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.
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Promise and Challenges of Leading a Remote Workforce
By Kevin Eikenberry, Wayne Turmel
"When we're busy working every day, things can change in all kinds of ways and we don't realize what's happening until we wake up one day and everything seems strange. Working remotely and leading at a distance is one such trend. ... And, despite a few well publicized (but limited) examples, this trend isn't changing. ... Sometime in the last few years you woke up and realized—whether you had a policy in place, wanted it to happen, or even thought about it—that you have a remote workplace."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Resolving the Green Paradoxes: Thriving Under Energy Transition Uncertainties
By Ricardo G. Barcelona
"Renewables are perceived as social goods that deliver social benefits (i.e. less pollution) while incurring private costs (i.e. higher life cycle costs). Hence, economics and policy are locked in blind alleys where subsidies become central to achieving their ends. However, the cure becomes worse than the disease when highly distorted systems emerge: expensive supplies are favored, investments are turned into rent extraction opportunities, and risks are increased when firms' continued viability is dictated by policy actions. In reality, renewables are among the myriad of technology choices that have economic costs and benefits. In this context, renewables are economic goods that aim to gain traction, or niches, within an evolving and transitioning energy market. This perspective leads to very different conceptions of optimality and a 'common good.'"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Finding the Magic in "Tiny" Business
By Sharon Rowe
"Maybe you have an idea, either brewing or formed. Maybe you're tired of selling little bits of yourself in order to buy lattes and avocado toast, or maybe, what you're doing isn't quite enough to pay the rent. Maybe you want to use your voice to make an impact, to 'create the change you want to see in the world.' Whatever your motivation, if you are ready to start something new, bring a new idea to life in the open market or challenge an existing idea, you are starting your entrepreneurial journey. Maybe you've learned some things in school or picked them up on the street. Maybe you're totally green and all you have is your enthusiasm. This is the day when, as Seth Godin says, you decide to 'pick yourself' and put your eggs in your own basket to proceed. Most people will say you have to 'go big or go home,' but why not 'go tiny' and be able to go home when you want?"
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Taming Your Seven Crocodiles: Unlearn Fear & Become True Leader
By Hylke Faber
"Are you about to take on an inspiring new role and are looking for inspiration? Or maybe you are looking for a change? Maybe you feel overwhelmed by your to-do-list? Or maybe you are looking to inspire your team to its next level of excellence? Whatever your question is, if you were to have lived twenty-five hundred years ago in ancient Greece you may have taken it to the oracle in Delphi. You would have learned there to 'Know thyself.' It was written on the entrance gate to the oracle. I believe getting to know who we truly are is the core of effective leadership and a fulfilling life."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Don't Suck Up, Manage Up: How to Work Well with the Boss You Have, Not Wish You Had
By Mary Abbajay
"As much as we would love to believe that the workplace is (or should be) a meritocracy, where just being great at our job is all we need to succeed, reality tells a different story. The real (and inconvenient) truth is that the workplace is a social system—meaning we have to work with, among, through (and sometimes around) other people. And in a social system, relationships matter—a lot. Our ability to cultivate and manage effective workplace relationships is essential for career success. Positive, respectful, and collaborative relationships create positive workplace experiences and results. Poor relationships produce poor experiences and results. And at the end of the day, just being good at our job is not enough. We must deliver great work while simultaneously being good at relationships—up, down, and across the organization. Developing effective relationships with our colleagues is important for career success, but developing a positive and productive relationship with our boss is absolutely critical to our success.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
What If Sellers Behaved as Leaders?
By James Kouzes, Barry Posner, Deb Calvert
"It is time we start making a shift. Research shows you can make more sales by abandoning sales-y behaviors buyers resist and replacing them with leadership behaviors buyers desire. Sellers do extraordinary things when they stop pushing people to buy before they're ready, and start guiding buyers by transforming values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Speed Trap: When Taking Your Time (Really) Matters
By Tom Peters
"Speed-for-speed's-sake is about the most counterproductive* approach imaginable. (*I use counterproductive because it's impolite to use "stupid"—which is what I really believe.) While we must indeed evolve and experiment rapidly, the process of getting things done (especially radical-ish things that upset apple carts) is all about people. And working with people to get those interesting things done effectively, well, takes time, in fact lots of time."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Futureproof: 8 Ways to Win the Innovation Long Game
By Alice Mann
"The future is at your doorstep. It's a drone. And it's delivering the 3D printed bespoke shoes you ordered just a few hours earlier from your driverless car. Ok, that exact scenario may only play out in the virtual pages of Wired, but it's also likely to be a totally unremarkable event in three years. What is certain is that the kind of disruptions in supply chain, product design, material sourcing, and online retail that the drone delivery suggests are already happening. The future, it's also clear, doesn't have to arrive in glitzy packaging to have a major impact on how we do business. Technological innovations like intelligent buildings, AI, or robotics will transform energy consumption, leadership, and people practices in innumerable ways. Rapidly changing demographics and cultural norms will transform how we develop talent. Dynamic markets in the developing world and an era of regulatory uncertainty will make investing and planning more complicated. The future always looms large. So how do successful leaders plan for it.
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
Beyond Business Results: Achieving Sustainable Success
By Julie Rosenberg
"For most of my career, I focused on my next professional opportunity rather than on my present situation. I was committed to serving patients and to helping my company meet its goals; I was always looking down the line to what was coming next. What I was not fully committed to was the process of my own development—the learning and growth that builds a career by helping you to become a better version of yourself. I was smart, poised, well-trained and committed, but I was also resistant to change, angry at my boss (thinking that, after all, I should have been chosen for his role), easily upset when encountering obstacles, and fearful of failure. Over the past 16 years, the practice of yoga has helped me to enhance my awareness of the present moment and to root my consciousness directly in it."
Categories: changethis
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Blog / ChangeThis
The Paradox of Leadership
By Jackie, Kevin Freiberg
"San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy is as gifted as any CEO we've ever met. Intelligence, strategy, creativity, courage, heart, and leadership presence—he's got the whole package. This guy gets leadership. In a game that has enough data, statistics, and sabermetrics to tax a supercomputer, you can't adequately measure these character strengths, and you would certainly be hard-pressed to put a price tag on them. Like all great leaders, Boch is a blend of many attributes and actions that are paradoxical. His success is anchored in how he manages these paradoxes."
Categories: changethis