today's business environment? A good way to answer these questions is to compare what the executives inside successful companies believed in the past as opposed to what executives inside successful (i.e. smart) companies believe today. Here's what 'smart' cultures believe ... "
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
12 Myths that Lead to a Busy, Unfulfilling Life
By Greg McKeown
"15 years ago, I quit law school to pursue one overarching question: 'Why do capable people fail to breakthrough to the next level?' The answer to the question, to my great surprise, is success. I first noticed the phenomenon while working with executive teams in some of Silicon Valley's most innovative companies. When they were focused on the right few things it led to success. But the success bred options and opportunities which undermined the very focus that led to success in the first place. In other words, I found that success can be a catalyst for failure. If we are not careful, it leads to what Jim Collins described as "the undisciplined pursuit of more." It is true for companies; it is true for people."
Categories: changethis
-
Blog / ChangeThis
Flowing to the River of Ultimate Performance: The Science of Productivity
By Steven Kotler
"Researchers define flow as an 'optimal state of consciousness,' a peak state where we feel our best and perform our best. . . . If you've ever lost an afternoon to a great conversation or become so involved in a work project that all else was forgotten, then you've tasted this experience. In flow, we are so focused on the task at hand that everything else falls away. Action and awareness merge. Time flies. Self vanishes. All aspects of performance—mental and physical—go through the roof. We call this experience flow because that is the sensation conferred. In the state, every action, each decision, leads effortlessly, fluidly, seamlessly to the next. It's high-speed problem solving; it's being swept away by the river of ultimate performance. This last bit is no exaggeration. Over 100 years of research shows that flow sits at the heart of almost every athletic championship; underpins major scientific breakthroughs; and accounts for significant progress in the arts. . . . In recent years, flow has also become exceptionally critical to business.
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.