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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
Change is the New Constant: Leading Organizations That (Can) Thrive in Crises
By Alan Lewis
"Most organizations believe they are not working as well as they used to. They blame the rapid and unpredictable changes that are going on around them. But many of them have failed to grasp one fundamental truth: CHANGE IS THE NEW CONSTANT. To be successful in the 21st century requires an approach that change is here to stay, so one of the most critical components for success is now the ability to build a culture to adapt and thrive in change."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Business Intelligence vs. Human Intuition & Why You Should Welcome The Robot Overlords
By Porchlight
"In the weird, wild world outside the Petri dish, the correct decision is not always the right decision. There's disconnect between the robot logic of business intelligence and human intuition of right and wrong. Does this disconnect imply that humans use free will to promote the koombayah ideas of fairness, morality, and goodwill toward men and most charismatic megafauna? Or is the human brain simply a cold, rational, pre-programmed computer that happens to take into account more factors than a Game Theory model?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Looking Around the Corner
By Robert H. Bloom
"From the perspective of my corner office and experience in boardrooms, I observed that we business leaders planned our future by using previous years' financial results as our base line. Today, this relevant but regressive methodology is more-often-than-not still in use, for want of a progressive process coupled with robust software. This fixation on an obsolete planning process guarantees that firms that use it will not keep pace with the rapid, substantive changes in our business world."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Personality Poker: How to Create High-Performing Innovation Teams
By Stephen M. Shapiro
"The desire for equality permeates everything we do and always has, as can be seen in many of our age-old philosophies. For example, we see it in the Golden Rule, which is often interpreted as 'Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.' However, who really cares what you want? After all, treating people as you want to be treated doesn't address the needs and desires of others. Buying into these doctrines, myths, and lies leads to pasteurizing, homogenizing, and sanitizing everyone in order to fit people into one mold and think the same way so they can then gather together in like-minded harmony. There's a good reason why they call it a company culture, since organizations are, in actuality, mini-cults. Instead, we should consider living by the doctrine: The person you like the least may be the person you need the most."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
InsideOut Development: Do What You Already Know
By Porchlight
"If knowledge really were all it took to be a high performer, then all any of us would have to do would be to read that book or take that class and we'd all be winning championships. We'd all be incredible managers, great teachers, phenomenal parents and performance. But we're not. Why? Because the biggest obstacle in performance isn't not knowing what to do; it's not doing what we already know."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Survival of the Simplest: The Micro-Script Rules
By Bill Schley
"I have found out how to simplify the confused and mucked-up world of communications so that your message can penetrate the maelstrom of modern media, whether you are a global corporation, a local politician, a college lecturer, a sales rep or a start-up. I have a magic bullet that will sharpen whatever story you have to tell so that it gets to the heart of the matter, cuts through mental barriers and lodges easily in the mind. As an advisor to companies, politicians and institutions of higher learning, I've been thinking about this problem for about twenty years, and have been figuring out the solution for the last two. I don't know how to de-complicate my cable bill, or untangle the knots in the U.S. Congress, but I do know about this. This is my small part to play in the crusade. So here's your answer."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
How to Be Effective: Structuring Change, Managing Change, Leading Change
By Jonathan L. S. Byrnes
"When I talk to former students, clients, and executives, I've found that their biggest concern is being effective—going beyond conceiving great new things and actually driving them into practice. I've also seen that most people make two big mistakes when they think about change: They fail to realize that managing change requires a really different process from day-to-day management, not harder but very different. They approach change in a one-size-fits-all way. Successful change, being effective, involves three things: structuring change, managing change and leading change. I call this The Golden Triangle of Change."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Bury My Heart at Conference Room B: Emotional Commitment at Work
By Stan Slap
"A manager's emotional commitment is the ultimate trigger for their discretionary effort, worth more than financial, intellectual and physical commitment combined. It's the kind of commitment that solves unsolvable problems, creates energy when all energy has been expended, and ignites emotional commitment in others, like employees, teams and customers. Emotional commitment means unchecked, unvarnished devotion to the company and its success; any legendary organizational performance is the result of emotionally committed managers."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
15 1/2 Ideas to Make Your Presentation Go From Boring to Bravo
By Porchlight
"While it will always be easier to recite information (one-way) than it is to make an engaging speech (two-way) presentation that connects with your audience, today's audiences are demanding more engagement and interaction. Their lives are full of instant updates and streaming headline news sent straight to their cell phones. They are expecting you to bring specific knowledge they can't get anywhere else and deliver it in an entertaining way. Unfortunately, most people rely on a few tried (yet true) techniques to engage an audience and rarely stumble outside their comfort zone. If you truly want to connect with your audience, you can choose to make your presentations more engaging and interactive."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The HERO Compact: Empowering Your Employees to Compete in Todays Economy
By Josh Bernoff, Ted Schadler
"Individuals have more power than ever. Managers can see this as a threat, or as an opportunity. Think about it. Any of your customers could trash your reputation at any moment. They could write a video about his bad experience that attracts 8 million views, which is what Dave Carroll did after United Airlines baggage handlers broke his guitar. They could tell a million people to never buy your product, which is what Heather Armstrong did when, surrounded by soiled diapers, her frustration at Maytag's inability to fix her new clothes washer boiled over. For managers, the only defense is to empower your own employees to solve those customers' problems."
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.