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
Fitting in and Standing Out: Shifting Mindsets from Taking to Giving
By Adam Grant
"When people think like takers, they focus on getting as much as possible from others. When they operate like givers, on the other hand, their overarching emphasis is on contributing their knowledge and skills to benefit others."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Boost Your Bottom Line... And Save the Planet, Too
By Mark R. Tercek
"The old, knee-jerk opposition between business and the environment is yesterday's way of thinking. Increasingly, top business leaders view nature as a foundational asset base and essential ally to their companies' productivity. If you want your company to thrive, you will need to be bold, think big, and be aggressive about pursuing business opportunities that work with the environment, not against it."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How Self-Doubt Makes Leaders Better
By Steven Snyder
"Self-doubt can be especially paralyzing for leaders who buy into the cultural myth of the perfect leader. Knowing full well that perfection is unattainable, they nonetheless feel compelled to project the image of a calm, confident leader who always knows what to do and how to do it. Societal taboos that paint indecision in leaders as a sign of weakness only intensify the sense of isolation and uncertainty that breed self-doubt. Change is the crucible in which ordinary men and women develop into leaders. Indeed, whether change flows from a leader's own vision and actions, or results from shifting circumstances within an organization or society at large, change almost always carries with it exciting opportunities for learning, growth and transformation."
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Blog / ChangeThis
Being "Good" Pays Off Big: 21st Century Values are a Winning Strategy in Business and Personal Life
By Peter Georgescu
"We used to think that being a good person in business would be nice. Those who went to churches or synagogues would hear preachers extol the virtues of being good on a weekly basis and trumpet them aloud on the big holidays. It felt good to hear the value of being a good person, but Mondays came along and nothing ever changed in behavior. After all, business is hard. And the first dozen years in the 21st Century demonstrated just how much harder business has become. Chances are that business will get even tougher and more competitive in the years ahead. So we've all got to man up for the brutally competitive world out there. Don't we? Well, no. To find a winning strategy for the 21st Century business world you'll need to grasp why the world of commerce has changed so dramatically in recent decades."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone: Taking Risks, Trusting your Gut and Becoming a Game Changer!
By John Wood
"Wikipedia defines the term comfort zone as "a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk." This does not sound like a recipe for success, especially in a rapidly changing and uber-competitive world. There was a time when the only types of people who took risks and voluntarily stepped out of their comfort zone were the high rollers who could afford to take a chance. Now, none of us can afford to NOT take risks. In business, you are asked to get out of your comfort zone time and time again. In today's rapidly changing, tech-inundated world, getting out of your comfort zone has become a mandate for success."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
We Are All Creators Now—And We Are Creating a New Indie Capitalism
By Bruce Nussbaum
"We are building a new kind of capitalism from the ground up. The construction site is located far below the radar of the mainstream press. Our policymakers in Washington don't have a clue that a new foundation is being laid down, brick by brick. And our competitors have grown so familiar with navigating their way through the crumbling edifice of crony capitalism that they can't see what's emerging from the rubble. Yet. But look to the edges of our economy, look to the new models and practices being developed by our young, look to energy of our entrepreneurs and look to the subtle shifts of our most progressive corporations and you can see something emerging. You can see the rise of Indie Capitalism. This is a Manifesto for all those creators who are making Indie Capitalism a reality."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Lay Off Your Buildings, Not Your People!
By Maynard Webb
"When I began my career, everyone "went" to work. It was long before the advent of the Internet and personal computers; you had to go to work to gain access to computing power. Most computer centers had people on call 24/7. When there was a problem, they had to drive to the office and fix the problem on-site. There was no such thing as logging on remotely. Employees had to be at their desks to do work. Our inboxes were paper based. We had written phone memos, not voicemail, so in order to receive a call, we had to be in the office. There weren't PCs that could be disconnected and taken home. At that time, it wasn't firewalls that protected the network; it was office walls, and if you weren't inside the office, you weren't able to work. Offices and office hours actually made sense. Now it's an unbelievably outdated concept."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Innovation Begins Here: How to Become the Hero in the Hero's Journey
By Brian Solis
"Welcome. You've officially arrived at the intersection of reality and possibility. Take comfort. You are not alone. There are many who are standing with you at this junction. But each of you has his or her own path to follow, and what you do next is yours and only yours to define. While that may sound either trite, abstract or both, the future does in fact begin with you and will be defined by you."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Can Business Save The World?
By Joey Reiman
"Business people are the new superheroes. And they are here to save the world. Their super power is purpose. And with it they intend to improve and save billions of lives while putting millions more dollars back into the economy. No force on the planet is greater than purpose, because purpose gives us our reason for being and doing. When you discover your purpose, you become unstoppable. It works the same for business."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Pause to Lead Forward: The Paradoxical Leadership Breakthrough
By Kevin Cashman
"The demanding pace for global leaders has never been more challenging. Digitally connected every moment, we are increasingly tied to a 24-hour global clock. This is the 'new normal.' We are expected to perform continually in the face of global crises and multifaceted pressures, including downsizing, mergers and the accompanying stresses and expectations. The list of demands, personal and professional, never ends. Could it be that going faster and driving harder are not the answers? Could there be another way to sustain high performance? Could it be that the source of our real value as leaders might come from different thinking and different choices rather than from perpetuation of the incessant pace we strain to maintain?"
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.