Learn or Die

We didn’t handle this well” rather than “Harry didn’t handle this well.” This occurs when people are uncomfortable connecting specific mistakes to specific people because of ego sensitivities

he would keep a written log of every stock investment and the reasons why he made that investment

First, many organizations rely on operational excellence—getting better, faster, and cheaper—as the key part of their business models; many also rely on innovation to drive growth.

A learning journey is a people journey

I find it interesting that many of the businesses that are engaged in the journey of creating an adaptable learning organization are privately owned or are public companies with engaged founders who have significant ownership positions or voting rights.

I like to tell my students that business is not “rocket science.” Business principles are pretty simple—the difficulty is in the execution, because execution involves people

we need to form new capital markets to support the building of enduring, value creating, people-centric, learning companies

In my previous book Smart Growth I espoused the view that the dominance of short-termism in our public capital markets inhibits growth and innovation

If you’re a leader, manager, or a teammate and you want to change your organization, the best advice I can give you is to change yourself first. Then, start to work on your sphere of influence, those whom you can influence, or those to whom you look for guidance or leadership.

Keeping the founder’s culture alive is the key, and that is difficult if an organization doesn’t build an internal leadership succession pipeline that keeps that culture alive.