“A decision cannot be fairly characterized as ‘strategic’ unless it is a conscious choice between two legitimate and rational alternatives,” Justice Stevens wrote. “It must be borne of deliberation and not happenstance, inattention or neglect.”

the idea of “trust totems” - i.e. reference objects that give potential clients confidence that you’re an expert and allow them to find purchase on what you do

a free-jazz exploration of the problem space

What is missing is a new design for agile, personalized, and holistic rewards, one that is relevant to each individual and gives organizations the flexibility to offer just what is needed at the right point in time.

if you are not building an organization that helps people stay healthy and happy you are not fulfilling your responsibility as an employer, and that impacts your customer brand.

I think we’ve reached a point where “employee engagement” is almost a meaningless phrase if it does not embrace the need to “make work healthy” and help people bring their “best selves” to work every day.

What we found in this research is that companies now understand that their “upward path” career models are often very limiting, so they want to create models for “facilitated talent mobility” – models that give people hope, new skills, and continuous development in areas the company needs.

customers now do business with companies who are local, companies who do good things in the community, and companies that do good things for society. This goes far beyond “corporate responsibility” into really being a good citizen, and redefining value propositions in this way.  And this means doing a much better job of managing data, by the way, an issue that has become “front page” around the world.

“Symphonic C-Suite,” is key, and companies should take on these issues as a team, creating a model we call “teams leading teams,” instead of the siloed functional ownership we see in the C-Suite today.

One of the trends we identified is that companies today must be “social” in a truly external sense. Customers, stakeholders, communities, business partners, and employees all have an enormous impact on a company’s brand, growth, and profitability. Being a “social enterprise” means going beyond a focus on revenue and profit and clearly understanding that we operate in an ecosystem, and all these relationships are equally important.

My only plan is to be present in the world by looking and listening and being open to new situations and people. And to myself. I need to be more comfortable with uncertainty. I need to get back to curiosity. I need to get back to slow design.

After struggling to come up with a new book idea for so long, I could start to see all the connections between posts, the patterns, the idea planets I keep orbiting. Because it’s all in one place, hyperlinked together, I can see my own obsessions in a way that is much harder elsewhere.