Seven characteristics of remarkable businesses
Andy Hanselman | 21 Feb 2020
What makes a business remarkable? What gets people talking about it and recommending it to others? The simple answer is that they are dramatically and demonstrably different.
There’s nothing soft about the heart
Wayne Turmel
Every animal depends on its heart for its existence. And exactly the same is true of an organization, except that rather than a multi-chambered muscle, an organization relies on leadership, managers and flows of information.
Learning is a process, not a result
Duane Dike
None of us learn to read, ride a bike or pack a suitcase in a day. So understanding that learning is a process, not an event is fundamental to creating learning cultures rather than environments based on rote or blind faith.
It's not what you know, it's how fast you learn
Rod Collins
The secret to market success in a rapidly-changing world has less to do with what you know and much more to do with how fast you learn.
You may be a workplace hero without realising it
Nadav Klein
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, whether in life or in the workplace. But they all have one thing in common: they don’t see themselves as heroes.
Financial wellbeing: the next target for workplace disruption?
David Fairhurst
Several years ago, I warned about a looming 'workforce cliff' as demand for workers outstrips supply. Now that employers are thinking differently about the experience they are creating, one area which seems ripe for innovation is pay.
Is paranoia widespread in your firm? You're not alone
Manfred Kets De Vries
Trust is a rare commodity in most workplaces. Yet high-trust organisations are more productive, have higher morale and perform better financially. So what can management do to build a more trusting culture?
The future of work is creative collaboration
Eugene Hughes
Innovation is very rarely the result of individual genius. Instead, the biggest breakthroughs occur when networks of people with a collective vision join up and share ideas. That’s why as the fourth industrial revolution unfolds, creative collaborators will be kings.
The true purpose of a business
Rod Collins
The conventional belief that the purpose of a company is to generate profits is being challenged by the growing realization that profits are the reward for fulfilling the true purpose of a business and not the purpose itself.
When is it appropriate to yell at someone? Depends on where you’re from!
David Livermore
There's a wide variation in what we deem as 'appropriate' ways to express frustration. At the heart of this is the difference between Neutral and Affective behavior - differences that can quickly lead to profound misunderstandings.
The best gift this Christmas
Wayne Turmel
Want to do something nice for your team this holiday season? How about helping them do nothing at all - or at the very least, a bit less - even if you have to enforce it strenuously.
A formula for trust
John Blakey
What do we mean by 'trustworthy'? Academics have been arguing for years about what makes a leader trustworthy, but trust can really be boiled down to three clear attributes: ability, integrity and benevolence.
If you're feeling drained, here's why
Manfred Kets De Vries
Your personal “energy barometer” reflects your inner happiness. Bad habits and situations often drain our energy. But do we recognise the symptoms and are we willing to do something about them?
If you're feeling drained, here's why
Manfred Kets De Vries
Your personal “energy barometer” reflects your inner happiness. Bad habits and situations often drain our energy. But do we recognise the symptoms and are we willing to do something about them?
The wise power of utopian thinking
Marc Le Menestrel
The ability to dream our future world into being can help us survive. So imagining an ideal world is also a powerful tool for enhancing proactivity and leading organisational transformation.
Getting virtual meetings to start on time
Wayne Turmel
Why do webmeetings always seem to start late? While there’s no silver bullet that will solve the problem, there are some simple things you can do to help your odds of starting (and finishing) on time.
A faster path to intelligence
Rod Collins
If AI applications can be designed as collective intelligence systems, they may be able to help us move past the rancid divisiveness and entrenched thinking that prevents us from solving our most pressing problems.
The business five principles of Mars
James M. Kerr
Quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency and freedom are the foundation of a company culture that has endured through generations of candy-loving kids, big and small.
Mapping the power in your organization
Wayne Turmel
Forget job titles, do you know who has the real power in your organization and who has real influence where it matters most?
Recent Podcasts
From the archive
Morale: a moving target
Duane Dike
What we think we know about morale is probably wrong, especially the black and white notion that morale is either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Like most human feelings, morale is a moving target, which is why being sensitive to its nuances is such a key skill for leaders.
New ideas needed
Edward de Bono
The majority organisations do not feel they need new ideas because things are going very well. They could be right. But there are plenty of scenarios where new ideas are vital.
Flat is the new rotund
Janet Howd
When I seriously started considering how a flattening global society could possibly work, it dawned on me that mankind has always defined and shared knowledge on a horizontal plane.
Surviving the holidays
Peter Vajda
For many people, the holiday season is a mental, physical and emotional ordeal, not a time of joy and happiness. So I'd like to share some perspectives to support you to create a nurturing holiday experience resulting in peace in body, mind, and spirit.
Say "no thanks" to new farm rules
Dan Bobinski
Too often, the well-intended efforts of government agencies are vulnerable to the law of unintended consequences. And those include many negative ripple-effects, particularly when safety is concerned..
Earlier opinion
Embracing the paradoxes of leadership
Ella Miron-Spektor
In today’s organisations, demands, goals and expectations are dynamic, complex and interconnected. That’s why we need to move from an ‘either/or’ to a ‘both/and’ view of priorities.
How artificial intelligence will transform human thinking
Rod Collins
Will AI benefit mankind or could it lead to the end of the human race? A better understanding of the relationship between human thinking and AI may shed some light on this great uncertainty.
Why business strategy needs to be more than perfume
Daniel Deneffe
Many ‘grand’ business strategies are well-packaged and smell great. But what ultimately determines the success of a business isn’t strategy but something much more simple: the choices that customers make to buy or not to buy.
How to tell if you're mansplaining
David Livermore
Are mansplaining and its close cousin, whitesplaining, real things or are they just more pop psychology terms? David Livermore interviews Dr Amy Heaton to find out.
Getting feedback from a virtual audience
Wayne Turmel
Speaking to large groups on-line can be deeply disconcerting. Why? Because even in a lecture-type presentation, you get all kinds of feedback. But doing it virtually feels like you’re talking into a void.
The new rules for how business works
Rod Collins
Whether we like it or not, the digital revolution has completely rewritten the rules of how the world works. And even more disconcertingly for those who want to hold onto the old rules, this revolution is only just getting started.
Three inconvenient truths about corruption
Marc Le Menestrel
Any definition of corruption that does not include your own actions is a self-protective fantasy. So having honest, adult conversations about corruption requires accepting that none of us is ethically pure.
Faith, trust and teamwork
Wayne Turmel
Having faith is a wonderful thing. But today's project and functional teams need to run on trust. Why? Because unlike faith, trust is evidence-based, built on measurable results and can be restored through hard work.
The powerful drivers and blockers of leadership
Ian C. Woodward
Exploring the hidden forces that motivate and hinder you can make you a better leader. And when it comes to self-development, the first challenge anyone faces is deepening their self-awareness.
Opening the Johari Window
James M. Kerr
The Johari Window is a technique that can be used to expose an individual’s blind spots and increase self-discovery. It’s also a useful way to improve team performance and encourage breakthrough thinking.
Leading organisations as ecosystems (rather than elephants)
Sharon Olivier
The world isn't predictable, uniform or controllable. So trying to run organisations via planned, top-down programmes dictated by senior leaders is doomed to failure. Instead, we need to start viewing organisations as living eco systems, rather than some sort of machine.
Vital lessons from an eight year old
Wayne Turmel
The most important business lesson I ever learned, I learned at eight years old. And it’s something that is as relevant to all of us today as it was to me as a kid back then.
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