Change This Manifesto Issues

Changing the Way We Change

Eric Haseltine — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“As a senior executive in fields as diverse as Aerospace, Entertainment and Intelligence, I’ve learned a hard lesson about people and organizations everywhere: they seldom learn from previous failures. To make matters worse, most people not only repeat past mistakes, but fail to learn that they’ve failed to learn from the past so they go on making the same mistakes over and over again.”

Generating Repeat Business

Richard Shapiro — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“For any enterprise to thrive, you cannot underestimate the importance of repeat business. The vast majority of senior executives believe that providing good customer service is sufficient to obtain return customers. However, focusing on the service interaction alone is not always enough to generate repeat business; it’s building an emotional connection that becomes the loyalty glue.”

Strategy for Personal Success: Discovering Your Purpose

Rich Horwath — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“Just as we need strategy for business success, we need to plan for successful lives. Without one, we allow all kinds of forces to push, pull, twist, and turn us into mental and emotional pretzels. Our inability to say ‘no’ pushes us into time-wasting activities; a lack of strategic direction allows us to be pulled down a career path we never wanted; good intentions to volunteer in the community are twisted into negative comments when we’re not able to meet the time commitments; and we’re emotionally turned around when the relationship we let wither finally ends.”

From Dropouts to Fully Functioning Adults: What’s Missing in Our Efforts to Fix America’s Public Educational System

Steve Rothschild — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“Young people pay a high price for not graduating high school. Drop-outs earn substantially less than their friends who have diplomas—when they’re employed. The recession is tougher on them: their unemployment rates are higher than the rest of the population. Their risk of going to jail is higher, too.

The rest of America also pays a high price for this awful situation: in lost talent, in lost taxes, the costs of social services we provide, and the costs of dealing with crime.

And we can’t even say that the whole world is in the same boat. We rank 8th from the bottom in a comparison of high school graduation rates among the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

But we don’t have to accept this travesty. We can teach young people the attitudes and skills they need to succeed in school and in life. And we can make it worthwhile for schools make the effort.”

The Substitution Economy: How Small Changes in Our Day-To-Day Spending Can Shake the World.

James Marshall Reilly — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“We are, to some degree, what we buy. Or at least we can become a bit closer to who we want to be based on the products we use, consume, and wear. As consumers our brand alignment can function not only as a means for public self-identification, but also as an important source of self-affirmation.

The brands we purchase can become, in a sense, our personal position statement.

Each of us can define ourselves publicly, and we can simultaneously feel good about who we are privately, as a direct result of our consumption patterns.”

How to Change Medicine

Eric Topol, M.D. — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“The practice of medicine today is obsolete, extremely wasteful, driven by patient crisis and perverse incentives. New tools in medicine can reboot the future of health care, making it more precise, consumer-driven, and truly preventive. While not intended to be a comprehensive overhaul of all of the maladies of medicine, the 9 steps outlined here address exceptional opportunities for getting us on the right path for the future.”

Shift & Reset

Brian Reich — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“I am angry. There are real problems facing the world, and we, as a society, are not doing enough to address them in the right ways, not the ways we know are possible. The old way isn’t working, and we know it.

We continue to reward the same behaviors we have rewarded in the past while expecting different results. We profess interest in really doing things differently but settle into routines that are comfortable and safe, and we are fooling ourselves. There are lots of excuses for not making real, demonstrable changes in the way we live, work, and how we interact as individuals and engage in groups/communities. I have heard them all. I have used many of them myself. But they are bullshit. All excuses are. A person either truly, deeply, genuinely cares about changing things or he doesn’t. You can step up and do what it takes, in whatever way you can, or you need to acknowledge your limits and accept the results.

What might be possible if we were really committed, as individuals and as a society? I’ve thought a lot about this, and instead of remaining angry, I choose to embrace the question and figure out how I can use the anger to make things happen.”

Transcendent Leadership: How to Lead Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime

Les McKeown — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“What if your leadership role just felt, well... right: demanding, yes, but fun too; challenging but controllable; intense but invigorating? What if with every step on the ladder of leadership you felt more comfortable, more 'in the zone,' less stressed, less pressured?

What if each successive leadership role brought out more of what makes you you, rather than asking you to compromise your core values, bury your deepest wishes, hold ransom your dreams?

Having coached and advised hundreds of leaders, I know this isn’t a pipe dream. From frequent observation, I know that it’s not only possible to be relaxed, fulfilled and energized by leadership, it is in fact precisely how the most consistently successful leaders operate.

GROW: How to Change the Narrative of Business

Jim Stengel — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“It’s time to change the narrative of business. From a winner-take-all tale, no-holds-barred, no matter what the cost to individual firms, investors, the economy, and society, to doing business on the basis of what I call brand ideals, shared ideals of improving people’s lives.

Wider adoption and leveraging of brand ideals would be the best medicine the economy could possibly get. Instead of inflating a bubble that would sooner or later burst with tragic consequences for everyone, it would trigger and sustain unprecedented growth in every sector it touched.

Make no mistake, however. The business case for brand ideals is not altruism. It’s self-interest and mutual interest. In addition to its wider positive impact, a devotion to brand ideals will do more for your own business and career than any other factor.

Maximum business growth and high ideals are not incompatible. They’re inseparable.”

It Really is As Simple As ABC: What Leaders Can Learn from Masterful Orators of the Past

Matt Eventoff — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0600

“Millions of meetings and presentations occur daily. Each of these presentations is meant to drive 'someone' to do 'something.' And what do the vast majority of these presentations have in common? Unfortunately, they usually fail to get anyone to do anything.

There are so many noble causes led by charismatic, effective leaders, yet it is still difficult for many of these leaders to establish a clear message that resonates and connects with their audience, not due to the content or nobility of cause, but because we are all subject to information overload. But, masterful orators have succeeded in every generation, and one factor that has not changed over time is the ability of a master orator to captivate and move audiences, to attain levels of success that many thought were unachievable at the time. And each of them mastered the ABC’s of communication.”