Summary:

Whether we realise it or not, we all use mental models to think about our context (customers, competitors), make choices, structure work, and undertake key activities (such as doing innovation or pursuing M&A). 

But how often do you stop for a moment to challenge them? Often we operate on autopilot. If they don't work, we try again, and again, without
thinking of an alternative.

My guest in this episode, Roger Martin, has spent his career developing these alternative mental models and approaches that challenge conventional wisdom.

This episode is for anyone who is curious about how to think differently about how to:

- Lead effectively.
- Develop strategies that work.
- Make decisions.

More about Roger:

In 2017, Roger was named the world’s #1 management thinker by Thinkers50, a biannual ranking of the most influential global business thinkers. He is a a trusted strategy advisor to the CEOs of companies worldwide including Procter & Gamble, Lego and Ford.

He is a Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto where he served as Dean from 1998-2013.

His newest book - his thirteenth - is  'A new way to think: your guide to superior management effectiveness.

Also check out his weekly articles on strategy in Medium.

My resources:

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For more details about me:

★Services to CEOs, entrepreneurs and professionals.
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Summary:

Innovation is a topic that always comes up in my work with CEOs, senior executives and entrepreneurs. We focus on how to:

• create an innovation portfolio.
• balance different types of innovation.
• develop a more innovative culture.
• open up the organisation to external stimulus.

But there are lots of myths and misunderstandings. Innovation "theatre" too. People talk a great game, but innovation practice doesn't live up to the promise. 

Who better to talk to about these topics than Bill Fischer, a guru on innovation and leadership; he worked with companies, like Haier, long before they became household names.  

In this episode we talk about:

• innovation as a verb.
• CEOs who have the curiosity to be innovative.
• the power of conversations.
• the biggest myths of innovation.
• his challenges to design thinking and lean start up approaches.

If you’re look for somebody to challenge conventional wisdom, and refresh your own mindset and approach to innovation, have a listen. 

More about Bill:
 
Bill is an Emeritus Professor at IMD in Switzerland and a Senior Lecturer at MIT. He was inducted into the Thinkers50 Hall of Fame in 2019. He was the Executive President and Dean of the China Europe International Business School, in Shanghai, and served on the faculties of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Clarkson University.

• LinkedIn profile.
• Thinkers50 profile.
• Book 'Reinventing Giants: How Chinese Global Competitor Haier has Changed the Way Big Companies Transform'.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

If you're not subscribed already and do subscribe to my youtube channel where you can watch the conversation.
 
You can also find me here:

• LinkedIn.
• Twitter.
• Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients.

Summary:

“Digital transformation” is a big buzzword in business. But digital initiatives alone are not enough to win in the marketplace -- companies need to reimagine the compelling value they will offer and how they will create it in a differentiating way. Two senior partners from Strategy&, former colleagues and friends, set out seven leadership imperatives for
transforming companies in the new digital era based on extensive research of twelve companies, including Philips, Microsoft and Adobe:

1. Reimagine your company's place in the world
2. Embrace and create value via ecosystems
3. Build a system of privileged insights with your customers
4. Make your organization outcome-oriented
5. Invert the focus of your leadership team
6. Reinvent the social contract with your people
7. Disrupt your own leadership approach

This is a stimulating, immersive discussion leaving you with a new manifesto for leading your organisation. They even say which one of the leadership archetypes they are! I always try to get to the personal side too, as you know!

More about Paul and Matt:

• Paul Leinwand is a thought leader on strategy, growth, and capability building for Strategy&, PwC's strategy consulting group. He is co-author of four books. 
• Mahadeva Matt Mani is an advisor to executives on business model transformation and operating performance improvement for Strategy&, PwC’s strategy consulting business. He is the global leader of PwC and Strategy&'s transformation platform. 
• Their book 'Beyond Digital: How Great Leaders Transform Their Organsation and Shape the Future', Harvard Business Review Press.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

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You can also find me here:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients. 

Summary:

The last few years will have forced or encouraged us to make changes in our lives. In a positive light, some people have spent better quality time with family and friends, enjoyed the company of their neighbours, exercised more regularly and taken up hobbies again. But when the pressure's on, and there's no systemic "shock" to deal with, it's natural that we slip back to some of our old ways.

To overcome this, Katy Milkman says we should understand our internal obstacles — or “opponents” — and then select the right strategies to overcome them. She picks seven obstacles we face - getting started, impulsivity, procrastination, forgetting, laziness, lack of confidence, and conformity. Whatever situation you’re in, she encourages us to do things that are enjoyable, otherwise we're not going to persist in changing our ways.

More about Katy:

Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a secondary appointment at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. Her research explores ways that insights from economics and psychology can be harnessed to change consequential behaviors for good, such as savings, exercise, student achievement, vaccination and discrimination. To that end, she co-founded and co-directs the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania. 

In 2021 Katy was named one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers and the world’s top strategy thinker by Thinkers50. The New York Times also named her bestselling book How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be one of the eight best books for healthy
living in 2021. 

Resources: 

• Book - How to Change: the Science of Getting from where you are to where you want to be.
• Choiceology podcast.
• Katy's newsletter - the Milkman delivers.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

If you're not subscribed already and do subscribe to my youtube channel where you can watch the conversation.
 
You can also find me here:

•  LinkedIn
•  Twitter
•  Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients

Summary:

Strategy is a mystery to many of us. It’s an over-used, misunderstood term in business. Put simply, a strategy is a plan to create value. Don’t start with profit though. That’s the result of strategy. Instead, use a "value stick" which provides a way of measuring the two fundamental forces that lead to value creation and increased financial success: (1) the customer's willingness-to-pay (the top of the stick); and (2) the employee's willingness-to-sell their services to the business (the bottom of the stick).

Companies that "win", according to Felix Oberholzer-Gee, create value for customers by raising their willingness-to-pay, and they provide value for talent by lowering their willingness-to-sell. He describes how to do this in this fascinating discussion, talking about the distinction between the creation and capture of value, the potential of “near-customers”, strategy in ecosystems, the power of value-maps, and the relationship between strategy
and culture.

More about Felix:

Felix Oberholzer-Gee is the Andreas Andresen Professor of Business Administration in the Strategy Unit at Harvard Business School. He currently teaches competitive strategy in executive education programs such as the Program for Leadership Development, the Senior Executive Program for China, and in a program for media executives titled Effective Strategies for Media Companies. He hosts a HBR After House podcast, in which he discusses and debates current events that sit at the crossroads of business and culture with fellow HBS professors Youngme Moon and Mihir A. Desai. Here are some more of his resources:

• Research. 
• Book ‘Better, Simpler Strategy’ 
• HBR article ‘How to eliminate strategic overload’
• What is strategy video.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

If you're not subscribed already and do subscribe to my youtube channel where you can watch the conversation.
 
You can also find me here:

•  LinkedIn
•  Twitter
•  Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients 

Summary:

Being a founder of a start-up takes courage, grit, entrepreneurial spirit. It takes a special kind of person. Somebody who is enormously self-driven, -determined and -motivated. But how far will these traits take you as you look to scale your business? And what will you need to start, stop and change in your leadership style? How will you work hard and smart to avoid burn out and mental health problems?

Alisa Cohn, confidante and coach the founders and CEOs of some of the world’s most successful start-ups and scale-ups shares her perspective on these shifts in perspective and practice.

More about Alisa:

Named the Top Startup Coach in the World at the Thinkers50/Marshall Goldsmith Global Coaches Awards in London, Alisa Cohn has been coaching startup founders to grow into world-class CEOs for nearly 20 years. A onetime startup CFO, strategy consultant, and current angel investor and advisor, she was named the number one “Global Guru” of startups in 2021, and has worked with startup companies such as Venmo, Etsy, DraftKings, The Wirecutter, Mack Weldon, and Tory Burch.

• Book: From Start-Up to Grown-Up: Grow Your Leadership to Grow Your Business
• Podcast.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

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You can also find me here:

LinkedIn
Twitter
Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients.

Summary:

How many of us set goals for ourselves? It might be in one of those dreadful HR processes at work. Or a memorable event during the year, like New Year or your birthday. We write them down, sometimes share them with family and friends, work at them. But how many of them help us really get somewhere?

Too often we settle for the status quo, or baby steps. But what would it take to do something that really matters in life. To develop goals, Worthy Goals, that are thrilling, important and daunting. 

In this discussion, Michael Bungay-Stanier or MBS, the author, coach, and speaker shares the highlights of his book ‘How to Begin: start doing something that matters’. He sets out a process to find your Worthy Goal, commit to it, and cross the threshold to begin. He challenges us to avoid a life half-lived. To unlock our greatness to work on the hard things. 

More about Michael:

Michael Bungay Stanier is the author of six books which between them have sold more than a million copies. He’s best known for The Coaching Habit, the best-selling coaching book of the century and already recognized as a classic. Michael was a Rhodes Scholar and plays the ukulele badly. He’s Australian, and lives in Toronto, Canada. Learn more here. Michael founded Box of Crayons, a learning and development company that helps organizations transform from advice-driven to curiosity-led.

Check out his:

• Books 
• 2 pages podcast.
• Year of living brilliantly community.       

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

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You can also find me here:

LinkedIn
Twitter
Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients.

Summary

Many of us are impatient. We’re ambitious, keen to see the spoils of success, but also a little insecure, wondering if we’re going to make it or whether a friend or colleague will get there first. So we go all in, putting in the hours, risking overwork or burnout. Or we focus on what feels easy, guaranteed or glamorous in the moment. 

At the same time we want to live healthier lives, more connected to our families, and friends. But it doesn’t seem possible to have it all. Or does it?

Dorie Clark, the author, speaker, coach, and professor, argues that we should try a different approach. How can we create enough perspective to think about the big picture? And how can we make small, consistent steps forward that make a disproportionate impact? Dorie says that we have to be being willing to keep at them, even when they seem pointless, boring, or hard. And she should know given she practises what she preaches.

She shares idea, principles and frameworks that we can apply at work and at home, as well as some fascinating stories from her own career and other professionals’ experiences. As ever, Dorie is a brilliant communicator, articulate and succinct, and a lot of fun too. 

More about Dorie:

Dorie Clark has been named one of the Top 50 business thinkers in the world by Thinkers50, and was recognized as the #1 Communication Coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith Leading Global Coaches Awards. Clark, a consultant and keynote speaker, teaches executive education at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and Columbia Business School, and she is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Long Game, Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of the Year by Inc. magazine.

• Book: The Long Game: how to be a long-term thinker in a short-term world.
• Articles.
• Courses.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

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You can also find me here:

LinkedIn
Twitter
Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients. 

Summary:

Women of color are one of the fastest-growing segments in the corporate workforce, yet often we are underrepresented—among the first, few, or only ones in a department or company. For too long, corporate structures, the social zeitgeist, and cultural conditioning have left them feeling exhausted and downtrodden, believing that in order to “fit in” and be successful, we must hide or change who they are.

How can they “find, feel and forge their power in the corporate world”? Understanding the systems of delusions that pervade the system is an important start, as is shedding messages we tell ourselves (or been told by those who’ve come before us). Playing this role, acting as the role model and mentor to others, is demanding, often taking its toil on mental and physical health. 

Improving the representation, inclusion, and belonging of women of colour requires allies – yes, men in the powerful positions – and collective action to confront, outdated behaviours, and workplace assumptions and inertia.

The book ‘The First, The Few, The Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America’ by Deepa Purushothaman sets out a manifesto for how to make sure their words are heard, our lived experiences are respected, and our contributions are finally valued.

It is a powerful, shocking, substantive and story-filled book that moved me, and challenged me to step forward and help. This discussion will resonate if you are an co-worker, ally, or representative of another minority group facing similar challenges.

More about Deepa:

Deepa Purushothaman is a former senior partner at Deloitte, a corporate inclusion visionary and a co-founder of NFormation, a membership-based community for professional women of color, offering brave, safe, new space and helping place women of color in C-suite positions and on Boards. Check out her:

Book ‘The First, the Few, the Only’: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America '

Profile.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

If you're not subscribed already and do subscribe to my youtube channel where you can watch the conversation.

You can also find me here:

LinkedIn
Twitter
Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients. 

Summary:

Organisations are crying out for more strategic leaders. These are the people who are brave enough to make a commitment to an extraordinary path, and skilful enough to make a multitude of choices to get there. They’re able to reframe complex problems as they shape brighter futures for those around them. In conversation they stretch and support, nourish and confront in equal measure.

In this podcast, Niko Canner, founder of Incandescent, speaks eloquently about their traits, mindsets, and practices of these strategic leaders. He describes how it feels t the beginning of a strategy process – the stimulation, the vulnerabilities, the mistakes, and ultimately progress towards a coherent set of choices that enables the organisation to get closer to that extraordinary path.

About Niko:

Niko Canner founded Incandescent in 2013. His work spans the firm’s three major areas of focus: serving as a thought partner to leaders of large enterprises on strategy, organization and innovation; advising founders on the development of their ventures; and partnering with foundations and non-profits engaged in systems change. Here’s his profile.

On Human Enterprise blog - highly recommended. Beautifully written, deep, and practical too. Full of wisdom.

My resources:

Sign up to my Flashes+Sparks for stimuli, ideas, guidance and tips on how to lead your team, organisation or self more effectively, delivered straight to your inbox:

If you're not subscribed already and do subscribe to my youtube channel where you can watch the conversation.

You can also find me here:

LinkedIn
Twitter
Personal website, which includes more examples of my work, the services I offer and testimonials from clients.