Thought Sparks

Ron Adner and I have been intellectual sparring partners and friends for a very long time. He's just come out with a terrific new book, "Winning the Right Game" which tackles head on the strategic challenge executives confront when the ecosystems they compete in are disrupted. The problems start, as Adner explains, when strategists choose the wrong "game" to begin with, meaning that even if they succeed, they will ultimately lose. The book talks about defense, offense, timing, mindsets and what has to be one of my favorite chapters the dangers of an "ego-system" in which leaders let their preferences (and their hubris) undermine their judgment.

Are you a regular contributor or what Liz Wiseman calls an "impact player?" You might think you're doing just fine, doodling along doing your job, but what you might actually be doing is adding to people's burdens at work, taking up headspace with unnecessary detours and generally being a drag on everyone around you. A new book from the celebrated author of "Multipliers" sheds another gleaming light on what behaviors make work light, easier and even fun, and which don't. More importantly, she tells us what to do to create a team-ful of high impact players. I'm thrilled that Liz was able to join me by the fireside.

I promised Harvard Professor and expert on equality and inclusion Robert Livingston that I would read his book "The Conversation" before he joined me for a Friday Fireside Chat. I did, and am ever so glad. He takes us through a journey centered on three questions: What is racism? Why should everyone care? What can we do to eradicate it? Professor Livingston de-mystifies many misconceptions about racism in a reasonable, non-threatening and deeply researched way. And the cliff notes are - racism is enduring and endemic. We should care because it hurts all of us. And - really good news - there is a path to solving it.

Everybody Wants To Rule the World. When R "Ray" Wang says it, he isn't just channeling a popular musical line, he really means it. In his view, digital giants are pulling further and further ahead of the rest of us and will eventually reshape our economic future into one of extreme capitalism. He anticipates we will have huge data-driven networks, extreme consolidation, extreme investing and extreme monetization. He's going to be my guest to talk about this phenomenon which is part of his new book, and to help us think through how the digital age doesn't end up in catastrophe. He's the Founder, Chairman and Principal Analyst of Constellation research and co-host of the DisrupTV program.

If you could pick someone to lead you through an intelligent conversation about the new world of work, you couldn't do better than to consult with Jennifer Moss. Author of the forthcoming HBR Press book "The Burnout Epidemic," Jennifer has written a best business book of the year, won awards for her success as an entrepreneur and spoken to audiences all over the world. It was exciting to get to know her and to learn about her book, which provides a guide on an incredibly timely topic.

Work - what's work anyway? Where does it get done? How are people supposed to "manage" it? These are questions of the hour and who better to think them through than my colleague, former professor and mentor Peter Cappelli. Capelli is one of the foremost thinkers on the topic of people and work I have ever met. We'll be chatting about his new book, "The Future of the Office - Work from Home, Remote Work, and the Hard Choices We All Face" out any day now by Wharton University Press. This is a conversation anyone with an interest in the future of work won't want to miss!

My Friday Fireside chat guest, John Hagel, was looking around corners before I even stumbled across the concept.  In this short clip from our longer conversation, John explains how, in the early days of the Internet, he saw massive opportunities in creating virtual communities on-line and also to create “infomediaries” who would guarantee a fair exchange of value in return for access to people’s personal information.  Featured in his books from the 90’s “Net Gain” and “Net Worth,” these are two ideas that remain huge opportunities even today as we struggle to reckon with what the digital revolution means for our lives.  If you have five minutes, have a watch – always so interesting to learn the history of things that we take for granted today.

We think of unusual events as rare - but as my Friday Fireside Chat guest, Jonathan Brill, points out, they may be rare individually, but when they accumulate, the chance of their creating a catastrophic inflection point increases. Indeed, his research finds that most firms in the US have faced four significant calamities every year! These are what he calls "rogue waves" or events in business that are like the huge waves that can come seemingly out of nowhere to sink even large ships. While he was at HP, he had the amazing title of Global Futurist and Director long term research. He talks about how you get people to pay attention to the possibilities, how to change behavior and how to change culture so that the action needed today to be resilient in an uncertain future is taken.

Zoe Chance graduated from a massively successful corporate career to doing groundbreaking research to teaching a hugely popular elective at Yale called Mastering Influence and Persuasion, aka "Doing Uncomfortable Things That Make You a Better Person.” She's a TED speaker, consults with major companies and has a new book coming out in 2022, "Influence for Nice People: The New Science of Making More Friends, Money, Impact—and Joy." We talk about the practical implications of her research and how it can be used to help people do some good in the world. As she says, "we cannot change people's minds, but we can influence their behavior when we learn how the mind works."

I first met Zachary Karabell when he was enrolled in my Columbia Executive Education program "Leading Strategic Growth and Change" and he made a big impression on me all those years ago. I'm delighted to catch up with him to talk about his rich collection of activities - he has a brand new book out about Brown Brothers Harriman and the way capitalism used to work. He is an author and columnist, the founder of the Progress Network at New America, and president of River Twice Research and River Twice Capital. He's written many other books and is a regular columnist and commentator. An all around fascinating person I'm looking forward to chatting with.