Years ago, when I was just an up-and-coming executive, I worked for two entrepreneurs in Poland who understood how to seize power and influence better than anyone I’ve ever met before or since. They...

Traditional change management practices focus on communication and training—a holdover from an earlier age, when leaders had more control and the goal was simply to inform and coordinate. Today,...

Lou Gerstner, reflecting on his legendary turnaround at IBM, wrote, “Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective...

At PARC, Xerox created a culture where creative minds could thrive. It was there that Alan Kay invented object-oriented software, Bob Metcalfe developed Ethernet; and so many other technologies were...

In 1997, when Clayton Christensen first published The Innovator’s Dilemma and introduced the term “disruptive innovation,” it was a clarion call. His key insight was that, under certain conditions,...

In his 1954 essay,

Looking at the AI boom from a historical perspective, the similarities to earlier technological cycles are striking. We see the same excitement, the same calls for government regulators to get out of...

The S-curve has become so ingrained in the lore of innovation and change that we scarcely think about where it came from or what drives it. We know that change starts slowly, with a few enthusiasts...

Even the best cultures can’t support every idea — or every person. Innovation requires clarity and trade-offs.

Lou Gerstner, reflecting on his legendary turnaround at IBM, wrote, “Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective...

In the early 20th century, the sociologist Max Weber noted that the sweeping industrialization taking place would transform how societies worked. As small operations gave way to large institutions...

Excerpt: You can’t lead transformation with the same mindset that built the status quo. Here are 3 shifts every changemaker must make.

There is probably no better example of institutional resistance to change than the story of Ignaz Semmelweis. In the 1840s, as a young doctor at Vienna General Hospital, he discovered that simple...

Traditional change management practices focus on communication and training—a holdover from an earlier age, when leaders had more control and the goal was simply to inform and coordinate. Today,...

Years ago, when I was just an up-and-coming executive, I worked for two entrepreneurs in Poland who understood how to seize power and influence better than anyone I’ve ever met before or since. They...

Knowledge isn’t just found. It’s synthesized. That takes more than “doing your own research.”

In the early 20th century, the sociologist Max Weber noted that the sweeping industrialization taking place would transform how societies worked. As small operations gave way to large institutions...

There is probably no better example of institutional resistance to change than the story of Ignaz Semmelweis. In the 1840s, as a young doctor at Vienna General Hospital, he discovered that simple...

We remember our heroes in their most iconic moments. It’s hard to think of Martin Luther King Jr. without picturing him at the Lincoln Memorial, delivering his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In much...