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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Jazz-Leadership
By Penelope Tobin
"Traditional leadership has long looked like the orchestral conductor. But we're living within a whirlwind of change, and the authoritarian individual, working to a fixed, detailed plan from a detached position of control, isn't equipped to deal with it. To survive these new circumstances, we must all learn how to improvise (from the Latin "improvises", meaning "not seen ahead of time"). [...] We need leadership in a new groove—jazz-leadership."
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Your Time is Your Life—Invest it Well
By Porchlight
"Now is a time of revolution—or perhaps more precisely evolution—in the world of personal productivity. Time management no longer offers sufficient support for people overwhelmed with the onslaught of responsibility and opportunity in today's 24/7 world. The next step: Time Investment. Ironically, the people with the most time and autonomy can end up the most miserable because their relative freedom makes them hold onto the false notion that they can do everything. But the truth is that even if you have copious amounts of time and resources, you still need to make choices. Failing to do so will lead to an unsatisfying lack of depth and closure in your life."
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How to Get Employees to Manage Themselves
By Jody Thompson
"Employees don't leave companies. They leave managers. 70% of employees don't feel valued by their employers. 64% of Americans leave their jobs due to lack of recognition. This impacts the bottom line because customers feel the effects of employee success and either respond with loyalty, or get turned off by bad service or inferior products. There has to be a better way to improve employee and manager relationships in order to maximize business success. The answer is simple. Manage the work, not the people."
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Alternative Answers: The Class Divide in Investing, and How You Can Close It
By Bob Rice
"Harvard's biggest single financial bet is on timber, not stocks. Yale has just 6% of its endowment in US equities; instead, it's long "absolute return," "private equity," and real assets. Each is up more than100% over the past decade. In the meantime, typical investors have, at best, treaded water. And that's no anomaly. In 7 of the 11 decades since 1900, the classic 60/40, stock/bond portfolio has returned an average real return of a whopping. . . 1%. Yes, those other four decades were big winners; but then those gains were walloped by the kinds of big crashes that are only becoming more frequent. Fact is, a class system has developed among investors over the past few decades. Elite money managers have used a proprietary set of tools to ride economic cycles up, but also to avoid big losses during downturns. Meanwhile, the rest of us all thought that "investing" was synonymous with simply buying stocks and bonds, with maybe a bit of real estate tossed in. [. . . ] Fortunately, times have changed—even if most people still don't know it.
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The First 20 Hours: Secrets of Rapid Skill Acquisition
By Josh Kaufman
"I'm willing to wager there's something in the back of your mind you've always wanted to learn how to do. [...] I'm also willing to wager you feel you don't have enough time to learn this particular skill. You're overworked already, and time is tight. You have work to do, family to take care of, friends to hang out with, and too many responsibilities as it is. By the time your work and family obligations are satisfied, you're tired: after you eat dinner and watch a little TV, it's time to call it a day. So much to do, and so little time. [...] I have good news for you: picking up new skills is way easier than you think. Believe it or not, you can pick up the fundamentals of any new skill in about 20 hours."
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Recharge: 7 Ways to Improve Innovative Thinking
By Porchlight
"If companies want to innovate the way successful bold newcomers have, they have to unplug from the constraints of 'That's the way we've always done it' and recharge, starting with the mantra, 'Let's just not do that anymore. ' They need to be willing to take market risks that more traditional companies are often unwilling or unable to take. Consider that Apple doesn't have a formal innovation 'funnel' process with established procedures, nor do Amazon or Facebook. In this volatile world the old model of process innovation needs a new framework. It isn't in sync with the way our minds work, which brain research tells us is more serendipitous than linear. Innovation just doesn't lend itself to being predictable and risk free. Innovation demands looking at the world differently, and finding connections between seemingly disconnected things. Corporate protocol, management hierarchies, and rigid assumptions about customer needs often create anxiety and stifle freedom of thought and exploration. ".
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Monster Loyalty: How to Build Customer Loyalty like Lady Gaga
By Jackie Huba
"Where other businesses don't seem to have their priorities straight, pop star Lady Gaga understands that focusing on current customers is the key to building long-term, sustainable audience loyalty. With 23 million albums sold, five Grammy awards and Forbes' distinction as one of the world's most powerful celebrities, Gaga is one of the most well-known pop artists in the world. While known as much for her voice as for her over-the-top wardrobe, few recognize Gaga for her stunning business acumen, which has earned her legions of loyal fans worldwide. Lady Gaga didn't become the success she is today based solely on her talent. She did so by engendering immense loyalty from her fans—not just through her music—but also through her message and the community she has built around that message. Gaga's overarching philosophy focuses on her core advocates: the superfans called Little Monsters. These advocates become evangelists who bring in new customers on their own."
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Brains Favor the Ridiculously In Charge Leader
By Porchlight
"I believe that among all of the things that a leader does, one of the most important ones is to set "boundaries." Basically, a "boundary" is a property line. It defines what will exist on a property and what will not. The property line around your home is like that....it defines where your property begins and ends, and you are in charge of exactly what will happen on that property. And, to our point here, within your business or organization. Leaders must establish some key boundaries in some very key areas if they want to get results. And, thanks to brain research, we now can scientifically get a peek into why the leaders who do establish these kinds of boundaries get the results that they get."
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An Action Plan for Making Good Customer Service a Reality
By Porchlight
"Any company can market and promote that they are experts at cuddling customers, but very few ever get the formula for execution right. A big reason is that most organizations never bother to put all of the essential building blocks in place to create a customer-centric culture. They like to talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. They also forget that before your employees will ever take good care of your customers, you have to first take great care of them."
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Mentorship 2.0: How to Find the Mentor You Need
By Dorie Clark
"Waiting for a mentor to appear like a deus ex machina is a loser's game. Some people luck out, but most don't. This manifesto is about how to make your own luck—how to proactively identify the people you want in your life as mentors, cultivate real relationships, and look beyond the obvious. (Some of the most powerful lessons come from the least likely people.)"
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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.