assumptions

The Future’s So Bright

To prompt your ‘thunking’ today… Remember Kodak, they used to make photograph film? What happened to them will happen in many industries in the next 10 years and most people won’t see it coming. Uber is just a software tool, they don’t own any cars, and are now the biggest taxi company in the world….

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Are You Assuming Your Way Out of Business?

What do Sony, Radio Shack and Sears all have in common (besides instant brand recognition)? They’re all losing money, and lots of it. According to a recent Forbes article entitled “Wrong Assumptions Create Lousy Results,” Sony has lost money for 15 out of the last 16 quarters, and projects a loss of $2 billion this…

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A Tale of Gut-Wrenching (Literally!) Innovation

Logan Ebert was born without most of his esophagus, the tube through which food travels from the mouth to the stomach. From day one, this healthy, happy teenager who just graduated from high school had to be fed through an artificial tube just to stay alive. When his parents began researching “esophageal atresia,” as the…

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Time For An Education System Makeover

Education budgets at the national, state, and local levels have all taken huge hits over the past few years. And while we all want our schools to have sufficient funding to educate our children, more money is not the magic bullet solution for what our educational system needs. The truth is, our educational system is…

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Are You Afraid to Innovate?

Recently I worked with a very successful company that brought me in to shake things up and show them how to stoke the new product pipeline. In other words, help them innovate. I led strategy sessions with the senior management team. I gave company-wide presentations on the importance of innovation. I coached middle managers on…

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10 Good Reasons Not to Trust Your Brain

The human brain is a marvelous tool. However, it was designed for a very different world than we currently live in. As a result, it retains many design flaws that do not serve us well, especially in today’s business world where new ways of thinking and ongoing innovation are essential for success. Perhaps the most…

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Did You Confabulate Today?

Confabulate. Isn’t that a delightful word! The first time I heard it I thought it must be a sniglet, a term coined by comedian Rich Hall in the ˜80s. Loosely defined as “any word that isn’t in the dictionary but should be,” sniglets usually involve a clever play on two or more words to humorously…

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Three Strategies for Winning in 2012

2012 is almost upon us. And I have some good news and some bad news in regards to the year ahead. The bad news? If you think you’re running fast now, get yourself some new track shoes, because the world isn’t slowing down. In fact, it will continue to go faster and get more complex…

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Slow Down Your Strategic Planning So You Can Go Fast

Bias is defined as “prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” In the business world, this definition also applies to concepts and ideas. As business leaders we like to think we’re impartial, open-minded and objective in regards to new ideas,…

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How to Stop the Dreaded “Decision Drift”

Have you ever had a meeting that didn’t work out quite as planned? Where everyone agreed to a specific course of action and two weeks later you discover that what they’ve been working on doesn’t come close to your vision of what should happen? When these situations arise, we usually blame poor communication. We didn’t…

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Protect yourself from the dangers of conventional wisdom!

Recently I wrote about the dangers of relying on conventional wisdom to make critical business decisions. I thought it would be fun to look at some actual examples from over the years. This “telephone” has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to…

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Expose Yourself! Get Better Results by Making Your Thinking Visible

Expose yourself? No, I’m not talking about trench coats or the number two activity on the web (porn is BEHIND social media these days!). I’m referring to common communication challenges that can be easily overcome by pausing to bring others along in your thinking process. When we present ideas to other people, especially new ideas,…

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